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I have to agree with pbandj, NcongruNt, Mage34, Apache75, et. al. on this one. I, too, often carry a backpack when I'm riding my motorcycle. It's just not safe to leave anything on your motorcycle when you park it. And we're on the CHL forum, presumably because most of us carry firearms sometimes. If you've got your sidearm in your backpack, you're probably a little bit paranoid about accidentally walking away from it or having someone sneak it away when you're all caught up in the excitement on the movie screen, right? Imagine the field day the press would have with a CHL holder carelessly leaving his or her weapon in the movie theater, and having it discovered by some little kid. I'm always very paranoid about where my pistol is when I'm out, and I've been carrying for more than a decade.

Years ago, when I briefly worked as a pharmacist intern in a retail store, I carried my briefcase out when I was leaving for the day. The "greeter" asked to look inside, and I refused. I asked her if she was also asking to look inside the female customers' purses when they left, or was there something unusually suspicious about me. Got a blank look on her face, like she had never been told NO before. Doubt she had ever heard of the fourth amendment .

Here's my point: It's just like the right to bear arms. The anti's tell us that there is no need to carry arms; the right is obsolete. I think they have gotten that impression because hardly anyone carries, and those that do carry do so discreetly and we don't talk about it (with good reason, I concede). Now, we are being asked to forget about the fourth amendment because no one needs to carry things that everyone else can't see or know about, in the name of public safety. It's the old, "If you've got nothing to hide, you won't mind the nice policeman or Big Brother patting you down, reading your mail, listening to your phonecalls, etc." Poppycock.

Much of the time when I carry a sidearm, it's got more to do with reassuring myself that I still have the right to bear arms than because I'm afraid of criminals or the boogeyman. Likewise, I'll never agree to have my backpack, car, or self searched by anyone; not because I have something to hide, but because we all have something precious to protect (the dignity of free men).