Armed around police - the jitters do fade

[sugar land dave]

...sigh....we really do need a sarcasm smilie...that was a joke, Son, I say a JOKE...

I love this scene - [hide and seek]:
(I can't embed it with the starting time)

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No! ... I better not look ... I just might be in there!

I remember as kid, I wanted him to look. It killed me to not know if 'he was actually in there'.

Thanks for reminding me of the good old days!

[sugar land dave]

...and they taught us in the acadamy to beware if someone smiled and acted real friendly...(my work here is done)

I guess I'm a suspicious guy then because I actually like police and appreciate their job. Through the years I've had a few friends who were in the busines,s and I never felt that I was being unduly scrutinized because I said hello and visited with them about their day.

...sigh....we really do need a sarcasm smilie...that was a joke, Son, I say a JOKE...

Some days those things just sail right over my head.....

[speedsix]

...I pulled one this morning toooooooooo long to write about here...attempting to function without coffee...won't make that mistake again anytime soon...don't feel like the Lone Ranger!!!

[GringoViejo]

By way of background, I am a rancher in Starr County (almost Mexico), and I regularly carry openly on the ranch. A few months ago I discovered the glass broken in the door of a mobile home that we use for storage and my reloading room. The door was also unlocked. Past experience was that it took a minimum of an hour and a half for a Deputy to respond if I call the Sheriff's office; so I called the Constable who covers this area, whom I knew well. I told him that I had had a break-in, and I was not certain whether anyone was still in the trailer. I put on my Sig P220 and went to the equipment yard where I could see the doors to the trailer and watch for him to arrive. While I was waiting, I noticed that a door to our maintenance barn was open, and a number of hand tools were missing. When the Constable arrived I described the situation to him. He radioed a request for a Sheriff's Investigator and then went into the trailer. He asked me to stand away from the structure in a position where he knew where I was, and where I could see into the building through the front windows.

After he had cleared the trailer and looked into the barn, I told him that I should probably go to the house and leave my pistol so as not to concern the Deputy when he arrived. The Constable replied,"No! It makes me feel better." When the Deputy, whom I had never seen before, got there; the Constable introduced me to him and we discussed what was going on. He asked me for Identification, and I gave him my Driver's License and CHL. During the entire process not one word was said about the .45 on my belt. I guess things depend a lot on where you are when. I have had a CHL since 1998 when I lived in Plano and traveled regularly to San Antonio and the ranch. I got the CHL primarily because I always had at least one handgun in the vehicle while I was traveling and at that time it was pretty much up to the discretion of the individual LEO whether to give you a bad time if you were stopped with a handgun in your vehicle. Until the last year I almost never carried concealed. Things are very different down here now, and I never leave home without it.

[anygunanywhere]

Most LEO are fine with citizen carry.

Way back pre-CHL days (mid-1980s), we were house sitting for our neighbors. Mrs. Anygun and I were feeding their animals and I discovered the rear window was broken. I quietly checked the back door and it was unlocked. I grabbed Mrs. Anygun by the arm and escorted her away quickly, went home, and called Chambers CO SO.

I knew the deputy that responded. I was Chief of EMS then and interacted with him often. I explained what I found and he told me to go with him. Before we left the house he asked me if I had a handgun. I answered yes and he told me to bring it. I fetched my SA GI model and tucked it in my back. Did not have any holsters back then except for my hunting pistols.

Chambers CO only had 2-3 deputies for the whole county back then so he essentially had no backup coming.

We entered the house him in the lead. It was dark-30 when we entered. He started searching the house and when we entered the kitchen his flashlight beam illuminated their pet bird. The bird went nuts screaming and flying in the cage. Scared the bejeebers out of us both. The deputy swore he almost shot the bird.

We did not find anything missing. We finally reached our neighbors. Seems the wife unit forgot to lock the door and the window was already broken. We just never noticed it.

Most of the time we wrongly assume that LEOs are against carry. I find that this is not true, at least in Texas. The vocal ones that do mind garner all of our attention and rightly so.

In my experience above, it says a lot for the trust that LEO often place in us. Most of them know that we will help them when they need us, and I truly think that this goes for the majority of my brothers and sisters on this forum, if not the Texas CHL community as a whole.

Thank the Lord for our fine LEOs, and thank the Lord for our 2A right to keep and bear arms.

Anygunanywhere

[Warhammer]

I had the occasion twice in the last few days to carry around several on duty LEOs at Cook Children's Hosptial in FW. My son came down with a really nasty stomach bug and the wife took him to Cook's to get checked out (worried about dehydration, stomach blockage, etc...), and I met them there. When you enter Cook's ER, there is a mini-police station right inside the door (with 2-3 guys on duty) and another LEO sitting at the check-in desk. There are gunbuster signs on the doors ("No Handguns Allowed") but no 30.06 or 30.06-ish signs to be seen.

The only time I felt realy conspicuous was when first I got there on Saturday night. Since I had never been there before, I was entering kind of slowly checking out all the doors and walls for valid 30.06 signs. The LEO who was entering RIGHT behind me was probably wondering why I was moving so slow. I just looked at him and said, "this is the ER, right?" He said that I was in the right place and pointed out the front desk for me.

While in the ER, I had to hold my son still while they took some samples, did an exam and shot an x-ray. He's 5 years old and autistic, so he doesn't just sit still on command, and he is REALLY a handful to restrain. I'd be shocked if my shirt didn't pull up over my pistol at least once, but either nobody noticed or nobody cared.

On both trips to the ER, I was coming straight from work, so I wasn't wearing my best concealment garments and I was carrying OWB in a paddle holster. At any rate, I had no problems either time.

BTW, the boy's fine.

[paulhailes]

The best way I found to get over the jitters is make frequent trips to GT Distributers, but you start to get the jitters whenever you see your wife cause you know she going to ask "what did you buy now"?

[74novaman]

I just had a cop come talk to me about a neighbor while I was out in the front yard. As per usual, I had my little 5 shot .357 magnum in my front pocket. I never even thought about the gun, or got nervous. He didn't ask either.

[Blindref757]

I renewed my DL yesterday...sat in the waiting area for over an hour with multiple officers in and out. I spotted 2 other ppl who were carrying! Only one of them had a Hawaiian shirt! The other one kept his strong arm close to his body to diminish the small bulge, but in doing so, he caused his shirt to press against the butt of his gun. Nobody else noticed!

[Dave2]

I renewed my DL yesterday...sat in the waiting area for over an hour with multiple officers in and out. I spotted 2 other ppl who were carrying! Only one of them had a Hawaiian shirt! The other one kept his strong arm close to his body to diminish the small bulge, but in doing so, he caused his shirt to press against the butt of his gun. Nobody else noticed!

I do that sometimes, but my elbow rests on the butt of my gun so hopefully it has the opposite effect.

[speedsix]

I renewed my DL yesterday...sat in the waiting area for over an hour with multiple officers in and out. I spotted 2 other ppl who were carrying! Only one of them had a Hawaiian shirt! The other one kept his strong arm close to his body to diminish the small bulge, but in doing so, he caused his shirt to press against the butt of his gun. Nobody else noticed!

...that awareness level that you post about here may save your life someday...many benefits to getting the CHL...stay sharp and keep on noticing those around you...you may be the one to stop a terrorist in mid-draw!!!

[johnson0317]

Amen to that. I find it amazing how many more people I can pick out that are carrying now. Basically, it is a matter of looking for people with the same strange mannerisms that I have . Looking for that arm hugging the side, the quick tug at the shirt, that sort of thing. In addition, it gets easier to pick out that bulge that you might not have noticed before.

Had my plastic for a little over two months now, and have carried constantly, except in the hospital. I no longer even think about it. I did get busted, yesterday, by my 10 year old son. He was in the garage with a friend as I was leaving. He mentioned, "Dad, you're showing". Sure enough, my shirt had ridden up over my IWB holster. As I was getting in the car to go somewhere, I would have noticed it as soon as I got out (I always do the shirt tug once I am out of the car), but it was a little embarrassing having my son point it out.

[saltydog452]

Response to the original question...Nope, I am glad to see them.

On more than one occasion, I have asked the food server to give me their check.

salty

[terryg]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Pizzzzzaaaaaaa ...

[RHenriksen]

huh?

Spam. The mods just haven't deleted it yet.