LEO Disarming Homeowner?

[mgood]

I've been wondering about when an officer may disarm someone in their home.
Another discussion prompted me to ask here. See OIS today in Austin.

If I have committed no crime, and the LEO has no reason to suspect me of committing a crime, but he is at my door asking questions, does he have the authority to disarm me?

Hypothetical situation:
Something happens down the street.
I know nothin' about nothin' because I was in bed asleep.
Cops go up and down the street talking to neighbors looking for witnesses or anyone who may have information to shed some light on whatever it was that happened.
All I know is that someone woke me up by knocking on my door in the middle of the night. Before going to the door, I grab my gun. It may or may not be concealed. Depending on what's handy, I've been known to grab the shotgun, or just pull on my pants and stick a pistol in the back pocket (where it would not be easily noticed by someone in front of me).
I open the door and it's the cops. (If holding the shotgun, at this point I'd set it down, lean it against the wall or something.)
Now what?
If I happen to have a pistol in a holster on my hip, where he can see it, does he have a right to disarm me?
If it's in my back pocket and we talk for several minutes and then, for whatever reason I turn around and he sees it there, what about then?

[apostate]

Why did you open the door?

[mgood]

Why did you open the door?

I said it's a hypothetical situation.

[Gat0rs]

Only if the officer reasonably believes it is necessary for the protection of the owner, officer, or another. Good luck arguing it wasn't reasonable if you try to fight the cop trying to take it.

This only applies if the police officer is acting in the lawful discharge of the officer's official duties. Thus, if you are walking down the street with a rifle and the officer tries to disarm you for no other reason than you have a rifle, he cannot whether he believes it is necessary or not because it is unlawful for him to stop you in the first place without suspicion you are committing a crime.

[jimlongley]

A few years ago my neighbor's RV was being ransacked and the neighborhood dogs were raising a ruckus, which got mine all upset, which woke me up.

As is my usual, I was armed before I was out of bed.

On investigation I saw the criminals ransacking the RV, so I put down my gun and called 911. While I was talking to 911, they apparently realized they had been observed, and departed quickly down the alley (I had been shining my flashlight around the house and then the yard before I saw them and they may have noticed that.)

When the LEO arrived, he met me, and went and notified the homeowner (they hadn't heard anything and I didn't have their phone number and I wasn't leaving my property open carrying) and then came back and interviewed me, standing in my yard, with an open 1911 cocked and locked on my hip.

He never said a word except to comment that it was too bad that I was unable to stop them.

[gigag04]

Why did you open the door?

Because someone knocked...


Likely the way it would go as the LEO would say something along the lines of "well would you mind leaving your pistol inside and coming outside and talking to me?"

I don't see any harm in that, nor have I had bad responses when I've been put in that position. I'll tell you though, in my experience, most gun owners/CHL holders that have armed themself in response to a bump, noise, burglar, encounter, etc, they all say "hey let me put my gun away and I'll be right out."

Most recent time was a vagrant going door to door downtown and he knocked on the door to a law office where an attorney was working late. He came to the door with a glock behind his back, and volunteered to put it away when I walked up on the situation (I had just written the vagrant a CTW from a downtown business and saw him go there - I wasn't "called" by the attorney).

[apostate]

Why did you open the door?

Because someone knocked...

That's not sufficient reason to open my door. Perhaps I have lived in Houston too long.

[texanjoker]

Why would you open your door in the middle of the night without looking outside first to see who is there? I would never open my door without knowing who was out there at any time, let alone the middle of the night. If you did this in your hypothetical scenario you would see uniformed police officers and would hopefully use common sense to not answer the door holding a gun.

[mgood]

Likely the way it would go as the LEO would say something along the lines of "well would you mind leaving your pistol inside and coming outside and talking to me?"

I would cooperate with that and we could have a friendly chat.
(After the LEO left and I had time to replay it in my head, I might be a little annoyed that HE apparently had more right to be armed on my property than did I.)

For a while I lived in an apartment complex right across the street from a college. Well over half the residents were students. As you can imagine, there were disturbances at all hours. Not once in a while, but several times a week, almost every night sometimes. Loud music, loud voices/laughing, cars peeling out, car horns, firecrackers (that could be mistaken for gun shots), name it.
Once I heard a ruckus and a short time later heard a knock. The way these apartments were built, it was difficult to distinguish a knock on my door from a knock on the neighbor's door. I went to the door with my gun and didn't see anyone through the peephole. After a minute (I think I'd decided it was probably next door) I opened the door to peek. It was a police officer knocking on the neighbor's door. I decided it was none of my business, closed the door and went back to bed. So he never saw my gun, if he even noticed me at all.
Another time after hearing some noise outside, someone knocked and I saw two nice looking kids college age kids, one male one female, through the peephole. I had my gun in hand but behind the door when I opened it. He said someone had hit someone's car or done something to someone's car and asked if it was mine. I told him no, it was my neighbor's. He said he saw what apartment they ran to and chased them and told them he was going to call the police.
I told him to be careful with stuff like that and to tell the guys next door or call the police, or both, but be careful who you go chasing around here at night.

Those times got me thinking about what if I opened the door holding a gun and it was the police.
I had the peephole then.
The house I'm in now has no peephole and no window where I can easily see who's at the door.
But I'm in a much quieter neighborhood and no one has ever knocked on the door in the middle of the night in the two years I've been here.
Thinking about installing a peephole and/or security cam.

Just random thoughts.

[mgood]

Why would you open your door in the middle of the night without looking outside first to see who is there? I would never open my door without knowing who was out there at any time, let alone the middle of the night.

I usually don't. I don't even answer the phone without first knowing who it is, let alone open the door, most of the time. But once in a while curiosity overwhelms common sense.

[brainman]

Ok, I am not saying I would do this or think it's a good idea. But, taking the OP's hypothetical situation, if the LEO says he wants me to put away the gun and I don't want to, what happens then? Something along the lines of:"Sorry, officer, I'm not putting my gun away. You can talk to me with it holstered or I can go back inside and you can leave." How's that gonna go over?

[texanjoker]

There was a shooting back in the begining of my career that I worked where 2 officers went to a loud music call. The home owner answered the door with a gun in his hand, and failed to put it down when told. They then shot him and were cleared. Homeowner had a long criminal record. (I was not a shooter in this)

[strider67]

If I opened the door to a uniformed LEO, and I was armed, in this hypothetical situation, I would have no problem disarming, especially if there were other officers all over the place knocking on doors up and down the street. I am speaking specifically to this hypothetical situation.

*A knock by the LEO would not have been necessary...my dog would have made sure of that.

[RJGold]

I've been wondering about when an officer may disarm someone in their home.
Another discussion prompted me to ask here. See OIS today in Austin.

If I have committed no crime, and the LEO has no reason to suspect me of committing a crime, but he is at my door asking questions, does he have the authority to disarm me?

Hypothetical situation:
Something happens down the street.
I know nothin' about nothin' because I was in bed asleep.
Cops go up and down the street talking to neighbors looking for witnesses or anyone who may have information to shed some light on whatever it was that happened.
All I know is that someone woke me up by knocking on my door in the middle of the night. Before going to the door, I grab my gun. It may or may not be concealed. Depending on what's handy, I've been known to grab the shotgun, or just pull on my pants and stick a pistol in the back pocket (where it would not be easily noticed by someone in front of me).
I open the door and it's the cops. (If holding the shotgun, at this point I'd set it down, lean it against the wall or something.)
Now what?
If I happen to have a pistol in a holster on my hip, where he can see it, does he have a right to disarm me?
If it's in my back pocket and we talk for several minutes and then, for whatever reason I turn around and he sees it there, what about then?

Before you read the rest of this post, please file it under my "Hollywood Squares Joke Answer" category...

If the scenario you described above happened to me, I'd grab my Joe Biden signature model double barrel and blast them through the door!!!!

[JALLEN]

Any reason you have to open the door? Can't you just holler out, "Knock off the racket and call my office in the morning!"

Is there a problem with perps dressing up in cop clothes, to get you to open the door and rush in?