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Your Handgun. Don’t Leave Home Without It
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/1 ... ithout-it/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When I first became a police officer...

Read the rest at the link above

A police officer that leaves his gun at home! WHAT! Maybe I am misreading this article. Is/Was he leaving his gun at home during personal hours or during work hours. If I call a police officer to my house because some nut-job is prowling about I want him to come armed to the teeth. If I leave my gun at home I am mostly putting my family at risk, not many others. If he leaves his gun at home during work hours he is putting EVERYONE at risk.

He's talking about off-duty.

My Brother-In-Law was Chief of a town of about 15,000 that was the county seat and drew a lot of people in from the rural areas (aka only Wal-Mart within 30 miles.) He very rarely carried when he was off duty. Even when he was a patrolman or detective he was not too keen on carrying. Luckily he never had a problem, but it it was dumb IMO.

...good read...I , too, know cops who won't carry off-duty...and it's foolish...

To the best of my knowledge, you don't stop becoming an officer of the law while off-duty.

I used to know quite a few officers who were not armed off duty; their wive usually were, but that was before it was legal, pre-chl.

I asked one what happens if he witnesses a felony robbery while at the Stop and Go, he replied "I'm supposed to stop it, but..."
Same officer refused to wear the issued vest, I bought him a more comfortable one but still he wouldn't

sugar land dave wrote:To the best of my knowledge, you don't stop becoming an officer of the law while off-duty.

Actually, there are cases where you can. We had reserve officers who only carried LEO powers when they were on duty. Off duty they had no more power than a regular citizen. These were reservists who had not completed the academy and were not POST (TCLEOSE in Texas) certified.

...in La, you had to remove your badge when you captured a bail jumper for a bondsman...though you could be in uniform...you were not acting as an officer then...simpler just to be out of uniform when doing that work...but we had open carry and not concealed...so it didn't make us leave our gun home...