I was coming home from a date last night when I made two consecutive poor choices while at a stoplight. A trooper was behind me and stopped me, and I was in an unusual position as a result of my date. I chose to leave my pistol in the glovebox because I was going into a bar and would possibly be sitting next to (read: up against) this woman so I didn't want to have the gun conversation on the first date (although it did end up happening and went well anyway). Normally I never leave guns in my car because I don't want bad people getting ahold of them, and I want to have my gun if I need it. Simple enough. But of all nights to make the decision to lay it on my registration in my glovebox, it was the night I unexpectedly got stopped. I knew there was no way around announcing it, so I was up front about it. I simply said "Here is my License, and as for my registration, I have a situation. Here is my License to Carry a Handgun, and I have a pistol in my glovebox with my registration. I don't want to do anything here that makes you uncomfortable."
He instructed me to step out of the car, unlock my doors, stand at the left front wheel, and keep my hands visible. He removed the pistol and handled it very safely, checked my credentials, and returned my pistol to me when we were finished.
For all of the bad experiences I've heard about relating to traffic stops and LTCH, I have to say that, for the situation I created, I think the trooper acted reasonably, respectfully, and he even said some very pro-2A/self defense things that made me feel like he looked favorably on my exercising my rights. In fact, he asked me why I wasn't wearing it. ISP has trained him well and he conducted himself so well that I intend to send some positive words towards the ranks at ISP, I'm not sure how to go about that but I think he handled our interaction and the presence of a weapon in an exemplary way, and he cut me a lot of slack and just wrote me a warning. I hope I conducted myself in a way that also helped support his good faith in responsible LTCH holders.
He instructed me to step out of the car, unlock my doors, stand at the left front wheel, and keep my hands visible. He removed the pistol and handled it very safely, checked my credentials, and returned my pistol to me when we were finished.
For all of the bad experiences I've heard about relating to traffic stops and LTCH, I have to say that, for the situation I created, I think the trooper acted reasonably, respectfully, and he even said some very pro-2A/self defense things that made me feel like he looked favorably on my exercising my rights. In fact, he asked me why I wasn't wearing it. ISP has trained him well and he conducted himself so well that I intend to send some positive words towards the ranks at ISP, I'm not sure how to go about that but I think he handled our interaction and the presence of a weapon in an exemplary way, and he cut me a lot of slack and just wrote me a warning. I hope I conducted myself in a way that also helped support his good faith in responsible LTCH holders.