My state requires disclosure, so I do.
The more interesting question is this scenario, which actually happened to me. In my fair city, many local cops moonlight at security gigs for $15-25/hour, wearing full city LEO uniforms. One day I entered a gun show here, and the "security officer" there (wearing police uniform) asked me to "check" my gun (which really means unloading and putting a twistie thing in the action) with him after I attempted to enter, upon paying the entry fee (I was wearing a fanny pack). Now I'm in quite a dilemma, and my mind is racing because I'm madder'n a wet hen for being "disarmed" at a GUN show of all places, yet I wanted to make sure I complied with the "disclose your CCW to police officers immediately when in contact with one" thing in my state CCW law. My initial instinct was to go with the flow and say "OK", here's my gun, since I felt reasonably safe from criminals at a gun show. However, the decisive factor in causing me to resist disclosure was the fact that I didn't think I'd be asked to disarm, and therefore my pistol was chamber loaded as usual. I immediatley envisioned a huge scene when the LEO discovered it loaded,and envisioned myself detained in handcuffs and possibly charged with some crap - because I know how sensitive LEOs can be about loaded guns. On the other hand, though it didn't enter my mind right there, I later decided that this LEO was NOT working in his capacity as LEO, but ONLY in his capacity as a PRIVATE citizen security officer, which would negate the disclosure requirement in my view. So the dialogue ended up going something like this:
Security Officer ("SO"): "Check your gun here, sir"
Me: "What?"
SO: "You need to check your gun in here".
Me: "What makes you think I have a gun? Can I enter the show?"
SO: "Sir, you need to check your gun or I can't let you enter"
Me: "I don't have a gun. Do you have any evidence that I have a gun?"
SO: "I know you have a gun"
Me: [Turning and walking back toward door worker] I want my money back."
Worker: "Why"
Me: "This officer won't let me enter. He says I have a gun but I don't."
Worker: [Looks toward SO. SO shrugs] "[relctantly] OK, here" [gives money back, I leave.]
Though this SO was very polite and probably considered "reasonable" by the gun show owners, I found it unreasonable for him to assume I was armed just because of a fanny pack (i.e. no "probable cause" - applying here only as an analogy), and upon reflection, I don't think I had any duty to either tell him the truth voluntarily, or even after asked directly. I have never attended that particular gun show again. Of course the question that intrigues me is, if he had arrested me, found the gun, and charged me with the failure-to-disclose-CCW-thing, would I have been successful beating the charge based on the fact he was not employed by the city at the time of the gun show incident, despite the uniform? In fact, I would have argued he had no right to wear that uniform when not on duty, but not sure if this is valid argument...
[This message has been edited by Futo Inu (edited January 07, 2000).]
, we were enjoying ourselves. After some TX BQ for