Texas Open Carry Is Imminent

[steve4102]

One lawyer/Law firms perspective on Texas Open Carry and LEO stopping and asking for CHL without PC.

Note he uses "without Probable cause" instead of RAS. Interesting he would make or not make that distinction.

Scenario 1: You, as the holder of a valid concealed handgun license, decide to open carry on a particular day. A police officer detains you without probable cause, for no reason other than to verify that you have a valid handgun license. You show the officer your license. The officer verifies your license and then sends you on your way.

Scenario 2: You, for some reason, decide to open carry on a day when either: (a) you inadvertently left your wallet – which contains your valid concealed handgun license – at home, (b) due to a reasonable oversight, you did not timely renew your concealed handgun license, or (c) you do not have a valid concealed handgun license, although you could have obtained one had you sought to do so.

In this second scenario, you will likely be arrested and charged with the criminal offense of openly carrying a handgun without possessing the proper license. Your attorney should file a motion with the trial court which seeks to suppress (e.g., make inadmissible at trial) all evidence against you that was unlawfully obtained – that is, all evidence which was obtained as the result of you being detained without probable cause. The evidence to be suppressed would likely include everything other than the police officer’s testimony that, before stopping you, the officer observed you openly carrying a handgun in a holster. Your statements to the officer and evidence of your identity would be suppressed, as would all evidence concerning your concealed handgun license or, more accurately, lack thereof. The remaining evidence against you – testimony of the officer’s observations before you were detained – would, of course, be insufficient to support a conviction.

It appears that the Lawyer/Law firm disagrees with Texas Law Shield on whether or not an LEO can stop and detain for the simple act of Legally Open Carrying a handgun.

Note, he sites no case law to support his position.

http://www.armeddefenselaw.com/blog...un-but-who-is-not-engaged-in-criminal-conduct

 

[rickyrick]

Officers stop and ID people all the time.... I'm not sure why people think it's suddenly going to stop because of open carry laws.

I have had encounters with police for no apparent reason on numerous occasions, mostly because they are looking for someone else. Maybe it's my economic class, who knows. Happens to my contemporaries as well.

Modest to small sized communities, the police, lawyers and judges are all on the same team, I doubt this will change how police make contacts. If an officer wants to stop you because you are open-carrying, it will happen with the support of the local judiciary.
People think that there's a perfect world where officers, DAs and judges follow the rules tightly, but it's not. Everyone fudges a little just to get the job done.
Such is the life of the working man that drives an old car.