my question is that if i have a gun in my trunk...no ammo...just gun... and i get pulled over do i have to tell the cop or no?...and second at what point can i cop search my vehicle without my consent becuase ive been hearing around my town that cops are just searching people for no good reason...is that legal with no probable cause?
Don't ask, don't tell works pretty good with cops.
When I was in that line of work (although we rarely pulled anyone over), if I wanted to know what was in the car, I'd ask.
Problem is, people get diarrhea of the mouth when a cop pulls them over or questions them, etc. Part of it is intimidation, part of it is "wanting to please," and part of it is a perpetual guilty conscience that may have zilch to do with whatever the cop is discussing with you.
As a civilian and ex-cop, my advice to my friends if they're ever pulled over, stopped or questioned is "Don't tell the cops jackcrap unless they make you, and NEVER volunteer any information whatsoever. Keep your answers confined to "yes," "no," "I don't recall," and "I don't know."
NEVER consent to a search of your car EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER without a signed search warrant. And while they're getting the warrant (takes a while), start calling every civil rights lawyer in the phonebook and asking them to meet you wherever you're at.
This probably isn't real fair to the good cops, but if you've done nothing wrong, you'll probably never run into a good cop. Good cops are out there working to catch real criminals rather than traffic violators. Good cops have no interest in hassling, intimidating and bullying otherwise law-abiding citizens who maybe rolled through a red light--good cops deal with REAL criminals and don't need to hassle Suzy Soccer-Mom or Andy Accountant in order to make them feel like "a real cop."
When I was undercover with the feds, I got hassled by so many dickhead traffic cops that I finally reached the point of filing reports on them with whatever state licensed them. Ones that insisted on searching my car WITHOUT my permission ended up wearing their own handcuffs and spending time in MY judicial system.
And some of y'all would be flat sick to your stomachs if you knew just how many ended up getting arrested and convicted for illegal searches.
When you go from "peace officer" to "law enforcement," it ushers in a whole new mentality. And I'm not sure it's the best or right mentality to have.
Jeff