How would any of you of handled this?

[Waywardson174]

So let's say this guy is out to make himself the center of the issue. He is drawing attention to a prevalent anti-gun culture in this nation. There are more than 300 million firearms in this nation, but many more than half of us don't own a firearm. Talking to classmates, they relate "that time they shot a .22 once" as their entire firearm experience. This guy was less than polite, but he was right on every point. An officer cannot detain (that is restrain from free movement) a person without reasonable suspicion (a belief that goes beyond a hunch based on articulable facts that a person is or has committed a crime).

When open carry is legal, it is legal and cannot be a fact on which the suspicion is based without a separate indication of unlawfulness.

Yes, police officers have a tough job to do. But their responsibility to uphold the citizens' right is as important as enforcement of statutes. This cop did not have a reasonable suspicion to stop a this guy. An anonymous tip IS NEVER enough without something more.

The only way to educate people about our and their rights is by acts of exercise. Whether I open or conceal carry, if it is legal then it is my right. If I am subjected to violations of that right then I have a responsibility resist the violation.

If believe you have a right to carry, then whether you agree or not with his tactic you must support the principle, otherwise you are just another citizen slowly observing the erosion of your ability to possess, carry, and use the firearms we all hold dear.

As an aside, the idea this guy was spoiling and ready for a confrontation is ludicrous based on the video. Few of us walk around w/o a camera phone in our pockets. If this guy were really looking to make a stink of it and get famous he would have a) focused more on capturing quality images of the confrontation, b) brought a buddy to video as a third party, or c) had a camera crew following along at a distance and mic'd himself up. The guy who "invaded" ACORN did so with pretty good hidden cameras which are obviously not present here.

[Adawg38]

I thought this guy new his stuff. I'm sure he was upset for being stopped doing nothing wrong and being withing his rights. I know we all don't want to be harassed when walking down the street legally open carrying a firearm and probably are shocked when we know more laws then the officers who are there to enforce them but this guy could have been more respectful to the officer doing his job and just said everything a little more calmly and respectfully. He was just possibly warming himself up to giving the officers a reason to arrest him.

[El Caballo Loco]

When I see vids like this, I dream that the piece of shit making the video is getting ass raped like a doll a few days later and the same cop is the responding officer.

Boo on the cop for his performance but boo even more on baiting a cop and then being an ostentacious prick.

This is what happens when the extreme right has an illegitimate birth child.

[Sharpienads]

I still don't understand why he was stopped in the first place.

[Flatline]

Move on, nothing to see here. Rejoin your occupy group.

TEA

How is it that everyone on this board says how they would spank their children, be slapped, never would have happened ... etc in response to the 4 kids bullying the elderly lady but the moment that I suggest that this man is an ass because he is rude, self serving, and confrontational to a cop subjects me to accusations of being a liberal or hating gun rights.

I guess I'll put this in bold since you did not read it the first time.

This man is not here to protect anybodies second amendment rights. He is likely some undergraduate pre-law student trying to cause a confrontation with the police, while using a hot button issue like gun rights to precipitate his objectives.

This man is not helping your rights, he is hurting them. What will liberals and moderates think when they see this video? 'Hey a gun owner, and he is being disrespectful and and ass to the cop who is just doing his job,' NOT 'look at the respectful gun owner who is protecting his rights and being trotted on by the police.'

And FYI, gun owners are not the majority in our country(in a recent gallup pole only 3/10 Americans own a gun personally, and 4/10 have one in the household), so it does matter what the liberals and moderates think, as well as how they vote. If you deny this you are simply uneducated on how American politics work.

So to reiterate he is an ass because of his actions; not for carrying a gun, not for telling the cop about his rights, not citing case law precedents. He is an ass because he baited a confrontation with the police, and then treated the responding officer with disrespect and self severing and confrontation behavior.

[El Caballo Loco]

Naive, ignorant, pussified Americans?

Cops are not the enemy.

[Eggysrun]

(in a recent gallup pole only 3/10 Americans own a gun personally, and 4/10 have one in the household)

Link?

[cstone]

How is it that everyone on this board says how they would spank their children, be slapped, never would have happened ... etc in response to the 4 kids bullying the elderly lady but the moment that I suggest that this man is an ass because he is rude, self serving, and confrontational to a cop subjects me to accusations of being a liberal or hating gun rights.

I guess I'll put this in bold since you did not read it the first time.

This man is not here to protect anybodies second amendment rights. He is likely some undergraduate pre-law student trying to cause a confrontation with the police, while using a hot button issue like gun rights to precipitate his objectives.

This man is not helping your rights, he is hurting them. What will liberals and moderates think when they see this video? 'Hey a gun owner, and he is being disrespectful and and ass to the cop who is just doing his job,' NOT 'look at the respectful gun owner who is protecting his rights and being trotted on by the police.'

And FYI, gun owners are not the majority in our country(in a recent gallup pole only 3/10 Americans own a gun personally, and 4/10 have one in the household), so it does matter what the liberals and moderates think, as well as how they vote. If you deny this you are simply uneducated on how American politics work.

So to reiterate he is an ass because of his actions; not for carrying a gun, not for telling the cop about his rights, not citing case law precedents. He is an ass because he baited a confrontation with the police, and then treated the responding officer with disrespect and self severing and confrontation behavior.

Being the Po-Po, means that people will bait you. Its not "if" it is "when" that will happen during your career. Because a citizen baits you, does not give you the authority to violate their rights.

Some jurisdictions allow open carry. Some do not. Where it is legal, the police within that jurisdiction should be aware that there are citizens who will exercise that right. The police either will act lawfully and recognize those rights or they will learn. Learning can be easy (as it seemed to be in this video) or it can be rough and expensive.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Just because I have an opinion, that doesn't entitle me to be right.

Be safe.

[spyder]

I believe that argument was used by many of the regimes that committed war crimes as well. "I was just doing my job".

I'm sure that if we would all just do what the cops say, regardless of the legality, it will all work out better for everyone. After all, cops are perfect in judgement at all times, right?

Stone, aren't you a cop? I really do want to hear from someone on the board about this. What are the police supposed to do in a case where someone is called in for being a suspicious person with a gun? I want clarification for myself mainly. If I am wrong here on what the cops are supposed to be able to do, or do, whatever, I would like to hear it from an officer. This doesn't mean that I am going to turn around and act like that clown in the video, but I will be able to have a conversation with the officier that might in the future pull me to the side about my holstered firearm

[BlasterBob]

spyder, next time you take a stroll down Main Street (here in town) and see a cop walking patrol, perhaps you wouldn't mind asking him what he'd do IF you were carrying openly and he received a radio message that there is a guy "with a gun" walking down Main. I am not going to push my luck by asking any of our local LEO's but maybe you'd like to give it a try.