Interactions with Law Enforcement Session 10: Final Thoughts

As the Executive Director of Personal Defense Network, as the educator involved in this course, as a responsible gun owner myself, and as a law enforcement officer, I want to sincerely thank you for taking the time to go through this material, internalize it, and apply it to the way you go about being a responsibly armed person at home, in the work place, and in public. I wish more people would take the time to think about how they're going to interact with law enforcement while armed. And that's not just from a safety standpoint as a reserve police officer. It's also as a responsible gun owner interested in how other people, including the law enforcement community, view our community. Our community has an obligation to go along with all of the responsibilities that come with our rights to keep and bear arms, to own firearms, and certainly our rights to defend ourselves. I also want you to keep in mind, that just about all of the information that we just reviewed including the concept of knowing the laws, making sure that your hands aren't moving towards the tool, and making sure that the officers know exactly where those tools are, apply to any defensive item, not just firearms. Knives, electrical or chemical devices, blunt objects, anything that you carry that an officer might think could potentially be used to hurt them, or that you do use to defend yourself in a public space, should be talked about and thought about in the same way as we just talked about firearms. Interacting with law enforcement while armed can be scary. It can be intimidating. It can make you nervous. Especially if you've heard some horror stories about interactions that have gone wrong. Even if they don't involve violence, but they involve arrests or they involve confiscation of materials, or they just involve a long and drawn out process that inconveniences you, you may wish, I hope this police officer just doesn't know I have a gun and I can get through this without having to worry about it. But, interacting responsibly, letting the officer know you're armed when you are armed, and of course, following the obligation to report any incident in which your use of a gun, your ownership of a gun, or your carrying of a gun, changes someone else's behavior are all going to make you much better off in the long run and help the firearms community as a whole. It's also going to help law enforcement to become more educated and more understanding to the views of the people who choose to own and carry firearms for personal defense. So, I encourage you to go back through this material again. Not just the videos, but also all of the supplemental materials. And don't forget about those worksheets. Every once in a while it's probably a good idea to do that research again. Remember, these laws change from time to time. The rules that go along with your state issued conceal carry permit may change, and the entire landscape of the 2nd Amendment and our right to keep and bear arms could change because of new federal laws, or a new interpretation from the federal courts. So, just because you've successfully gone through all of this information and internalized it, doesn't mean that it won't change in the future. Maybe you'll move to a new state, or maybe you'll go visit a state that you didn't research as part of this course and you're going to need to make sure that your information is thorough and up to date. You are a responsible citizen interested in responding to the needs of law enforcement, to your own needs, and to the needs of the gun community when it comes to interacting with law enforcement while armed.