Interactions with Law Enforcement Session 2: Overview

I'm really glad that you decided to participate in this class on interacting with law enforcement while armed. My name's Rob Pincus. In addition to being the executive director of the Personal defense network, I also happen to be someone who has over 20 years of experience carrying a firearm in the public space. Having firearms staged for defensive use in my home, in my workplaces and in my vehicle. I've lived in several different states and I travel around the country almost constantly. So I've had the opportunity to interact with a lot of different firearms owners, a lot of different law enforcement and learn the laws, customs and procedures that are most common and most important all around the United States when it comes to being responsibly armed and dealing with law enforcement, whether you've been in an incident or you're just being pulled over because of a traffic violation. Making sure that you act responsibly with that firearm on your body or within reach when dealing with the police is incredibly important to your safety, to your legal standing and of course, to the way that law enforcement and the community of gun owners interact with each other. I want to give you some idea of what's coming up during this class. What topics we're going to cover and some of the things you might want to do right now to get prepared such as having your notebook and pen ready as well as possibly becoming familiar with the laws that go along with your concealed carry permit whether you have one in your state or not. Because the laws are going to be incredibly important. And the first topic that we're going to talk about is legally carrying a gun. Now, of course, the laws in different states, in different cities vary. And this is a comprehensive class meant to give you an overview of how to interact with law enforcement. But you're going to be responsible for understanding the specific laws in the state that you live, in the city that you live and of course, any place that you might visit while having a firearm with you. Whether you're carrying it or not. We also want to make sure that that legal education comes along with the understanding that your rights are balanced by your responsibilities. So don't just focus on what you're allowed to do. Also focus on what you need to do in terms of carrying that gun responsibly. When you're carrying that gun in the public space, we're going to talk about how you can carry to both avoid interactions with law enforcement that are unwanted and how to responsibly know that the way you carry a gun can affect the way law enforcement and the public in general are going to interact with you. And we're going to cover both open and concealed carry for defense. We're also going to make sure that you understand what to do if law enforcement contacts you, and you have no idea why. And of course, many of us have been pulled over because we know exactly the law that we violated. Maybe we're speeding. Maybe we ran through a red light. Maybe we failed to use our signal. Maybe we change lanes without signaling. And we're going to know why those red and blue lights came on in our rear view mirror. But sometimes you're going to have an interaction with law enforcement that you're completely unaware of why it's happening. And in those cases you may not have your rehearsed response down and you're going to need to know how to improvise, how to cooperate and how to deal with those unexpected law enforcement encounters. We're also going to talk about the important topic of reporting any defensive gun use to law enforcement. And when I say any defensive gun use, I mean, any. If you think that someone changed their behavior because they knew you were carrying a gun or they even believed you were carrying a gun, whether you had to use that gun or not in the way that you normally think of it. Pulling it out and shooting it. If you displayed it, if you referenced it, if you touched it under a shirt and you think that made somebody think twice about interacting with you and they turned around and left, don't think that that doesn't mean that they weren't threatened by the presence of that firearm. And don't think that even if they initiated the confrontation, even if they threatened you and you simply showed the gun to say, "Hey, I will defend myself if I need to," that they won't try to turn the tables on you. Report the incident to the police and suggest that you inappropriately threatened them with that gun. And that could lead to significant negative legal ramifications for you. So we're going to talk about the importance of reporting all kinds of interactions with other people that involve firearms in the public space and how to deal with law enforcement so that they understand you're the good guy and not the threat. We're also going to talk about, of course, what to do in the immediate aftermath of what we think of as a worst case scenario, defensive gun use. When you actually have to shoot at or actually shoot someone who is threatening you or someone else. Of course the first thing we're going to worry about there is your safety. Making sure that you aren't seen as a bad guy and seen as a threat by the arriving police officers. And the second thing we're going to talk about are the things that you should be conveying to those officers in terms of the evidence that you were the good guy and that you were justified in your use of that firearm. Now, in addition to these topics, we're going to talk about a lot of the details that go along with carrying a firearm in the public space. And knowing that law enforcement is always watching and always aware that anyone could be a threat. You're also going to not only have these videos to go by including some videos that we've produced in the past for the education of our Personal defense network audience. You're also going to have some handouts, some downloads and some questionnaires that you can answer so that you are as prepared as possible to be legally and responsibly armed and cooperate with law enforcement whenever you need to so that your interactions with law enforcement are safe and leave you with a good legal standing and leave law enforcement with a good idea of what a responsible firearms owner interaction is going to be like.