Open Carry in a Traffic Stop

jar said:
Hopefully he issues a ticket for gross stupidity and confiscates the weapon.

A handgun on the dash is simply a ballistic missile aimed at any or all of the passengers.
Click to expand...
Everybody who I have heard of who has done this, did it because in their state at the time it was illegal to have a concealed weapon in a car. It was believed that the safest place to have a gun was on the dashboard, because the cop couldn't claim it was concealed if it was in plain view on the dash.

Everybody I've known who has done this was very familiar with guns and had a median age of Methusalah. So I think this may have been a valid thing and more common in the 40s, 50s, or 60s.
 
wayneinFL said:
Everybody who I have heard of who has done this, did it because in their state at the time it was illegal to have a concealed weapon in a car. It was believed that the safest place to have a gun was on the dashboard, because the cop couldn't claim it was concealed if it was in plain view on the dash.

Everybody I've known who has done this was very familiar with guns and had a median age of Methusalah. So I think this may have been a valid thing and more common in the 40s, 50s, or 60s.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I remember school parking lots were full of pickup trucks with guns on racks, dashboards, etc and unlocked!!! Try that today and see where you land !
 
AmmoJo said:
In the 70s, we drove our pickups to high school with 3 rifles on the rack loaded, guns on the dash, some in the glove box, and a few on the seat. Man you guys are young !! :rofl:
Click to expand...
I'm chuckling more about the gun as a missile comment as anything else. Because until 1967 seatbelts weren't mandatory, and their use wasn't mandatory until the 80s or 90s.

In the time this was common, it didn't matter of the gun was a missile, because the passengers were already missiles anyway.

And dashboards were flat steel, so a gun would have kind of stayed there. I can't set a coffee cup on the big round plastic dash in my car. I can't even set it on the car. Whole flippin' car is round. I miss flat cars.
 
wayneinFL said:
I'm chuckling more about the gun as a missile comment as anything else. Because until 1967 seatbelts weren't mandatory, and their use wasn't mandatory until the 80s or 90s.

In the time this was common, it didn't matter of the gun was a missile, because the passengers were already missiles anyway.

And dashboards were flat steel, so a gun would have kind of stayed there. I can't set a coffee cup on the big round plastic dash in my car. I can't even set it on the car. Whole flippin' car is round. I miss flat cars.
Click to expand...

Flat cars that could hold 10 unsafe passengers GOOD. Plastic round boxes with seatbelts and wheels BAD. 🤣🤣🤣
 
<anger>
<intemperate response>

Some of you guys need to learn how to read. I say again, redundantly, over and over, again and again, repetitively, just in case you didn't read it: the guns were empty, cylinder open, slide locked back.

cylinder open, slide locked back

This. Read it aloud so you can hear it for real.

It's worked just effing fine for years, until I stopped getting stopped for traffic violations in the first place.

So don't challenge me on my stupidity.

Haisus Aitch Christus !

</intemperate response>
</anger>

Terry, 230RN
 
Last edited:
230RN said:
<anger>
<intemperate response>

Some of you guys need to learn how to read. I say again, redundantly, over and over, again and again, repetitively, just in case you didn't read it: the guns were empty, cylinder open, slide locked back.

cylinder open, slide locked back

This. Read it aloud so you can hear it for real.

It's worked just effing fine for years, until I stopped getting stopped for traffic violations in the first place.

So don't challenge me on my stupidity.

Haisus Aitch Christus !

</intemperate response>
</anger>

Terry, 230RN
Click to expand...
It doesn't matter if they were unloaded with cylinder open or closed it is still utter stupidity.

And I was there in the 40s, 50 and 60s and folk even way back then knew how to do really stupid stuff and were quite good at it.
 
jar said:
It doesn't matter if they were unloaded with cylinder open or closed it is still utter stupidity.

And I was there in the 40s, 50 and 60s and folk even way back then knew how to do really stupid stuff and were quite good at it.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your opinion. I apologize for mine.

Terry, 230RN
 
Last edited:
wayneinFL said:
Everybody who I have heard of who has done this, did it because in their state at the time it was illegal to have a concealed weapon in a car. It was believed that the safest place to have a gun was on the dashboard, because the cop couldn't claim it was concealed if it was in plain view on the dash.
Click to expand...
....as I said in my first post on this thread, this is how Wisconsin law is with a loaded handgun in a vehicle without having a CWC permit. While having it on the dash or console may not be the best place, it is legal, and with one of those magnetic holders, maybe a viable alternative for those who do not have a CWC permit.
 
AmmoJo said:
In the 70s, we drove our pickups to high school with 3 rifles on the rack loaded, guns on the dash, some in the glove box, and a few on the seat.
Click to expand...

Sounds rather like hyperbole, an exaggeration for the sake of illustration. Been guilty of doing that myself now and again... but only at parties.

What really distresses me is that the whole issue has been an issue. In Terry's ideal world, where just about everybody could be / was armed, the number of bad guys would have been thinned out down to nearly nothing by natural Darwinian principles. (My "Billy The Kid Theory" and its "Valentine's Day Massacre" corollary.)

It could then be assumed by LEOs at traffic stops that everybody was an armed and a principled, responsible sober citizen, except they irresponsibly went 10MPH over the speed limit.

Dream on, Terry.... dream on.

:rofl:

Terry, 230RN
 
Last edited:
Here is a link to a resource for the cautious (guilty) and courteous (also guilty):
https://www.usacarry.com/duty-to-inform-laws/

In South Dakota I understand that concealed carry permit information is included when the plates are called in, but of course permits are no longer required. I keep one in wallet regardless.
 
Being that open carry is illegal in FL (the only Republican state in the nation to ban it), I was pulled over at gun point by a marked Miami-Dade unit while I was off duty as a cop.

I was riding my motorcycle on the Palmetto Express when I lived in Miami. I was wearing a tshirt and had my agency issued GLOCK in my agency issued off-duty OWB DeSantis thumb-break scabbard. Keeping up with traffic, the shirt was flopping in the breeze.

The marked unit passed me on my right, saw my pistol, slammed on the breaks, got behind me, lit me up, pulled me over, and at gun point ordered me off my bike.

After I pulled over (mind you, signaling that I was getting off the expressway for my own personal safety), it was then that I informed him I was an off-duty LEO and very slowly produced my creds.

MDPD told me that if I weren't a cop. He'd haul my butt to jail for openly carrying in Florida.

Never mind the fact that in 2011, the Republican legislature pass a bill to specifically prevent such from occurring. But it was so poorly written, it doesn't matter now and didn't matter then.

790.053 Open carrying of weapons.—
(1) Except as otherwise provided by law and in subsection (2), it is unlawful for any person to openly carry on or about his or her person any firearm or electric weapon or device. It is not a violation of this section for a person who carries a concealed firearm as authorized in s. 790.01(1) to briefly and openly display the firearm to the ordinary sight of another person, unless the firearm is intentionally displayed in an angry or threatening manner, not in necessary self-defense.
(2) A person may openly carry, for purposes of lawful self-defense:
(a) A self-defense chemical spray.
(b) A nonlethal stun gun or dart-firing stun gun or other nonlethal electric weapon or device that is designed solely for defensive purposes.
(3) Any person violating this section commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

History.—s. 1, ch. 87-537; s. 173, ch. 91-224; s. 3, ch. 97-72; s. 1205, ch. 97-102; s. 3, ch. 2006-298; s. 1, ch. 2011-145; s. 9, ch. 2023-18.
Click to expand...

This is why we need legalized open carry in Florida because there no definition of what "briefly" is. It was literally a wardrobe malfunction due to the wind whipping my untucked shirt as I was legally carrying and legally driving my motorcycle on a legal street and not violating any traffic laws whatsoever.

As a LEO myself, I never gave a rat's butt and if folks had firearms visible in the car. It lowered the tension. I knew they were armed, they knew I was armed, everything was peaceful. But other officers think they're all high and mighty and that only them and bad guys have guns. So, they treat EVERYONE as if they're a bad guy. :mad: And that ain't right.
 
Miami_JBT said:
Being that open carry is illegal in FL (the only Republican state in the nation to ban it), I was pulled over at gun point by a marked Miami-Dade unit while I was off duty as a cop.

I was riding my motorcycle on the Palmetto Express when I lived in Miami. I was wearing a tshirt and had my agency issued GLOCK in my agency issued off-duty OWB DeSantis thumb-break scabbard. Keeping up with traffic, the shirt was flopping in the breeze.

The marked unit passed me on my right, saw my pistol, slammed on the breaks, got behind me, lit me up, pulled me over, and at gun point ordered me off my bike.

After I pulled over (mind you, signaling that I was getting off the expressway for my own personal safety), it was then that I informed him I was an off-duty LEO and very slowly produced my creds.

MDPD told me that if I weren't a cop. He'd haul my butt to jail for openly carrying in Florida.

Never mind the fact that in 2011, the Republican legislature pass a bill to specifically prevent such from occurring. But it was so poorly written, it doesn't matter now and didn't matter then.



This is why we need legalized open carry in Florida because there no definition of what "briefly" is. It was literally a wardrobe malfunction due to the wind whipping my untucked shirt as I was legally carrying and legally driving my motorcycle on a legal street and not violating any traffic laws whatsoever.

As a LEO myself, I never gave a rat's butt and if folks had firearms visible in the car. It lowered the tension. I knew they were armed, they knew I was armed, everything was peaceful. But other officers think they're all high and mighty and that only them and bad guys have guns. So, they treat EVERYONE as if they're a bad guy. :mad: And that ain't right.
Click to expand...

Wow, you would think that DeSantis would have already passed Open Carry. That's surprising.
 
^,^
"This is why we need legalized open carry in Florida because there no definition of what "briefly" is. It was literally a wardrobe malfunction due to the wind whipping my untucked shirt as I was legally carrying and legally driving my motorcycle on a legal street and not violating any traffic laws whatsoever."

And of course every time your shirt flapped up counted as another violation.

Florida lawmakers are in common with a bunch of other lawmakers around the country in that they do not understand plain English. The second Amendment is possibly the shortest and most efficiently written prohibition in the Constitution.

"Let the Courts decide" is possibly the biggest danger to civil rights there is. And they are supposed to be protecting our rights, especially and obviously our specifically enumerated rights.
 
Last edited:
In New Mexico, your vehicle is no different from your house, so your firearm is legal anywhere on or off your person. That said, before CCW we were also an open carry state, and I have had to Inform some young officers of the law. I keep license and registration in glove box/ console, and sometimes there's a firearm there.
Years ago an AZ officer explained to me that I should inform the officer if I'm about to reach somewhere where there is a weapon. (The only time I've had an officer draw his weapon on me!) He gave me a verbal warning, said "we both had enough excitement"!
 
I have always told the officer upon first contact that I have a firearm on my person. If I was carrying one in the car in a manner that was accessible, I would also do the same. Having a concealed carry license helps bring that up, when you hand them your drivers license and your concealed carry license.

Without a license, or if they ask upon seeing the license: For your safety and mine I'd like to tell you that I have a firearm. Most of the time I've been told "You keep your gun where it is, and I'll keep mine where it is."

Open carry on the dash? Hmm... I can't say the dash would be the best location for a firearm except on the farm/ranch.
 
Miami_JBT said:
I personally spoke with the Governor last year and he pledged he'd back an open carry bill. Well, I got an open carry bill introduced this session and he was absolutely silent on it and said NOTHING.
Click to expand...
Besides their lack of reading ability, politicians also have no built-in memories.

Both of these qualities have been destroyed by the fact that most of them have gone through law school.

I have often wisecracked, but halfway seriously, that having a law degree or anything like it should automatically disqualify a person from any political office, no matter how high or low.

Yes. No kidding.

Terry, 230RN
 
Last edited:
230RN said:
Besides their lack of reading ability, politicians also have no built-in memories.

Both of these qualities have been destroyed by the fact that most of them have gone through law school.

I have often wisecracked, but halfway seriously, that having a law degree or anything like it should automatically disqualify a person from any political office, no matter how high or low.

Yes. No kidding.

Terry, 230RN
Click to expand...
There‘s a popular first year law school saying that if you can‘t make it in private practice with a law degree there is always public service.
 
Unless there is a legal requirement to inform, I don't inform. There is no requirement in Missouri.

I got pulled over a year ago for speeding in Missouri. While I was carrying concealed, firearms never came up in our discussion and I didn't bring it up. I was let go with a verbal warning to slow down.

I frequently travel to Arkansas which is a Duty to Inform state. I've never been pulled over in AR.
I believe in turning off your vehicle, rolling your windows down, and keeping your hands on the steering wheel when the officer approaches your vehicle.
If and when I get pulled over in Arkansas, and the officer walks up to the window, I will start the conversation with "Howdy, I have a duty to inform you I am licensed to carry a firearm and am carrying."

The officer can do what he pleases with that info after that.

I personally wont dig out my DL, Insurance, and registration till asked by the officer. I'll wait until he asks me to do so. What's the rush?
 
230RN said:
<anger>
<intemperate response>

Some of you guys need to learn how to read. I say again, redundantly, over and over, again and again, repetitively, just in case you didn't read it: the guns were empty, cylinder open, slide locked back.

cylinder open, slide locked back

This. Read it aloud so you can hear it for real.

It's worked just effing fine for years, until I stopped getting stopped for traffic violations in the first place.

So don't challenge me on my stupidity.

Haisus Aitch Christus !

</intemperate response>
</anger>

Terry, 230RN
Click to expand...

Please keep your guns holstered and stop putting them on your dash.
 
docwharden1881 said:
I thought that South Carolina was a constitutional carry state after the governor, Henry McMaster, signed it into law. So there would be no permits needed as long as the person who owned the firearm was 21 and could legally own it.
Click to expand...

Clarification/correction here:

You may open carry (or conceal carry) in SC at the age of 18 and older, so long as they're not a prohibited person.

;)

Here's a link to the SLED summary guidance for law enforcement:

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

W
  • Locked
Traffic stops with multiple guns - leo ?
2
Replies
29
Views
2K
Ozarks
O
G
  • Locked
CMP Trip and Talladega Traffic?
Replies
10
Views
1K
billyg1956
B
mesinge2
  • Locked
Open Carry?
Replies
3
Views
610
mesinge2
mesinge2
S
  • Locked
Should traffic stops be abandoned ?
2 3 4
Replies
81
Views
3K
Matt G
M
C
  • Locked
Questions for Open-Carry state residents
2 3 4 5
Replies
102
Views
4K
hermannr
H
Back
Top