Tennessee...CC question

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Tinker

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Hello,

I live in Alabama, but I'm thinking of sliding off to the mountains of TN here soon for some R-n-R. According to what I've read, TN does recognize AL concealled carry permits, but I have a question about traffic stops.

In TN, if pulled over for a traffic stop, are you required to notify the officer that you are armed? In Al we don't have to. Just curious. Thanks.
 
The answer is no. Permit shall be shown on request of officer, is pretty much teh language of the statute.
 
But it doesn't hurt to tell the officer either :). Living in TN, I always hand the officer my DL and HCP at the same time. They're going to find out anyways, makes for a more pleasant stop.
 
It is not required to inform the officer that you are packing heat and have a permit to do so. But if Al carry permits are issued through the Dept. of Safety like TN, the officer will find out when he checks your Drivers License. If you dont have anything to hide there is no reason not to tell the officer. It may mean the difference between a warning and a ticket. We dont like suprises. If you didnt know, TN recently changed the law and it allows you to carry in parks. Be careful as the local goverment could choose not to allow carry when the bill was passed. The normal rules apply that if a business posts a weapon ban at the door, you have to leave your gun in your car so it can get stolen and used for a real crime.
 
Always inform the LEO you have a permit and are carrying if stopped. Remember he doesn't know that you're an upstanding citizen, no one likes to get surprised. Put yourself in his shoes.
 
Always inform the LEO you have a permit and are carrying if stopped. Remember he doesn't know that you're an upstanding citizen, no one likes to get surprised. Put yourself in his shoes.
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That's a highly personal decision skyshot. I have no desire to discuss my sidearm with a police officer at all, and he will not have any reason to become aware of its existence in 99% (well, to date 100%!) of any official interactions. (If I see that it MIGHT be discovered, on the 1,000,000:1 chance I've been mistaken for a bank robber and am being frisked, I'll mention it before that happens.)

No one likes being stupidly disarmed, treated with heightened suspicion, lectured, delayed, having their "numbers run", or any of the other negatives that sometimes happen when the word "GUN" gets inserted into an official LEO interaction where it does not belong.

You may get out of a ticket. You may be detained and disarmed and swept with your own weapon. You may (as occasionally happens up here) get your gun confiscated and wind up having to take time off to go prove ownership to get it back.

Hopefully in TN none of those negatives ever, ever, happen. I wouldn't have thought they'd happen up here, either. But I've become convinced the odds stack better in my favor if I don't inform (except where required by law).
 
I've been stopped 2-3 times for an out of date tag. I have never told the officer I have a permit. Of course once he runs my license he knows, since the permit number is the same as the license. ANd they've never mentioned it afterwards. If it isn't an issue, it isn't an issue. ANd I'm not saying anything until it is an issue. Honestly since I am not going to threaten or shoot the officer it isn't any of his business whether I have a gun or not.
 
i've been stopped 3 times in past 20 years.

once in OH. I wasn't carrying, only handed officer my license. Officer complained and argued with me for 20 min about me not informing him i was licensed, even though i had no pistol.

once in TN. (technically, I got rear-ended, not pulled over for speeding) I gave officer both DL and permit at same time. She returned permit and said "i don't need this"

once in AL. I gave officer both DL and permit at same time. He gave them back to me with a warning to drive slower.
 
Always inform the LEO you have a permit and are carrying if stopped. Remember he doesn't know that you're an upstanding citizen, no one likes to get surprised. Put yourself in his shoes.
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Disagree - how is he going to find your gun anyway? Here in FL, they can run your DL all day long, your CCW never shows as it is not connected to the state police data base

You get stopped, give him only what he asks for, nothing more nothing less and never volunteer anything
 
oneounceload said:
Disagree - how is he going to find your gun anyway? Here in FL, they can run your DL all day long, your CCW never shows as it is not connected to the state police data base

You get stopped, give him only what he asks for, nothing more nothing less and never volunteer anything
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The op said Tennessee not Florida, besides If stopped and you have your handgun stuffed in somewhere where the Leo may get a glimps of it and you haven't confirmed your carry status, things can change in a hurry. As said before when they run your DL they know you have a carry permit, but what about the time before(as the LEO approaches your window) your DL has been run. If your nice and polite it may not be an issue, but you know there are those types of people who have to run thier big mouth.
 
That is an issue of people taking attitude with LEOs, not an issue with permits and informing.
As I've said, to me it is an issue of privacy. It is no one's business whether I am carrying or not. When the officer finds out that should put him even more at ease. In any case, an experienced officer knows what trouble looks like.
 
Just don't come to NC. I know it was law(but might have changed) You are required to tell them about your permit and weapon with any interaction. It is tied to our DL. If they perform a traffic stop the usually know from running the tag/registered owner of the vehicle.
 
. As said before when they run your DL they know you have a carry permit
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No they won't. As said OP is from Alabama where CCWs are not tied to our DL and there is no published record of it(Al.state law forbids it) and no duty to inform. No duty to inform=don't.
 
It's a little bit funny, in Utah, the BCI website says you are strongly encouraged to inform, even though it isn't the law. And the difference here is, I know that the vast majority of LEOs are gun-friendly and won't jerk you around. I have gotten out of a few tickets because the stop turns into a conversation about guns.

Having said that, I know most other states aren't as gun-friendly as Utah, and the default answer is to never voluntarily surrender a right, which is what you are doing if you volunteer information the police officer doesn't need to know.
 
When the TN carry law was first in effect, we were told to present DL and THCP during a traffic stop.

Now, after police have had no issues with lawful carriers, it is as Taliv experienced:
" I gave officer both DL and permit at same time. She returned permit and said "i don't need this"."
 
See you guys are lucky there(Alabama), here in NC it is tied to your DL, and vehicle registration. I was stopped, the officer had told me that when he ran my license plate it showed it came back to me, he had all my info right there including my CCW permit info. Things sure have changed..lol. I wish it were more private here.
 
Here in AL, like mentioned above, we have no requirement to report. Glad to know that it is required in NC. I know that NC recognized AL permits, but SC doesn't. The area of TN we plan on visiting could also have us rambling through parts of NC.

BTW......while we're here....SC does not have reciprocity with AL. I don't know what that is all about, but if I did decide to cross over into SC, what is the proper way to store the firearm legally? I know here in AL an out of stater can transport a firearm through the state (without a permit) but the firearm has to be in a "secure wrapper", unloaded in the trunk. Is SC the same?
 
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