[Emptymag]

Originally Posted by 1rcm

As an ex-LEO I’m willing to say with certainty what most probably took place …. Two or three officers responded to a ‘man with gun’ call. Upon arrival they saw a whole gaggle of ‘man's (I guess woman’s too) with guns and called in the Calvary (kind of surprises me that there were only 8 cars as something like this around here would draw a ¼ County-wide response). Anyway, never having encountered this before and NOT being trained for it they kind of started out with the ‘I represent the law so here’s how this game will be played’ response (in-bread from the Academy). When PaPatriot didn’t play that same game the confusion began. They probably called some on-duty ranking officer who hadn’t a clue. Then the call got made to the Chief who also hadn’t a clue. Then to PSP who we all know from other encounters most times don’t have a clue. Then finally to the on-call DA who wouldn’t touch something like this without consulting with at least 3 other ADA’s and then his/her boss. Finally among all those calls someone piped-in that maybe no one really and LEGALLY knows the right answers to the REAL questions off hand as to what to do for sure right this minute so now it is time to try to start to save some face while still 'keeping the peace'. And then the Chief or ADA said exactly what I used to hear all too often …. “We’ll you guys are the ones on-scene … handle it the best you can for right now and we’ll work it later from there”.

When I was still on the job that’s undeniably how it would have gone down for me. For my ’20 in’ I honestly believed OC was quite problematic and would have told anyone I saw doing it to ‘cover it up if you have a permit’ or risk arrest for DC (yep, that old catch-all). Once I joined this forum my eyes got opened VERY wide. See the problem? Pretty bad-eah?

The bottom line here is there is a LOT of education that needs to be done on ‘gun carry’ in general all across the LEO community. And PA Patriot, my hat goes off to you as I sure do hope that with your incident school is about to be called into session. As a recent convert to jealously guarding my 2’d Amendment Rights (I even just recently joined the dreaded NRA) I sincerely applaud you and wish you nothing but great success!

Originally Posted by LM4300

+1 to 1rcm!

I can totally seeing the response by Police going this way. Until I found PAFOA, I was unaware that OC was even an option. I never heard of it, and still havent seen anyone do it. (I now keep a copy of the PA gun rights pamphlet in my file folder for work )

As a current LEO, I know many of my collegues are also blissfully unaware of citizens gun rights.

Although I have my own tactical opinions of OC vs CC, I feel I have a better understading of the PA law since joining the forum. Something I didnt get fully in the Academy (concerning gun laws). Which brings me to my point.

However things go with PA Patriot, his legal action should call for some updated training for law enforcement. All PA police go through mandatory yearly training. That would be a prime opportunity to get the right information to LEO's. The below link is the site for the state commision that oversees the training.

http://www.mpoetc.state.pa.us/mpotrs/site/default.asp

How about and update and training on the law and ways to respond to situations like this? I'm sure that, in it's self, would be a long process to have implemented, but I would be worth it.

Simply put, welcome to the forum guys.
I want to thank you for your input.(and gave you both pos rep points for it)