[Adam Helmer]

jl1966,

You posted a good thread. I would like to post an interesting event in 1995 in Boston where I encountered 2 young Boston cops, one white and one black, in downtown about 5:00 p.m. on a July afternoon at the bus stop by South Station. My suit coat was not buttoned and there was a slight breeze, apparently my jacket parted enough for the cop to see my holster. I was waiting for my bus home when the black cop said something to the white cop (both were about 25 years old). Both looked at me and both put their hands on their handguns and unsnapped the thumb breaks on their holsters. but did not draw. The black cop came up to me, on my weak side, and asked, "Are you a law enforcement officer? I see you have a handgun on your right hip." I told him I was a federal agent and told him my credential was in my left inside coat pocket. He took it out, looked at it, and handed it back to me. I then advised them that the question about being a LEO obviously excluded properly CCW licensed citizens. His response was, "Yes, that is correct." I asked him why that was "correct" and he advised that he only considered a fellow LEO to be a "Proper Person" to carry a gun.

Yes, far too many new LEOs on the street have a definite "them versus us" attitude about civillian CCW carry. I suggest you be cool and compliant until the newly hired LEO settles down. Personally, I have never been concerned with guns in honest hands, it was the less than 1% of guns in criminal hands that gave me full employment, and none of them qualified for a CCW.

Adam