Originally Posted by
whomever
"Maybe I'm missing something, but why wouldn't an individual notify an officer that they're armed when stopped by a LEO?"
A couple of thoughts from the civilian peanut gallery (my state doesn't require notification):
1)I think the CPL info is delivered with license plate data now, but prior to that you's hear the occasional horror story where a new/fearful/not used to CCW officer would react to being handed a DL and CPL by immediately drawing and pointing their gun at the driver or other overreaction. I could be wrong, but I suspect the risk of that is a little higher for civilians than off duty LEO's. I have in fact had LEO friends whose advice to avoid that was 'don't volunteer that you are carrying for the typical stop where you just set in the seat and get your ticket/warning/whatever; do inform if anything happens where the officer is going to discover the gun, e.g. getting told to get out of the car'. I drive like an old woman, so I don't have any first hand experience :-).
2)A traffic stop is pretty unambiguous, but I'd wonder about other situations. A couple of actual examples:
-I'm driving down a rural road and see an officer at a fresh wreck. I stop and roll down the window and ask if he wants help (he did, gave me a maglite (it was dark) and had me direct traffic while he did other things)
-I'm walking the dog and see a bunch of fresh expended shotgun shells in the park. I swing by the storefront office and poke my head in and say 'FYI, there are a bunch of empty shells by the picnic shelter'.
-there is a bad wreck on the interstate )unconscious people ejected from the vehicle, etc. Amazing amount of dust, visibility still only 100 ft when the first officer arrives a few minutes later. I ran up and gave him the location and number of the injured.
-I open the garage door to back out the car and see a patrol car with lights on setting by the drive. A car had gone off the embankment w/o us noticing. The officer was having trouble getting up the steep bank; I leaned down and helped pull him up.
Do I have to start each of those encounters with 'Officer, I have a CPL and am armed today'? Particularly for the third one, it didn't seem like the most important info to get across.
I don't really have strong opinions on the issue (and my LEO friends are mostly of the 'I assume everyone is armed anyway' persuasion), but I do think that it's a rule that ought to be interpreted pretty leniently for any of the above situations.