ADulay
Regular Member
All,
For those of you who are relatively new here in the Florida section, I'm an open carry advocate and practitioner. What the means is that I open carry every day and ride a motorcycle in the process, which makes me a very visible part of the open carry movement. With this in mind, I do tend to keep from speeding and generally making myself too obvious in daily traffic.
However, today I made a nice U-Turn at an intersection where I have done this about 500 times but today I did it in plain view of a local sheriff's department officer. Really, I thought it was OK as it was a safe U-Turn.
Nope, it's evidently not legal. Ooops. Got pulled over shortly down the road and a very nice traffic stop began.
Remember, I'm still open carrying and on the motorcycle.
I sit on the bike and ask the officer if I can "dismount" and he OK's it. He asks me if I know why he pulled me over. I just offered up "because I've got an ugly gun?". I think that broke the ice.
Anyway, he explained the status of the U-Turn and I mentioned some traffic things which he politely corrected. Yep, I was in the wrong and just never realized it for all these years. In the mean time, nothing is said about the Glock 30 on my belt. Very cool.
License and registration and that whole schtick and then we discuss open carry and concealed carry. He's a pro-2A guy and realizes that somebody like me, open carrying, is obviously NOT the problem!! He said his worries are about guys with guns under the seat, HIDDEN, and things like that.
So, after a nice discussion, I was sent on my way with a warning and a good hand shake.
I was headed to the range so there was no problem with the open carry part of it for anybody.
Another very good traffic stop by the Charlotte County Sheriff's Dept. They have always been professional and courteous when I've interacted with them "on the street", and in every event, I was open carrying.
Why post this up? To show that not every encounter with the local LEO's needs to end in a shouting match on YouTube for one's 5 minutes of "fame".
I've been doing the full time open carry for over three years now. It's not rocket science. It's legal under the Florida statutes and it is my preferred method of carry.
AD
For those of you who are relatively new here in the Florida section, I'm an open carry advocate and practitioner. What the means is that I open carry every day and ride a motorcycle in the process, which makes me a very visible part of the open carry movement. With this in mind, I do tend to keep from speeding and generally making myself too obvious in daily traffic.
However, today I made a nice U-Turn at an intersection where I have done this about 500 times but today I did it in plain view of a local sheriff's department officer. Really, I thought it was OK as it was a safe U-Turn.
Nope, it's evidently not legal. Ooops. Got pulled over shortly down the road and a very nice traffic stop began.
Remember, I'm still open carrying and on the motorcycle.
I sit on the bike and ask the officer if I can "dismount" and he OK's it. He asks me if I know why he pulled me over. I just offered up "because I've got an ugly gun?". I think that broke the ice.
Anyway, he explained the status of the U-Turn and I mentioned some traffic things which he politely corrected. Yep, I was in the wrong and just never realized it for all these years. In the mean time, nothing is said about the Glock 30 on my belt. Very cool.
License and registration and that whole schtick and then we discuss open carry and concealed carry. He's a pro-2A guy and realizes that somebody like me, open carrying, is obviously NOT the problem!! He said his worries are about guys with guns under the seat, HIDDEN, and things like that.
So, after a nice discussion, I was sent on my way with a warning and a good hand shake.
I was headed to the range so there was no problem with the open carry part of it for anybody.
Another very good traffic stop by the Charlotte County Sheriff's Dept. They have always been professional and courteous when I've interacted with them "on the street", and in every event, I was open carrying.
Why post this up? To show that not every encounter with the local LEO's needs to end in a shouting match on YouTube for one's 5 minutes of "fame".
I've been doing the full time open carry for over three years now. It's not rocket science. It's legal under the Florida statutes and it is my preferred method of carry.
AD
Last edited: