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Excaliber wrote:Another item to add to the list of potential tactics:

If faced with a hysterical antigunner who has called in a MWAG, call the same PD yourself and tell the dispatcher (thus putting on the dispatch tape) that there was an unintentional momentary exposure of your licensed handgun and you understand that a call has been made regarding that.

Tell the dispatcher you have a CHL, give your description, and say you're waiting to meet responding officers with your CHL and TDL in hand. That will most likely calm things down substantially and avoid the scenario where it rains cops and they all draw down on you.

The Annoyed Man wrote:

CHLLady wrote:Does anyone feel obligated to show the person their CHL and explain yourself before the situation escalates? Anyone with experience with this? Should I create a new topic for this question?

It depends on how calm the other person was. IF he/she was calm and grinning and asked if I had a license to carry, I'd probably just nod and leave it at that. I'd never show that person my CHL unless they were an LEO. It's none of their business. It's got my personal information on it, and I don't know who that person is. You can leave or stay, but it doesn't matter. A person that is hysterical is going to call the law regardless of what you do, and a person like that wouldn't know a CHL from a library card, so showing it them would be pointless. If someone were to loudly/hysterically challenge me with "DO YOU HAVE A LICENSE FOR THAT THING!?!?!?!" I'd either answer "who wants to know?" or just ignore the question. Depends on the situation. The point is, don't let the thing escalate in the first place. You can't fix stupid. Not ever. Only stupid can fix stupid.....albeit often painfully. If it looks like it might be headed into full retard, don't contribute to the conversation, and leave if you can before it gets to that point. If you can't leave for some reason, then have your TDL and CHL handy in a shirt pocket or something so that when the cops do drive up, you can hand it to them before they even start asking questions. If your gun actually was unintentionally exposed, you can say, "I don't know, it might have been for just a moment when I was getting out of my car....." Or "the breeze blew my jacket open before I could catch it....." or any number of other answers. What's important is that the cop understands that you did NOT draw your gun, that any exposure was unintentional, and it wouldn't hurt if you told the cop that you had actually tried to deescalate the situation, but the other party was increasingly hysterical, and you were unable to get away from him/her. Apologize to the cop and say you're sorry that he/she had to get dragged all the way out here for such a ridiculous call.

Each situation is going to be unique, but honestly, I think most of us go through our entire CHL existences without ever having an issue with someone else, particularly with a stranger. We have members here who have gotten out of their car and walked into Walmart, did their shopping, paid and left, before discovering that their gun was in the open the whole time. NOBODY NOTICED. Most people just aren't that aware of their surroundings. Be aware of your responsibilities as an armed citizen. Be aware of the things you are NOT responsible for (it's not a Batman license). Dress around your gun, not the other way around. Have confidence in your carry method. Strap it on. Cover it up. Forget about it.

You can't live your life worrying about other people's possible issues. The world is full of hysterical stupid people. Most of them vote democrat and have issues with your devotion to the Constitution. Ignore them. They are busybodies, and they spend most of their energy on trying to tell everyone else how to live. Their animus against your having a gun is only a part of their worldview. And unless they are LEO, they have ZERO authority to demand to see your CHL.

Period.