My first stop ever. I'm 40 years old and have behaved well for the most part, or I'm just lucky. So off to Louisiana to visit family for the New Year holiday I go. I've got my wife and 3 kids in the car, and it was like driving a hearse, everyone fast asleep. The speed limit on I 49 between Shreveport and Alexandria is 75, I'm doing about 70 and I see a trooper parked partially on the shoulder of the road and mostly in the grass. He had his lights on but there was no one around. Here's where I kick myself - I figured since he was mostly off the road, and there was not a stop in progress, I didn't really need to switch lanes. I remember thinking that maybe his lights were on so that he was serving as a visual deterrent to speeders or maybe had completed a stop earlier and was still doing whatever followup he needed to do in his car. I would be wrong, now I'm pulled over to the side of the road :) I'll be sending my $230 money order to the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's office in 2 weeks. No dispute. I totally had a lapse in judgement there, mostly due to the mundane nature of the drive down I 49 and my brain going numb, I digress.
Here's the encounter -
I pull over and stop, turn off the car, open the window and have my CHL and drivers license in hand, hands on the steering wheel. This stop was around 3 in the afternoon so no dome light turned on. My wife is digging for the insurance card and eventually finds it, but he never really asks for it. As I sit and wait for the officer to approach my car, I notice he stops in front of his car and stands there. I turn to look and he gestures to me that I should come see him. (he waved me back there and then did the little two finger walking thing like the old yellow pages ads). I unbuckle, and walk towards him with cards visible in hand and in front of me. I hold both arms out about a foot from my body as I walk towards him. As I get near him I say "Good afternoon, I need to let you know that I have a concealed carry license". He rolled his eyes and asked if I was carrying, and I said "Yes, it's on my right side". I fully expect him to disarm me as I've read that it's completely within their options to do so in Louisiana so no biggie. He asks me to raise my arms and he disarms me. I then tell him that there's a round chambered and to please be careful. He takes my gun (Ruger SR9C) to his car and unloads it then returns. He then proceeds to search me while I'm facing him and ignores my pocket knife clipped to the inside of my right pocket. He then raises his voice and tells me "You did right by letting me know you were armed, but you should have never left your vehicle with that gun on you when you approached me". All I could think at this point is I'm on my way to taking a ride with him. I didn't argue at all, but I know I had a surprised look on my face. He then raises his voice and asks "They don't teach you that in the class?!?" When I heard him say that all I could think about was a video of the police screaming that exact question to some guy in Ohio during a traffic stop before they handcuffed him and threatened to shoot him!! Doh!! After mentally collecting myself for about a second, I calmly explained to him that I completed the course in Texas where we are instructed to stay in the vehicle, get cards ready and keep hands in visible sight and immediately announce our license to which he commented "That's why Texas troopers get shot all the time, they approach the cars". I told him "I assure you, you have nothing to worry about from me".
We chatted for a few minutes about why he pulled me over and my wife sticks her head out of the window saying "I found the insurance card!". The officer asks me to tell her to stay in the car so I did and she remained in there. After about 5 more minutes chatting with the officer about some of the logistics about how to pay and phone numbers, my wife sticks her head out of the window again and asks if she can take a picture of me getting a ticket! The officer and I looked at each other, and I, shaking my head side to side, calmly ask him to please tell her no. He grinned and said "Sure!" LOL. Thanks a lot.
After the encounter is over, the officer tells me he is going to return my gun to me unloaded and then realizes I have a car full of kids and nowhere really to safely put it, so he says he'll give it to my wife. My eyebrows go up in a worried manner, but then we both kind of chuckled a little bit. I asked if he wanted me to return to the car or wait for him to deliver it and he instructed me that it would be okay if I got back in the car. He then proceeds to carry the magazine and extra round in his left hand and carries the gun by the grip with his thumb and index finger like it's a loaded diaper. As he walks off I reload and holster, and then drive away.
Initially this was a very uncomfortable experience and leaves me to question a few things about how this took place and what could have been done differently. The search and the disarming are to a degree understandable when I put myself in his shoes, but I would think that some consideration for the fact that a CHL license was presented would have eased his concerns initially. I seem to recall that this was part of the rights of the officers in the Louisiana law when I had reviewed it a few months ago. I can't say that I would do anything differently, the LAST THING I'd do is grab my loaded gun and stick it under my seat with the kids in the car and while a trooper is waiting for me behind my car watching my every move, so I welcome comments on that aspect. In this particular case, the officer just seemed a bit shocked and surprised causing his initial reaction when I told him that I had a CHL, but the tension did ease up once he had the gun in hand and we were able to chat. The overall experience wasn't so bad considering I was out of state and there's some more learning to do on my part in case I ever get stopped again in Louisiana. I think maybe there's a little learning to be done on the officers part too, or maybe just experience with Texas CHL's. He was very young, maybe in his mid to late 20's.
