TexasCHLforum.com

I've only had one encounter since I've had my CHL. There's a police substation in my neighborhood right by one of the main exit streets. As I pulled up to the stop sign at the cross street, a black and white pulled out of the substation parking lot and stopped behind me, which is pretty normal (at least he didn't almost T-bone me like one of his fellow officers once did as he pulled out of the parking lot paying more attention to his phone or computer than his driving ;)). At any rate, after doing the textbook COMPLETE stop and right turn signal, I enter the cross street and promptly get lit up. Hmmm, know registration and inspection are up to date, haven't been pulled over in 15 years or so, but oh well, he's behind me with lights on, so I'm pulling it over into the next side street.

Oh, and of course, my Glock 23 is riding with me in the center console, as always (unless it's in it's holster on my hip, but as I was going to drop something to my son at school, didn't holster up). Anyways, I glide to a stop, roll down my window, shut off the engine and put my license and CHL on the dash (CHL on top), and my hands on the steering wheel. The officer approached and asked for my ID. Handed them to him, he looked at them and asked "is there a firearm in the vehicle?". I said, yes, it's in the center console. He said "ok,thanks", handed my CHL back to me, said "give me a minute", and went back to his SUV.

So I know I haven't violated any traffic laws, and have lived such a completely boring straight-arrow life that unless somebody has stolen my identity or they're looking for an overweight middle aged guy with a baseball cap and 3-day stubble for some major crime, I'm probably OK. Of course, one never knows in this day and age.....

He returns after a couple of minutes, hands my license back to me and says "your left brake light is out, but I'm not going to ticket you, just get it fixed as soon as you can". I thanked him, then he said "good job during the stop and on the notification, you were calm, which makes me calm. I'm also glad to see that you're actually carrying your weapon with you ;most licensed folks I stop around here aren't. What are you carrying?" While I thought that a bit of a strange question, I had noticed when he first approached that he had a Glock riding in his holster (as most of the LEO's in town do), and said "same thing you are". He smiled and said "good choice". He walked back to his SUV, I fired up, did a quick 3-point turn and headed on my way.

Good outcome, very low stress and always nice to know that your locals support and encourage your right to protect yourself!! But I did stop at Autozone on my way back home for a couple of new bulbs and swapped the bad one out later that day...