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Charles, thank you for your forbearance in this subject area and allowing reasonable, civil discussions to continue.

As I've said many times, when I got my CHL, it was not my intention to carry daily. Now I do. Doing so opens up a whole new set of questions and possibilities, not all of them good.

I believe that my chances for interaction with an LEO are many times greater than my possibility of running into a BG. I'm fortunate (read this as my not having a lead foot) in not being stopped for traffic rule violations but there are a lot more chances for me to come in contact with LE, some of which I have deliberately initiated. To date, all of them have been very professional as I expected. Our daughter was a dispatcher for 7 years and through that time and her stories, I think that expectation is well founded.

I very much appreciate the interaction with the active and former LEOs who are members of this forum. I've learned a lot from their posts. I don't expect to agree with them on every incident discussed but I do respect the input that they provide. It is in the more contentious situations where I feel that I've gained the greatest insights. There seemed to be little disagreement, for example, in the OH officer's treatment of a CHL and that his actions indicated problems which should have lead him to another line of work. On some of the other situations that were discussed, the back and forth exchange showed me new perspective and helped me to decide, in advance, what is and isn't helpful if I face a similar situation.

I've become stronger and more vocal in many of my political points of view in the past 5 years. That has lead me to challenge things which I see and which I believe are heading our society in the wrong direction. I think it is important for me to be able to balance that with not appearing confrontational at the wrong moment. I'm still seeking to understand all of the ways that I can do that. I remain concerned that as I am more publicly vocal about my political beliefs, I'm more likely I am to come into contact with LE and other governmental agencies who claim LE type powers. I still have lots of questions about those situations and think that an ongoing dialogue about them, before I'm personally faced with them, is very beneficial. I do not appear to be alone in this. I see discussing the specific situations that are happening in this regard the same way that I see playing Monday morning quarterback with crime blotter items. I very much hope that we can continue doing that.