I live real close to the Riverwalk in Mishawaka. Some of you may know that I'm currently going through a divorce. I have 50/50 shared custody of my children. They are with me for a week at a time, every other week. They really like walking along the riverwalk and playing at the parks nearby. Most of you know that I almost always OC.
This past Sunday, I took my children for a walk and we wound up at the park on the western most portion of the Riverwalk, but on the north side of the river. (The name of the park escapes me.) I was running around with my kids playing tag. We were climbing on the equipment and ducking around.. just having a good ol' time.
I had an instance last fall chasing my daughter around at a park, attempted to follow her down a slide to tag her and my gun got caught on the slide and almost jacked up my holster/belt so during this most recent excursion, I made sure to put my hand over it when climbing on the equipment etc. so as not to snag it.
Fast forward about an hour and a half.
My kids and I are walking along the north side of the river on the sidewalk. I'm carrying my 4 yr old daughter (who is just wore out and trying to fall asleep on my shoulder) when 2 Mishawaka squad cars roll up from behind.
<officer>: (looks over, uses his index finger and folds it a couple time in the 'come here' motion)
I check for traffic, and approach the car w/ my kids at my side, and one on my shoulder
<me>: how's it going officer ? Something I can help you with ?
<officer>: I see you're carrying a pistol.
<me>: yessir
<officer>: do you have a permit ?
- for a second, I thought about educating him on the INGO acronyms, but he was being cool, so I didn't want to make things worse w/ my kids present (use purple if you can find the button)
<me>: oh absolutely.
<officer>: ok. That's good. you see, I'm all for this right here (as he motions towards my sidearm) and in Indiana you can carry however you want. They don't require you to cover it or anything so it's your choice how you carry.
<me>: yessir. I understand.
<officer>: There were a couple parents that saw you at the park playing with your kids and said your gun was flopping around and you were holding onto it like you were worried that it was gonna fall off.
- in hindsight, what I did next was kinda stupid, but fortunately, I didn't get a reaction from him or his backup)
<me>: as you can see (grab the rear of the slide on my holstered sidearm and tug very hard pulling upward) it's very secure in the holster sir. I had an incident before where it got caught on some equipment and I was wanting to be mindful so that it didn't happen again. I assure you, I wasn't fondling it, or removing it from the holster. (when I tugged on it, it pulled my pants WAY up, and I pushed on it and took some force to push down on it. It was very secure in the holster and on my person)
<officer>: well, as you can imagine, when some folks see others carrying, they get scared and call us to come check it out. Now I know it's your choice to carry how you want, but if you were to un-tuck your shirt and cover it, it would help cut down on calls to us for stuff like this.
<me>: yessir, I understand. Is there anything else I can help you with ?
<officer>: nope. you're free to go.
Then he said to my kids "you guys be careful, and enjoy your day with your dad, ok ?"
Then as we turned to walk away, my oldest son (11) asked why he stopped us for me carrying my gun.. I thought for a second becuase I was still within earshot of the officer, and could have offered a snide remark had the encounter been negative, but since it was decent enough, I said loud enough for him to hear me "he was just checking to make sure everyone is safe and things are ok"
I hope that helped him feel decent about the encounter. I know that a MWAG call, and seeing a scary dude in a tucked in polo shirt w/ khaki shorts and 3 kids walking along a sidewalk can be a tense situation. I hope I left a decent impression on my kids as to how I handled the situation.
+1 to the Mishawaka officer (who's name I did not get) for:
1. not requiring my 'papers'
2. stopping further questioning after 'verbal' mention of LTCH (even though he did call it a permit)
3. making certain to let me know that he was aware of the law and of Indiana's position on carrying (open/concealed = silent)
4. keeping his jack boots in his own vehicle
5. not making me out to be some demon/monstser in front of my kids.
my kids all know about guns, safety, self defense, and the like and they know I follow the law, and that I'm someone they look up to when it comes to my firearms. My 11 yr old was REALLY paying attention when the officer and i were talking. I hope I left him w/ a good impression. We did talk quite a bit about the conversation. He wanted to know why I got questioned if I wasn't doing anything illegal. I explained the fearful soccer mom thing to him and he thought it was ridiculous.
Please, no OC/CC debate, but feel free to discuss.
For the record, a shirt over my gun would still not prevent it from getting caught on the equipment. I play w/ my children w/ a gun on my hip at home as well and sometimes they use it as a step to climb on my shoulders while we're rough housing.
This past Sunday, I took my children for a walk and we wound up at the park on the western most portion of the Riverwalk, but on the north side of the river. (The name of the park escapes me.) I was running around with my kids playing tag. We were climbing on the equipment and ducking around.. just having a good ol' time.
I had an instance last fall chasing my daughter around at a park, attempted to follow her down a slide to tag her and my gun got caught on the slide and almost jacked up my holster/belt so during this most recent excursion, I made sure to put my hand over it when climbing on the equipment etc. so as not to snag it.
Fast forward about an hour and a half.
My kids and I are walking along the north side of the river on the sidewalk. I'm carrying my 4 yr old daughter (who is just wore out and trying to fall asleep on my shoulder) when 2 Mishawaka squad cars roll up from behind.
<officer>: (looks over, uses his index finger and folds it a couple time in the 'come here' motion)
I check for traffic, and approach the car w/ my kids at my side, and one on my shoulder
<me>: how's it going officer ? Something I can help you with ?
<officer>: I see you're carrying a pistol.
<me>: yessir
<officer>: do you have a permit ?
- for a second, I thought about educating him on the INGO acronyms, but he was being cool, so I didn't want to make things worse w/ my kids present (use purple if you can find the button)
<me>: oh absolutely.
<officer>: ok. That's good. you see, I'm all for this right here (as he motions towards my sidearm) and in Indiana you can carry however you want. They don't require you to cover it or anything so it's your choice how you carry.
<me>: yessir. I understand.
<officer>: There were a couple parents that saw you at the park playing with your kids and said your gun was flopping around and you were holding onto it like you were worried that it was gonna fall off.
- in hindsight, what I did next was kinda stupid, but fortunately, I didn't get a reaction from him or his backup)
<me>: as you can see (grab the rear of the slide on my holstered sidearm and tug very hard pulling upward) it's very secure in the holster sir. I had an incident before where it got caught on some equipment and I was wanting to be mindful so that it didn't happen again. I assure you, I wasn't fondling it, or removing it from the holster. (when I tugged on it, it pulled my pants WAY up, and I pushed on it and took some force to push down on it. It was very secure in the holster and on my person)
<officer>: well, as you can imagine, when some folks see others carrying, they get scared and call us to come check it out. Now I know it's your choice to carry how you want, but if you were to un-tuck your shirt and cover it, it would help cut down on calls to us for stuff like this.
<me>: yessir, I understand. Is there anything else I can help you with ?
<officer>: nope. you're free to go.
Then he said to my kids "you guys be careful, and enjoy your day with your dad, ok ?"
Then as we turned to walk away, my oldest son (11) asked why he stopped us for me carrying my gun.. I thought for a second becuase I was still within earshot of the officer, and could have offered a snide remark had the encounter been negative, but since it was decent enough, I said loud enough for him to hear me "he was just checking to make sure everyone is safe and things are ok"
I hope that helped him feel decent about the encounter. I know that a MWAG call, and seeing a scary dude in a tucked in polo shirt w/ khaki shorts and 3 kids walking along a sidewalk can be a tense situation. I hope I left a decent impression on my kids as to how I handled the situation.
+1 to the Mishawaka officer (who's name I did not get) for:
1. not requiring my 'papers'
2. stopping further questioning after 'verbal' mention of LTCH (even though he did call it a permit)
3. making certain to let me know that he was aware of the law and of Indiana's position on carrying (open/concealed = silent)
4. keeping his jack boots in his own vehicle
5. not making me out to be some demon/monstser in front of my kids.
my kids all know about guns, safety, self defense, and the like and they know I follow the law, and that I'm someone they look up to when it comes to my firearms. My 11 yr old was REALLY paying attention when the officer and i were talking. I hope I left him w/ a good impression. We did talk quite a bit about the conversation. He wanted to know why I got questioned if I wasn't doing anything illegal. I explained the fearful soccer mom thing to him and he thought it was ridiculous.
Please, no OC/CC debate, but feel free to discuss.
For the record, a shirt over my gun would still not prevent it from getting caught on the equipment. I play w/ my children w/ a gun on my hip at home as well and sometimes they use it as a step to climb on my shoulders while we're rough housing.
