Firearm instructor prepares to educate officers on open carry

This post by Okiebryan is exactly correct, in my opinion. Unfortunately, one of the biggest challenges for the Oklahoma law enforcement community is the fact that the new "open carry" update is ambiguous in places, and downright contradictory in others. Much of it is left to interpretation. Recently, I attended a class that covered the open carry update to some extent. The hosting organization, Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group's (OMAG) course was brief and the attendees had more questions than there were answers for. From the beginning of the class the instructor, Kevin McCullough, advised us of some of the more egregious conflicts in the law. For example, we were taught in this class that when responding to a "man with a gun" call officers can challenge the armed person to prove they have a license to carry a gun. Once the person proves they have a valid gun carry license, and absent any other criminal activity, law enforcement personnel cannot detain the person further. I addressed this issue in the Fox 23 interview on 10/18/2012, but the full conversation didn't make it to the segment that was aired. As expected, feedback is plentiful and somewhat inflammatory. What I was saying is that when law enforcement personnel are responding to calls about armed people in view of the public, all they can do is challenge the armed person to prove they're properly licensed, and that we cannot detain them further once proof of a valid gun carry license has been established. Then there's the issue of the four states that do not require permits for gun carry, concealed or open. Oklahoma L.E. personnel must honor the laws of those states (Vermont, Wyoming, Alaska, and Arizona) when proof of residency has been confirmed. All in all, the open carry change in the Self Defense Act is going to be a tough proposition from a law enforcement perspective. Everyone needs to understand that law enforcement personnel have been given almost no direction from the state on this update. We w

The police need to know that by itself, carrying a visible holstered handgun is NOT reasonable articulable suspicion of criminal activity. They also need to know that the FBI's 2006 study "Violent Encounters", showed that criminals don't open carry and they don't use holsters. If you want to know more about open carry, please visit Oklahoma Open Carry Association at www.okoca.org