"Overzealous in Knoxville"
There is a bigger advantage to society from people carrying concealed handguns, but this citizen was still in the right:
Trevor Putnam knew the gun laws. The officer who stopped him didn’t.
“When I told him that I hadn’t done anything, he said he’d find a reason to put me in jail,” said Putnam, 24, who works with guns every day as vice president of Coal Creek Armory in West Knoxville.
“It’s not that I have a problem with police officers. I deal with police officers nationwide from Arizona to Maine every day. But I lost my confidence in a legal right that I knew I had.”
Knoxville police officers will get a refresher course on the state’s gun permit laws after an officer who didn’t know the law stopped, frisked and threatened to arrest Putnam for legally carrying a gun inside a Wal-Mart this summer.
Officer Glenn Todd Greene’s actions June 21 at the store on Walbrook Drive in West Knoxville earned him a written reprimand and remedial training for rudeness and not knowing the law, Internal Affairs records show. He’s worked for the Knoxville Police Department for about seven years.
Putnam got a written apology from Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV.
“The officer was wrong I want to personally apologize to you for any embarrassment or inconvenience you may have suffered as a result of this incident,” the chief wrote.. . .
“When I told him that I hadn’t done anything, he said he’d find a reason to put me in jail,” said Putnam, 24, who works with guns every day as vice president of Coal Creek Armory in West Knoxville.
“It’s not that I have a problem with police officers. I deal with police officers nationwide from Arizona to Maine every day. But I lost my confidence in a legal right that I knew I had.”
Knoxville police officers will get a refresher course on the state’s gun permit laws after an officer who didn’t know the law stopped, frisked and threatened to arrest Putnam for legally carrying a gun inside a Wal-Mart this summer.
Officer Glenn Todd Greene’s actions June 21 at the store on Walbrook Drive in West Knoxville earned him a written reprimand and remedial training for rudeness and not knowing the law, Internal Affairs records show. He’s worked for the Knoxville Police Department for about seven years.
Putnam got a written apology from Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV.
“The officer was wrong I want to personally apologize to you for any embarrassment or inconvenience you may have suffered as a result of this incident,” the chief wrote.. . .
Labels: GunControl, GunFreeZone, Police
posted by John Lott at 12:22 AM
2 Comments:
I would hope that the police would be aware of laws that benefit "the good guys". While police are people too, and certainly not perfect, it's their job to know the law. A seven-year officer, unless he's been sleeping under a rock, should have been aware. No excuses.
This is one thing in your book I had some disagreement with you over. Concealed carry might benefit society more than open carry IF a potential criminal walks into a public place and assumes someone is armed, but doesn't know who.
Open carry also offers a deterrence at more than an individual level. The display of a weapon in itself is a deterrent for some potential criminals. They see one or two guys with a gun at a public place, they'll probably leave and go for an easier target. There's no guesswork involved.
Of course, emboldened criminals might see the armed person and try to take them out first, but such criminals would also be likely to gamble over someone carrying concealed as well.
There's still a reason police officers carry their firearms openly, one that many don't realize. It's not the badge that gives them their real power, it's what's on their belts.
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