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Thursday, March 27, 2014

The Controversial Open Carry Arrest That Attorney Says Has Township in ‘Real Trouble’

A gun owner in Flint Township, Mich., has filed a lawsuit claiming he was stopped and arrested while legally openly carrying his pistol back in December. He ended up spending Christmas in jail.

Flint Township police say the man’s gun was covered by his coat, making the arrest legal. The police dashcam video of the incident doesn’t prove either side’s story conclusively, but it does provide some additional insight.

In the video, John David McMorris, 21, can be seen stopping and putting his hands over his head when an officer turned on his police car lights. The gun appears to be visible on his right hip in the video — and Michigan is an open carry state.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cops say they support and defend the Constitution but they are liars. They only support it for themselves. They feel THEY should be the only people allowed to carry. They feel privileged.
They feel like the "chosen". They feel special.
They are corrupt in their thinking and feeling.

Anonymous said...

Cop says "I couldn't see it because your coat was kind of covering it." Kind of covering it?! Either it's covered or it isn't! He obviously saw it if he turned around to arrest the guy. Even still, say the cop didn't see the gun, what is the probably cause for stopping him? This is absolute BS! The man clearly respected the cop, put his hands in the air PRIOR to being told to do such and even turned his holstered hip towards the cop to clearly reveal his firearm - again ALL BEFORE THE COP SPOKE A WORD TO HIM! The man was being respectful of the cop and the cop's safety by doing such and what is he rewarded with? A BS arrest! Most cops appreciate the simple courtesy that people have for them when it comes to these issues.

For example, I went shooting one day and when I go shooting I take at least a half dozen guns with me from rifles, to handguns, to ARs. On my way home I got pulled over by a deputy for having a tail light out. As soon as I stopped my truck, I rolled down the window, turned off the engine and put both hands out the window. When the officer began approaching my truck I shouted to him, "I am on my way home from shooting and I have several firearms in my vehicle. The guns are in the back seat and the ammo is in a bucket in the bed." He had his hand on his hip, but never pulled his gun. He told me to keep my hands out the window and he would open my door for me. He asked me to get out of the truck and obviously I obliged. He asked me if he could run the serial numbers on my guns to ensure that they were all legal - I was actually surprised that he asked in lieu of just doing it. I had no problem with that so took down the serial numbers. I own several pretty cool and unique guns so then we got talking about guns for a minute on the side of the road. He told me about my tail light (No ticket) and said that he appreciated the way I handled the situation. He specifically said, "That is exactly how law enforcement would want you to handle this situation." Now, some extremists may say that all my constitutional rights were violated, but what was the harm in it all? I understand the perils that law enforcement put themselves in every day, why would I complicate that for them? The officer would have clearly seen the arsenal of gun cases in the back seat when he can up to my window and I don't particularly want to be looking down the barrel of a .40 cal Glock when he gets surprised. Not to mention, transporting firearms in the State of Maryland is a VERY grey area - it's not technically legal, it's not technically illegal and there are no real specific instructions on how they should be transported other than they can't be loaded and the ammo has to be separate from the firearms. The way I look at it, if you aren't doing anything illegal, cooperated with the officer and he/she SHOULD cooperate with you be showing courtesy and understanding.

Anonymous said...

Deputies are cool. If that was a certain dept. you would have been arrested or shot lol