Last year, at the beginning of a series of tragic shootings and senseless violence against police officers around the country, a police officer in Minnesota shot a legally armed man. That man was Philando Castile and I think that there are some things we can learn from the Castile shooting.
If the aftermath of last summers breakdown of relations between portions of our society an the police, one thing we did here at PDN was to put together a distance education course on Interacting with Law Enforcement While Armed. I have been carrying a gun for almost three decades now and I’ve spent the majority of that time as a reserve or full time police officer as well. I travel the country almost constantly since 2008 and have had many interactions with officer while armed. I’ve also had a few interactions with both legally and illegally armed people while in uniform. I have provided thousands of hours of training to both Law Enforcement Officers and Concealed Carriers of Defensive Firearms. I think I have a pretty good understanding of the challenges from both sides. So, what do I think we can learn from the Castile Shooting? First, we have to establish which “we” I am talking about: The Police Officer:
Police Officer Training needs to evolve and get caught up with the growth of Concealed Carry across our country. Nowhere during my 600+ hr Police Academy or in my times in Field Training Status with various agencies was there a specific block of instruction on dealing with a legally armed people. The fact is that before the mid-1990’s there just weren’t that many people carrying concealed. For most of the era of modern policing in this country, chances were very high that if a police officer came into contact with someone carrying a gun, they were violating at least one law and probably a downright “criminal” person. Keep in mind that in the mid-1980’s there were almost 16 states that had No Provision for Legal Carry (including Texas and Alaska!) and 25 more only had may issue provisions, some of which (including NJ, CA and NV) were very restrictive. The training I received at the Academy in the 1990s was informed by the experience of officers who rarely came across someone who was what we would today consider the “typical CCWer”; a law abiding, pro-police, pro-rule-of-law, patriotic Citizen.
Things really started to change in the mid-1990s and today, there is a provision for carry in every single State, most of the States operate under a Shall Issue law where you can get a carry permit without any special justification as long as you are not prohibited (ie- rightfully infringed) for legal or mental health reasons and over a dozen States offer unrestricted carry rights that don’t even require a permit! The landscape has certainly changed.
by Rob Pincus
