Concealed Carry Training

Has anyone seen how they're going to train 10,000 cops in Chicago sometime? The law takes effect on 01 January 2014, but given the bureaucratic delays and built-in-slow-pace of processing expected, the permits will be delayed until April at the earliest.

So, the training is on the schedule for....when?

• When Illinois residents begin carrying concealed handguns legally next year, law enforcement officers will have to be ready for a "sea change" in how they conduct traffic and street stops, officials said Wednesday as they announced a new police training program they hope will help prevent potentially fatal mistakes.
  
  Illinois, the last state to allow concealed carry, is expected to begin issuing permits in April under a law that goes into effect on the first of the year. Traffic stops already are among the most dangerous activities for officers, and throwing newly legalized handguns into the mix could have tragic consequences, officials said.
  
  "As soon as you see someone move (and) they have a gun, all of a sudden things get really crazy in a hurry," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart told reporters at a news conference. "What we're attempting to do is get out in front of this."

Because Dart made so many traffic stops in his career. In fact, he makes 10 or 20 a day now just to keep in practice, right? And he can't wait to paint those who chose to exercise their Right as out-of-control and crazy. And the head of the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board isn't helping much:

• "We want to stress that these could be law-abiding citizens who are now carrying these weapons and that the initial reaction of the law enforcement officer must be a little more savvy in approaching someone so that the public itself is treated with respect," [Kevin] McClain said.
  
  McClain said there could be more arrests for disorderly conduct or obstruction for citizens who don't cooperate.
  
  "Police officers are going to have to show a lot of restraint," he said. "You might get people that are carrying the weapon legally that get obnoxious with a law enforcement officer."

Um, aren't we supposed to treat the public with respect anyway? And restraint? For the most part, being obnoxious with the police isn't against the law, so being obnoxious with the police while legally carrying a gun isn't always illegal either.

An educated police force is our best bet here. And an educated public. We'd certainly hope that the requisite 16 hours of citizen training covered something about the citizens' duty to avoid confrontation with the police, exercise restraint and their legal obligations while carrying a weapon. We still haven't heard when we're getting some training - and not just a 10 minute video at roll call. This is kind of important.

We'll repeat what we've contended for years - over 99% of the Concealed Carry permit people will never have interaction with the police. You'll never see them or their weapons, because these aren't the people out there driving like assholes, domesticating in the street, buying dope around town, robbing strangers, wilding downtown, etc, etc. You will see them if they are forced to exercise their Right in defense of their lives or the lives of another, and in those cases, there are going to be plenty of cops and detectives there, with plenty of bosses running around telling us all what to do (wrongly no doubt.) Cops in 49 other states seem to handle this with few problems, and we're pretty sure we're as smart as most of them.