Mr. Rawles-
The following appears in the 10/6/12 “Odds ‘n Sods” section:
“Do you carry concealed and/or in your car?Be aware of “Must Inform Officer” state laws . (No such laws in any of the American Redoubt states, where the gendarmes all rightly assume that most of the vehicles they pull over will contain at least one loaded gun.)”
The linked text goes to an image which is at least misleading for at least one state – Minnesota. (I suspect this is true for other states but I am not as familiar with the laws of the other 49…)
While there is no duty to inform any law enforcement officer “upon official contact” – i.e. initial or first contact – permit holders do need to adhere to the following:
“The holder of a permit to carry must have the permit card and a driver’s license, state identification card, or other government-issued photo identification in immediate possession at all times when carrying a pistol and must display the permit card and identification document upon lawful demand by a peace officer.”
Such a “lawful demand” may or may not ever come, but it is a petty misdemeanor to either lie or refuse to answer the question once it is asked.
This information is easily found for each state by going to handgunlaw.us and clicking on any state in which you are interested. Unfortunately they do not have a single map showing this information like the one to which you linked, but the info is there.
I don’t know how many others might assume that “no duty inform upon official contact” means there is “no duty to inform at any point during official contact”, so I don’t know if this is worth pointing out to your readers, but at least you have the info and can make that determination for yourself.
Thank you very much for all the work you do keeping up your site. It is an incredible resource that I refer to regularly.
Regards, – Dan X.
JWR Replies: Your point is well taken. Their map would be more accurately captioned: “No duty inform immediately upon official contact, without demand.”