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Hello everyone, Anthony Bandiero. Here, Attorney Senior Legal and started for Blue to gold law enforcement training, bringing to the roadside chat. Today's question is, what are the rules regarding a temporary seizure of a firearm during a traffic stop? 

Great question by officer comes from North Carolina. So, base a little bit of context here, let me read what he or she wrote at a quick question regarding temporary seizing a firearm during a traffic stop. And so, this officer said, Look, I've watched your video about running the firearm, you know, serial numbers and things like that things to kind of think about, I do have another video about that. Um, you know, so he says, in my experience, besides blatantly obvious officer safety issues, right, there's something about the tropics, aka drive by shooting or a brandishing case. You know, we can seize them. Also, drivers will generally allow you to temporary seize a firearm if you ask for it, right. If you say, Hey, do you have any firearms in a vehicle and say yes, especially in a state like North Carolina, where a lot of people likely have firearms, especially if you explain to them why. But the officer also explains that that's not the only option that they do that he does. And maybe he also separates the firearm from the person maybe brings the guy out of the car. Hey, where's the firearm? Under the seat? Okay, fine. Much has come out and we'll do business outside the car. But push comes to shove. Right. The question is, if there are no other reasons, to be concerned for your safety, can we still separate the firearm and seize the firearm? I guess, right, seize the firearm during the traffic stop, even if we have no other reason to believe that they could use that firearm against us? And the answer is yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Why? Because the firearm equals armed and dangerous. Right? That's Terry versus Ohio, right. So if you don't know about the firearm, they may or may not be armed and dangerous. You gotta articulate that. But the if you know that they have a firearm or have a reasonably the firearm, then they are automatically considered armed and dangerous to Terry Stop level, which is reasonable suspicion enough to seize that firearm during the traffic stop. That just makes sense. Because, you know, look, if a judge is going to second guess, a cop, and say, Hey, you have to have the firearm plus something else? Well, they're gonna have blood in our hands, right? There's gonna be that one cop out there that just can't have those as a gun inside the car, maybe even on the guy's hip. But can't figure out another reason why that gun could be a danger to the officer, then the person flips out on the cop shoots the cop. And now we have this case where the judge says you can't do it, the cop, the judge, is gonna have blood on his hands. Right or her hands. That's just not the way it works. So I've never seen a court case require something more than just a firearm if I mean, if you know the firearms there that is armed dangerous. So at the same time, look, I was a cop in a pro gun, state, Nevada. Everybody had guns. Right. So while well West, and the way I did business was, you know, oftentimes if they said they had a gun, and they were concealed carry permit, and there's nothing shady about them. They're on the up and up. And they were like, yeah, just so you know, I've got a gun and they appear intoxicated or anything like that. I said, Sir, if you don't go for yours, I won't go for mine. Right? Okay. So just, you know, when I come back up, and I say, you know, keep your hands on is when I come back up. And you know, if I don't see y'all, if you don't see me, I'll announce myself, Hey, sir, I'm coming back up, put your hands on the stairwell, and we're all going to be good. And so, you know, that may be the right answer to because also my belief is, the more that you handle firearms, the more risk that you have that something bad could happen, right? That maybe there's an accidental negligent discharge, maybe don't have to operate the gun, maybe the guns defective. I mean, bad things, you know, around goes off, way more paperwork. And if you just left it where it was, nothing would have happened. But you have to make that call, right? I'm sure some of my officers here work in very anti-gun states. Right? And they're not going to allow people to have a gun on them, even if it's lawfully carried. You have to make your decision for you. But a lot of my cops on here are from pro gun states, and it's very common to run into people with firearms, and our comfort level is a little higher than probably some others. That's all I got for you. So the answer is I see no problem. Hope it helps. Keep the questions coming, guys. Great job out there. Keep up the good work. Hopefully, you're attending also our live training our online training both live and on demand grabbing the books. Until next time, stay safe.
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