Is law enforcement required to carry a firearm while on duty?
Law enforcement agencies have varying requirements for off duty carry. MOST agencies ask that officers be armed when they are off duty while in the city/county/state while others require it. Several federal agencies require agents to carry at all times. There agencies in the south west and elsewhere that (USA) require that their deputies carry their patrol carbine (ususally a semi-auto m4 type carbine) while off duty in the city/county. These are typically carried in your personal vehicle with extra magazines, a small med kit, and often a plate carrier (ballastic vest that can stop rifle fire) This policy ensures that if an active shooter or similar situation occurs, there will be armed officers who can quickly respond and engage the shooter even if the officer is “off duty.” The law enforcment officers safety act allows sworn and retired officers to concealed carry off duty anywhere in the USA (some states such as New Jersey hate the LEO safety act and have arrested retired officers who are complying with federal law). Every agency has different requirements; thus said many officers do not carry off duty even though they are required to by their department.
Should law enforcement continue to get a pass on being able to own various firearms? Most firearms I see "for law enforcement only" seem similar to civilian versions and are for LEO's personal use.
There is a gray area in the way the question is worded, but that isn’t exactly your fault, because there is gray all over the notion of an officer’s “personal sidearm” if you get my drift. “For law enforcement use only” mostly refers to types of ammunition that are designed specifically for law enforcement use, and it’s not always some sort of “super-slug”. Often it’s a round designed for minimum penetration and collateral damage, such as “frangibles”. They aren’t meant to cause maximum damage to the intended target, they are designed to minimize collateral damage. As for firearms themselves, policemen are under the same restrictions you and I are as far as personal ownership of firearms. Sidenote, they are not allowed to have personal weapons in their possession when on duty, because of strict regulations regarding acceptable weaponry. So, when you see “For Law Enforcement Only”, Either the department has to purchase that weapon, the officer has to have a signed authorization to purchase that weapon, or the gun store owner just has a personal preference as to who he will sell certain weapons to.
Do law enforcement officers get a discount on guns?
Sometimes. When I started in law enforcement in 1979, it was fairly common for a few cops in most agencies to have Federal Firearms Licenses (FFLs). This was when getting them and keeping them was considerably less expensive and complicated than it is now. It was common knowledge that most of them would get you any (legal) gun you wanted at wholesale cost plus ten percent. There was a sizable gun distributor’s warehouse in the city neighboring ours, so most non-exotic guns could be had by driving over, having the FFL made the purchase, and filling put the paperwork over coffee.Some retail shops will offer discounts to active law enforcement. Despite this, I paid the price tag amount for my first duty gun, a Smith and Wesson Model 67. This was mainly because I didn’t know the more economical paths.Glock has their “Blue Label” program, where they offer Glock firearms and accessories to public safety and military personnel at a discount. The list of people eligible for this discount is long, so much that just about anyone with a connection to one of these communities can qualify for it.Law enforcement officers who are issued a firearm by their agencies can often purchase the firearm at a discount when they retire. I know of agencies where the practice is to allow the police officer association to purchase the firearm for retirees, and then present it to them as a gift.
Class 3 firearm license.?
NO. There is no such thing as a class 3 firearms license. There is a Class 3 SOT (Special Occupation Tax) on a Dealer or Manufacturer FFL. To get either, you have demonstrate that you are in this as business. The Class 3 SOT allows your firearms BUSINESS to order NFA firearms for testing and sales to law enforcement or government. They are not for personal ownership and if the SOT or FFL is ever lost any NFA weapons would have to be disposed of. The Class 3 SOT has little to do with whether one can ORDER law enforcement or military weapons, other than making it legal to do so if allowed by the manufacturer and the government. In other words, even if you have the class 3 SOT, that does not mean that FN will sell you a M249 machine gun. (And no @Bill he is not talking about a Type 3 FFL, which is a collectors license and has nothing to do with possession of NFA firearms)
Can a law officer carry there firearm to a doctors appointment ?
I carry mine with me every time I go to the doctors. In fact, I carry mine with me every time I go anywhere, except on an airplane. I could carry it there, too, if I really wanted, but the paperwork and hassle required beforehand would take a long time. And I do it in jeans and a t-shirt, if that's what I feel like wearing that day. I am a police officer, and according to the Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act, also known as the National Right to Carry Act, that was signed into law by President Bush in 2004, I can legally carry my firearm with me anywhere in the United States, regardless of local concealed weapon policies, as long as I have my badge and police credentials with me. So yes, I carry my firearm to a doctor's appointment. I have it concealed, though, so as not to draw extra attention to myself. Sometimes the most effective police officer is the one nobody knew was there. Once in the exam room, though, it's kinda hard to conceal it. The nurses and doctors notice, but I always make sure that my badge is visible if my weapon is visible. I've had quite a few conversations with doctors and nurses about it, and not one of them had a problem with a police officer having his weapon in their office. For that officer to be in jail means that there was some criminal action that has been alleged and there was probable cause to substantiate it. There has to be more to this story than we know so far.
Can police dogs smell out firearms?
can jus the ordinary k-9 dog sniff out a gun in a car?? i mean its obvious they cant smell out the metal for majority of the car is metal the only thing i could think of would be the gun powder but not sure???
Do police officers get to carry their own firearms?
That is completely up to the department in question. Some departments issue only one firearm and mandate that is the on-duty weapon you carry. Some departments issue only one type of firearm and allow you to purchase your own to carry on duty from a approved list. Some departments purchase a firearm that you pick from an approved list. There are other possibilities as well. It just depends on the departments policies regarding caliber, safeties, capacity, ect.
Putting aside the 2nd amendment, and other than for law enforcement, should guns only be accesible for recreational use at shooting ranges and competitions—and then locked away?
This one is a no, but not for the reasons that gun lovers will typically give about freedom and all that.There might be people whose primary occupation is around a firearm, such as subsistence hunters. There might be people who need to enforce their own safety in very far-flung places. For those people and those people only, they also need proper access to self-defence.For everywhere else, stick out your 30 minutes for the police. I’m not sorry to say this; when you say things like “10 minutes is enough for a robber to clean me and my family up” I think it’s your fault for staying somewhere or making your own home so brittle or so defenceless with no widely audible alerts, that 10 minutes is all it takes from point of entry to your eventual murder. You are the kind that doesn’t really need a gun, nor concealed carry, because your death is just Darwin’s Law at work.P.S. Speaking of concealed carry, I’ve only ever heard of wannabe heroes hurting themselves with CCW and then making situations a lot worse; those are the things that don’t get on the news enough to make you think twice.I expected the vitriol, so I am disabling comments for now. I think you can still see it, but I’m not going to bother with them. You can make all the tired points all you want - it won’t change the fact that among developed nations and economies America ranks among the worst in gun issues, and no, if your freedom of guns means someone’s going to die for it - mostly innocently - then that’s not true freedom.