BrassMonkey wrote:I have always refused simply because I did not have time. What good are rights if you don't use them?
Agreed. It has not come up since I was a teenager, but my standard prepared response is "no, you may not search my vehicle". If questioned further as to why not, my response will be something along the lines of "Because it's a waste of time for the both of us, and there's no reason for it."
As TXI stated earlier, there's nothing illegal about having a gun in your vehicle, especially if it's locked up in back. When I had a forensics officer come to dust for prints on/in my van when it was broken into, I told her right off that there were firearms inside. She didn't even bat an eye at that, or even ask what they were. I let her know where they were anyway, as she was going to be going into the van to take the prints. The only time it came up at all was when we discussed how perplexed we were that they left the guns when they were in locked cases, but attached to nothing (especially the little pistol case). She didn't even give a second glance to the ~2000 rounds of ammunition sitting in ammo cases there, other than the discussion of how it was odd that they went through them and pulled out a bunch of boxes of ammo but didn't take any.