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I was driving from TX to AZ, and passed through NM. There was a Border Patrol checking station on the highway outside Las Cruces and all the vehicles had to go through it.

Well, I thought they just waved the vehicles through so I didn't really stop. Mistake.

A Border Patrol agent called out to me, and eyed me suspiciously. "Why didn't you stop? Didn't you see the stop sign?"

Honestly, I didn't as the vehicle in front of me was a big truck that blocked my view. That's what I told him.

He then started to ask me a bunch of questions about where I came from, where I was going, was this my personal car, etc. Then, he shined a light into my backseat and looks to see what I had in there.

Finally, he waved me through. What he didn't find, was a Mossberg 590 shotgun, and a duffle bag filled with about ten handguns that I brought on the trip for range shooting when I got to AZ.

That would've been a little hard to explain.

Why would that be hard to explain?

bdickens wrote:Why would that be hard to explain?

Thats what I was wondering too. If the guns are not stolen, and they are being transported in accordance with the law, why should you have to explain anything?

Now granted they would have asked whot what when where and why? But you were well within your rights to have those guns in your car.

ml1209 wrote:He then started to ask me a bunch of questions about where I came from, where I was going, was this my personal car, etc. Then, he shined a light into my backseat and looks to see what I had in there.

Finally, he waved me through.

I'm going to go get me a Jamba Juice...Try to cool off...

I didn't realize there was a border crossing between New Mexico and Texas we had to pass through?

flb_78 wrote:I didn't realize there was a border crossing between New Mexico and Texas we had to pass through?

There isn't one. The Border Patrol can erect checkpoints along frequent and known smuggling routes.

he U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Border Patrol checkpoints more than 30 years ago.

In 1976, United States V. Martinez-Fuerte the Court found that briefly stopping cars did not violate the Fourth Amendment because they are minimally intrusive and therefore did not constitution an unreasonable search or seizure.

nuparadigm wrote:In 1976, United States V. Martinez-Fuerte the Court found that briefly stopping cars did not violate the Fourth Amendment because they are minimally intrusive and therefore did not constitution an unreasonable search or seizure.

"We are ALL steak!" ~King Julien (Madagascar)

Just a little fyi, they also pull the same routine about 2 hrs after el paso. sometimes they wave you through other times you get the who what when where why.

stevie_d_64 wrote:

ml1209 wrote:He then started to ask me a bunch of questions about where I came from, where I was going, was this my personal car, etc. Then, he shined a light into my backseat and looks to see what I had in there.

Finally, he waved me through.

I'm going to go get me a Jamba Juice...Try to cool off...

Oh MAN Jamba Juice is good!

Oh yeah....I agree with what he said haha

stevie_d_64 wrote:

nuparadigm wrote:In 1976, United States V. Martinez-Fuerte the Court found that briefly stopping cars did not violate the Fourth Amendment because they are minimally intrusive and therefore did not constitution an unreasonable search or seizure.

"We are ALL steak!" ~King Julien (Madagascar)

Haha...that reminds me of the line from Zathura:

Walter: What do they eat?
Astronaut: Meat.
Danny: That's good.
Astronaut: Dude, you're meat.

No longer valid

If the individual behind the camera felt so strongly that the checkpoint was an unConstitutional setup, he should have shown the strength of his conviction and not stopped at all. That's when his fun would really have began.