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Good CHL Experience in Bad Situation

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:28 am
by tex45acp
Last Sunday, I was coming around Loop 610 in Houston, after leaving the gunshow at the GRB. I had just come up on the 610 West 59 South interchange when a woman, trying to get to that exit, cut me off, forcing me into the rear of another vehicle. Wiped out the front end of my VW Jetta.....happened so fast I never touched the brake. Four LEOS responded, Two from Bellaire, DPS Trooper & Harris County Deputy. I had steered my VW to the shoulder and was attempting to get out, with the driver door open, when a very young Bellaire cop assisted me and looking down, saw the butt of the grip/magazine of my XD45. His exact words were...."Please tell me you have a CHL". I said I did, and after I was out provided him with the CHL, DL & Insurance, in that order. He asked if I had any other guns and I raised my shirt showing him my Wilson Professional in the IWB Holster. I moved to the trunk and showed him a range bag with three other guns in it and 4 boxes of ammo. He looked at me kinda funny and I stated that I had just been to the gunshow at the GRB, still had the parking ticket in the dash. When my ride showed up, I put the XD in the range bag and loaded it into the friends car. The other cops saw the guns as I walked by but never acted funny in any way. I am guessing they saw my CHL that the other cop had. I did hear the Harris county Deputy say to the others, "glad this guy is eady going....he has enough firepower to take on all of us. But at least he is legal." I kinda chuckled. The DPS Trooper asked me how I liked my XD45, I pulled the target I had shot that morning at the range and showed it to him. He was impressed with the accuracy.

Car will probably be a total loss, I ended up aith a broken index finger on the left hand, nice bump on the head, some whiplash and extremely sore upper body parts. Going from 55 to 0 in a few feet is hard on the old body.

I was glad the young cop from Bellaire was so calm when he saw the gun. I thanked him for being so helpful and not overacting and making the situation worse. He said, "I wish all folks that carry guns, would get the CHL. Makes things much easier for us". I agreed.

tex

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:39 am
by Lumberjack98
Sorry about the car and your aches.

Glad that you had such a great experience with the LEO's though.

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:44 am
by stevie_d_64
Being involved in a MVA kinda stinks anyway...I am glad your injuries were not permanently debilitating...

I'm glad to see that the whole weapon issue was not that big a deal considering the multiple jurisdictional response to your incident...

You're not left-handed are you??? Then that would actually be kinda bad I suppose...

Chin up muh man! Any accident you can walk away from is a good one...From a certain point of view...

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:52 am
by gigag04
"please tell me you have a CHL"

that's hilarious.

Glad you are more or less ok. Could've been way worse!

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:27 pm
by Paladin
Makes things much easier for us
To a degree, but it would be even easier if Harris county started recognizing state law. Not that carrying a gun to and from a gun show wasn't legal before the change in state law.

+1 to gigag04's "Glad you are more or less okay"

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:32 pm
by Crossfire
WOW! Glad to hear you are mostly OK after all that.

Too bad you didn't have video. You could have been the next VW Jetta commercial!

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 2:48 pm
by rgoldy
I was very glad to read that you were not seriously injured. The event did bring up a question in my mind. Namely, what happens if I am injured seriously enough in an accident that I have to be transported to a hospital? Who gets custody of my weapon? (assuming that my wife is not along and able to take care of it) I am sure that the situation has occurred, but I have never heard anything about how it was handled.

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 4:46 pm
by casselthief
rgoldy wrote:Who gets custody of my weapon?
*raises hand*
I got dibs!!!

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 5:36 pm
by TX Rancher
rgoldy wrote:I was very glad to read that you were not seriously injured. The event did bring up a question in my mind. Namely, what happens if I am injured seriously enough in an accident that I have to be transported to a hospital? Who gets custody of my weapon? (assuming that my wife is not along and able to take care of it) I am sure that the situation has occurred, but I have never heard anything about how it was handled.
I'm curious about this myself and will be interested in the answer. If my wifes along, and ok, it won't be a problem since she has a CHL so she can just carry it. But what if my wifes not around?

And of course I'm assuming casselthief's not available either :grin:

Re: Good CHL Experience in Bad Situation

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:24 pm
by seamusTX
tex45acp wrote:I had steered my VW to the shoulder and was attempting to get out, with the driver door open, when a very young Bellaire cop assisted me and looking down, saw the butt of the grip/magazine of my XD45. His exact words were...."Please tell me you have a CHL".
I'm sorry about your upset. In my experience, a total is better than drawn-out repairs that are never 100% right.

Maybe the LEO was near the end of his shift and didn't want to have to haul you in and do the paperwork.

- Jim

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:25 pm
by srothstein
rgoldy wrote:I was very glad to read that you were not seriously injured. The event did bring up a question in my mind. Namely, what happens if I am injured seriously enough in an accident that I have to be transported to a hospital? Who gets custody of my weapon? (assuming that my wife is not along and able to take care of it) I am sure that the situation has occurred, but I have never heard anything about how it was handled.
Let the officer know and they will take custody of it and put it in their property room. In most cases, this will be perfectly safe but I still worry about some jurisdictions that are very anti-gun when you try to get it back. It should be okay in all jurisdictions, but I don't trust should bes.

If you don't get to talk with the cop, let the ambulance attendants know. They will either get the cops at the scene, or if it is a large hospital, have one of the hospital police take it. My experience has been that EMT's are very nervous about having guns in the unit, even cops guns, so they will get the cop at the scene if they know in time.

Re: Good CHL Experience in Bad Situation

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 12:18 pm
by Skiprr
tex45acp wrote:Car will probably be a total loss, I ended up with a broken index finger on the left hand, nice bump on the head, some whiplash and extremely sore upper body parts.
That whole 610-59 mess is one of the worst in the country; it used to--may still--regularly make the top 10 list of most dangerous freeway interchanges in the U.S.

Glad you came through it nominally okay, Tex.

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 6:42 pm
by stevie_d_64
llwatson wrote:WOW! Glad to hear you are mostly OK after all that.

Too bad you didn't have video. You could have been the next VW Jetta commercial!
Holy ______!!!

Wife Unit loves those ads...

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:37 pm
by Skipper5
llwatson wrote:WOW! Glad to hear you are mostly OK after all that.

Too bad you didn't have video. You could have been the next VW Jetta commercial!
VW Commercial yeah...but also, NRA/TSRA would appreciate it too!!

Ditto what Linda stated above ... take care of those bruises!!

//John

Re: Good CHL Experience in Bad Situation

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:49 pm
by 9mmGuy
tex45acp wrote: when a very young Bellaire cop assisted me and looking down, saw the butt of the grip/magazine of my XD45.
Just a question. But is that not failure to conceal?? If a reasonable person can see it with normal observation

Any how, glad you were ok. Rides totaled just means you get to get a new one!!