Guns on the street

A police story
By DEIRDRE FULTON  |  September 19, 2012

Around 6 pm on Wednesday evening, I was walking with a friend who was carrying his rifle across Congress Street to my car. The rifle was legally obtained and was not loaded; as long as he isn't a felon (he's not!) carrying it openly was within his rights. He was bringing it to another friend's house to examine the trigger mechanism.

We passed in front of a police car, which turned to follow us onto St. Lawrence Street in the East End. The officer stopped his vehicle right next to my car just as we were about to put the gun in the trunk. There was little question that we — or rather, the rifle — had caught the cop's eye.

He stayed in the cruiser, speaking into his police radio, while my friend and I waited on the sidewalk. Within minutes, back-up arrived: a white, unmarked SUV pulled up behind the cop car; two more officers, both wearing bulletproof vests, emerged.

At that point, the original officer (whose name, according to the Portland Police Department's call log, is Kevin McCarthy — I was too flustered to note his name at the time) got out of his car and approached us. My friend (who would prefer to go unidentified) volunteered that the gun was not loaded and handed it over to be examined. McCarthy asked to see his driver's license and my friend produced that as well.

According to the research I did while working on a story about gun-rights activist Norman Hamann (see "Open-Carry Activist Takes to the Streets," June 22), the officer should not have asked for my friend's ID unless there was a reasonable suspicion that he had committed a crime.

"Am I doing anything illegal?" my friend wondered, worried that perhaps he had missed some crucial piece of protocol — maybe rifles must be carried in gun cases, for example.

McCarthy assured my friend that he wasn't doing anything wrong, but that because it was a busy area (near the intersection of North and Congress streets), he wanted to check things out in case anybody called with concerns. "Pedestrian checks" are routine procedure in Portland and elsewhere; officers are allowed to stop and talk to anyone they please, as long as that person is free to leave at any point. However, once the officer asks for identification and disarms a person, that individual is technically detained — which is illegal unless there is suspicion of a crime.

"Officer McDonald admitted that the only reason why he stopped me was because of my legally carried firearm," Hamann wrote in a letter to Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck earlier this year. "I would like to point you to US v DeBerry from the 7th Circuit. In that ruling a federal judge said that a the presence of a firearm where legal to possess cannot by itself be reasonable suspicion of criminal activity."

The cop ran my friend's ID and the serial number for the gun. He also had one of the other officers demonstrate how to disengage the safety and ensure the gun was unloaded. (Slightly troubling that he didn't know how to do so himself.)

There was never any animosity; my friend cooperated fully and even chatted about shooting ranges with one of the other officers.

1  |  2  |   next >
  Topics: News Features , Police, guns, Kevin McCarthy,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY DEIRDRE FULTON
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   LET IT GROW  |  May 09, 2013
    In addition to its ecological value, the abundant marine resource is also worth money — millions of pounds of rockweed are harvested every year.
  •   LEGISLATURE WADES THROUGH HUNDREDS OF PROPOSALS  |  May 09, 2013
    Want to know what your elected officials are mulling over? Here is a subjective selection of bills that piqued our interest.
  •   LABORERS MAY HAVE A BRIGHT FUTURE  |  May 03, 2013
    Even as the organized-labor movement continues to falter on the national level, union leaders here in Maine are optimistic about a potential resurgence — or if not that, at least a stanching of the bleeding and an opportunity to prove that pro-union policies are best for local workers and communities.  
  •   WHEN SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES  |  May 03, 2013
    On her deathbed, Terry Tempest Williams's mother left her daughter three shelves of cloth-bound journals. When Williams opened them, hoping to find solace as well as perhaps some insight into her mother's soul, all she found was blank pages.
  •   SHOULD COMPANIES BE ABLE TO PATENT HUMAN GENES?  |  April 24, 2013
    Body Politics

 See all articles by: DEIRDRE FULTON