This probably should have been posted on the Greeley Blog.
I recently took advantage of an opportunity to chat with two members of the Greeley Swat Team. Both gentlemen were gracious enough to answer my questions for about 15min while I assume, they were on their break. Thanks for taking the time guys.
My questions were in regard to carrying a gun concealed and how police officers will react to this. It is interesting to note that one of the officers admitted to being scared of guns. He said that he believed that guns killed people. I tried to probe and ask if he didn't mean that people kill people, thinking he just might have had his words switched around. He explained that if you look at most of the gang related murders in Greeley almost all of them were committed with some type of firearm. While this does not surprise me in the least, the attitude of the officer does concern me. At another point in the conversation the one that mentioned he thought guns killed people, explained that guns are just tools. I wonder if he understands how he contradicts himself. Guns are tools hence inadament objects, yet they are responsible for a human picking one up, aiming it at another human and pulling the trigger? There are some thing that I will never understand. Another interesting thing to point out is that the officers will admit that you can legally open carry without a permit. They also admit that you can expect to be talked to about it. Why am I getting taken aside and talked to about doing something that is legal? This conversation was just another affirmation of what I had previously thought. Previous thought: If you want to exercise your right to carry a gun you had better go through the trouble of obtaining a concealed carry permit and carry concealed. This way there will be a lot less attention drawn to you, and probably less problems.
I would like to point out that there are no quotations used in the above text. If I have misrepresented the comments by the two officers this was done unintentionally, as I was not taking notes during our conversation. Above are my thoughts about our conversation as I remember it.
