My son (in KY) got arrested for carrying a concealed weapon. He had the unarmed handgun on the passenger seat and the clip for the handgun and the bullets were on the back passenger's floorboard. His handgun wil not fit in the glovebox of his car. When he saw the policeman lights, he placed the handgun on the dash but it slide off between his feet when he made the turn to get off the highway. He immediately rolled down the window and held his hands out the window and told the police officer he had a handgun. The local police told him if he ever got pulled over, just place the gun on the dash, rolled down the window and tell the officer he had a firearm. He did this and was arrested anyway. I called the State Police Department and was advised that if a gun was visible it was not concealed. I asked if the gun was on the floorboard between my son's feet would it be concealed. The State Police said, It would not be concealed unless it was under the seat, which it wasn't. I feel like he got arrested unfairly because he was doing what several officers told him to do and now they want to charge him with a Class A misameandor. Seems like law is unclear or the officers are unclear when it comes to concealed weapons.

Traffic stops are the highest risk activity for law enforcement, and when someone has a gun in the car, loaded or not, concealed or not, officers are going to react by pulling their own guns FIRST, and ascertain legalities later. When the officers gave the advice that they did to your son, they gave the RIGHT advice to help reduce risk of being SHOT by law enforcement during a traffic stop. That advise should have in no way be construed to mean that following those steps would mean that there would be no violation or judgement call by law enforcement that the weapon was concealed vs not concealed, resulting in arrest. If the gun was between his feet, most law enforcement is going to arrest as concealed, because it's not READILY visible. Police get to err on the side of caution when dealing with people with guns. If he wants to use as his defense in court that the weapon was NOT concealed, he'll need to defeat two particular items in Kentucky statutes:


KRS 527.020( states in part that: "A firearm or other deadly weapon shall not be deemed concealed on or about the person if it is located in a glove compartment, regularly installed in a motor vehicle by its manufacturer, regardless of whether said compartment is locked, unlocked, or does not have a locking mechanism." (In other words, putting it in the car instead of the trunk wasn't a good idea)

and

KRS 527.020(1) states that: "A person is guilty of carrying a concealed weapon when he or she carries concealed a firearm or other deadly weapon on or about his or her person."

"On or about" is pretty broad. Thus, if the firearm was within his reach within the vehicle, and he doesn't have a concealed weapons permit, the charges are likely to stick.

He needs to be working with a criminal defense attorney.

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I agree with aardvarc. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.