Over the holidays we gathered with family and friends, many of whom are current or former LEO's. One friend (I consider her a kid-sister, since she rented a room during school and I was one of her mentors during her early LEO days) is currently on maternity leave from Mn State Patrol. While seeing the new baby, I got into a long discussion with her husband who is in the midst of a career change and embarking on year two of his criminal justice degree at Brainerd and hopes to catch on with the State some day, as well.

We were doing the show & tell (guns) segment of these gatherings when the subject of carry permits came up. I was flat-out astounded by the GREAT insight this new cop-in-training is receiving up in Brainerd. You would have thought he was Kimberman or Andrew or Joel talking.

I assumed the traditional LEO role when discussing police/civilian encounters involving permit holders. We did traffic stops, restaurant stops, mall stops, etc. For each twist and turn, he kept insisting that I had no right to be asking certain things, yet seemed cognizant of officer safety issues. He explained that they had spent a LOT of time discussing these issues in school with respect to carry permits and his professor(s) kept drilling into them that things are different now and "officer safety" has become a transparent shield they cannot necessarily hide behind any more. Be safe, but be smart.

I can't remember the entire dialogue, mostly because I was still pleasantly surprised. I found it encouraging that some of the next generation of LEO's are getting much needed training about how to handle the rest of the (legally) gun-toting society.