The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Duty to inform and your right to not self incriminate

**Aguila Blanca** · January 5, 2011, 11:12 AM

Incidentally, I am not a lawyer, either, so I don't know just how or if this might extrapolate to the case of someone inadvertently carrying on school grounds in a "duty to inform" jurisdiction. First of all, of course, the exact wording of the duty to inform requirement matters. Some states require the CCW holder to proactively inform an LEO any time there is an "official" interaction ... even if not asked. Other states may be somewhat more or less restrictive.

But my point in opening this post was to mention that I believe there was a Supreme Court case (but I don't recall if it was SCOTUS or a state supreme court) a few years back that ruled that a convicted felon (in other words, a prohibited person) did NOT have to inform a police officer if he had a gun, because admitting such would be self-incriminating.

If any of the resident legal beagles know of this case, maybe you could comment on whether by extrapolation it would extend to protecting a CCW holder who wandered onto school property while carrying and encountered an officer. My gut feeling is that the right to not incriminate myself, being enshrined in the Constitution (the "highest law of the land") would outweight any state duty to inform law.

But it might cost some time and money to find out, and I would prefer not to be the test case.

January 5, 2011, 11:12 AM	#23
Aguila Blanca Staff Join Date: September 25, 2008 Location: CONUS Posts: 18,460	Incidentally, I am not a lawyer, either, so I don't know just how or if this might extrapolate to the case of someone inadvertently carrying on school grounds in a "duty to inform" jurisdiction. First of all, of course, the exact wording of the duty to inform requirement matters. Some states require the CCW holder to proactively inform an LEO any time there is an "official" interaction ... even if not asked. Other states may be somewhat more or less restrictive. But my point in opening this post was to mention that I believe there was a Supreme Court case (but I don't recall if it was SCOTUS or a state supreme court) a few years back that ruled that a convicted felon (in other words, a prohibited person) did NOT have to inform a police officer if he had a gun, because admitting such would be self-incriminating. If any of the resident legal beagles know of this case, maybe you could comment on whether by extrapolation it would extend to protecting a CCW holder who wandered onto school property while carrying and encountered an officer. My gut feeling is that the right to not incriminate myself, being enshrined in the Constitution (the "highest law of the land") would outweight any state duty to inform law. But it might cost some time and money to find out, and I would prefer not to be the test case.