Police Queries on Guns OKd

DENVER —  A police officer who makes a routine traffic stop can ask the driver if he has a loaded gun in the car even if there is no reason to suspect a weapon, a federal appeals court said Wednesday.

“The terrifying truth is that officers face a very real risk of being assaulted with a dangerous weapon each time they stop a vehicle,” the full panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said, taking the rare step of reversing a ruling by a three-judge panel in its own court.

In that 2-1 ruling, the appeals court said last year that it was unconstitutional for police to ask a driver routinely if there is a gun in the vehicle.

The issue arose when an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer stopped a motorist at a checkpoint in 1999 for not wearing a seat belt and asked the driver if he had a weapon in his pickup truck. He said yes and a search for it also turned up illegal drugs.

Wednesday’s ruling applies only to Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Kansas.