Some pointers from the real world viewpoint of a prosecutor who writes and teaches search and seizure. Most of these apply to all driving and LE contacts, but with more emphasis here.
1) Unless you simply cannot avoid it, stay out of MD and NJ.
2) If, as some here do, you value entering those states enough for other reasons, then make yourself as low profile as possible. How, you ask? Here:
a) Nothing visible in or on your vehicle that associates you with firearms. No decals, firearm type cases, etc. Period. No firearm T shirts, you name it.
b) Don't drive stupidly. Keep your speed just above the speed limit, using cruise control (3-5 MPH, no more than 5). Use your turn signal religiously - you should anyway. Don't tailgate.
c) Do everything you can to avoid stopping in those states. Gas? Ok. Food? Preferably not. Booze? Pay someone to slap you repeatedly. Overnight? You're a dolt. Does your guardian know you escaped from the home?
d) Before entering those states, at some discreet location in a state where you are legal to carry, disarm. Put everything that even arguably indicates carrying, owning, or liking firearms in a locked container within another locked (nondescript, like a suitcase) container in your trunk. No trunk because you have a pickup? Hell to the no. I like 'em, too, but the property security issue is too important to compromise under any circumstance, even outside of these dumb places. Carefully check every place in the passenger compartment and your body that might ever have gun stuff in it; my car would have some that needed to be addressed. The number of idiots who try to board planes with guns, ammo, or knives that they have forgotten is incredible.
e) Make darned sure that everything you might need if stopped (car reg., proof of insurance) is organized, and readily available. If you have anything beside those, your owner's manual, and any maintenance log in your glove compartment, you are probably making unwise choices. It is really frustrating to a cop, and indicative of needing more scrutiny, to have a lot of disorganized crud in there. (Some offenders use that stuff as a distractor.) If the cop is dumb enough to approach on the driver side, it is also unsafe, as it increases the exposure to traffic.
f) If you smoke, make darned sure you put it out as soon as you have signaled the stop (uh, you do at least turn on your 4 ways and pull over ASAP, don't you?). Lit smoking materials are used as a distractor by offenders, for both concealment of obvious odors of intoxication or drugs in the car, and for assaults. Any cop worth a darn will tell you to put it out with a quickness anyway. Failure to do so is likely a crime, such as under our obstructing statute here in WA.*
g) Related to that: don't move around in your car, don't reach for anything, just keep your hands visible on the wheel and sit still until directed to do something like get your DL/reg./insurance. Make darned sure that the manner in which you carry your DL is NEVER consistent with a drawing motion. DO NOT do anything that looks like opening the door, getting out, etc. If your windows don't roll down, un(screw) yourself and get that fixed. Yesterday. I have kicked doors shut on people who started to open them if I am that close; yelled at people who start to get out, backed up hard enough to smoke tires. That is a significant pre-assaultive cue. (I know some were taught that 50 years ago. It was dumb then, and a lot dumber now. Don't do that.)
h) No matter how frustrated you get, refer to the cop or trooper by some form of polite address consistent with your normal speech. Sir, Ma'am, Officer, Deputy, Trooper. I don't care. Using the 12 letter word for "Adherent of Oedipus" may be gratifying and is certainly protected speech, no matter what the weak say, but it is dumb. Use that later, when you complain.
i) Never volunteer anything you don't need to. NEVER consent to a search. Period. If you consent to a search, I will disown you. You are a fool. If they ask why, you don't want your carefully packed property disturbed, you have a schedule to keep, etc. Make them get a warrant or rely on a clear exception - the exceptions applicable to vehicles still require probable cause. If they go full stupid and you don't think they have PC, remember to SHUT UP. Don't resist. Deal with it in court using a suppression motion.
* The law, in short: A vehicle stop for traffic enforcement (I dislike the term traffic stop; it's sloppy) is still a Terry stop. Probable cause is not the standard; reasonable suspicion is. Almost certainly PC can be satisfied with most traffic violations, but it is not needed. You do not get to pick the stop location. Period.
Anything other than pulling over as quickly as safely possible is both unlawful and consistent with being a violent offender. (If for any reason, you don't think it is a real LE officer, you need to call 911 with all possible alacrity. Anything other than doing so will not be consistent with such a concern. I hate unmarked cars because it facilitates such claims, right or wrong.) Under the SCOTUS caselaw, in any non-consensual contact (which includes this setting), the officer is in charge, and gets to control it. Yes, that means they can tell you to put out the cigarette, keep your hands in sight, stay in the car (or get out), etc. They may phrase it nicely the first time, but it is still an order, and it is a lawful order. Any perceptible delay will likely violate a statute similar to the WA law on obstructing ("A person is guilty of obstructing a law enforcement officer if the person willfully hinders, delays, or obstructs any law enforcement officer in the discharge of his or her official powers or duties"). Understand that the training will or should be "ask, tell, make", and that the progression in these steps will be rapid; a few seconds from the start to arrest.
If you do not like the experience, comply, then complain. You do not get to resist. Period. It will go very badly for you. The cop will prevail in the street, even if it takes 4 of them, which virtually guarantees you will be injured. Understand that cops look at the world through a different lens. They do in fact have experiences and encounter people who are bad in ways that most citizens, and certainly most fundamentally decent people, cannot understand. Look at the recent murder of a cop (Lt. Aaron Allan, Southport Indiana) who responded to a car crash and was just flat our murdered for no reason anyone has yet been able to discern. (Go find the Dinkheller case videos and the recent CNN report on his murder, for example.) I prosecuted a kid from another county a couple times for felony property crimes against a friend of his mother; at 15, he murdered that man, and we saw no indication of that, although the prior crimes obviously looked personal. Age, sex, and lots of other variables don't matter - acts do.
My signature here is a message. I live by it. If you don't know what it means, you are probably among the decent folks who don't have the perceptions and experiences.
