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When I reported my license plate stolen, they told me that, should I ever find it, that I should not put it back on unless I wanted to be pulled over at gunpoint.

I never did find it; they sent me a new one. By carefully examining the holes, I was able to help them determine that it had been unscrewed, rather than having somehow come out on its own.

We only have rear plates here, so I had no plates for a short time.

I was under the impression you don't point guns at someone unless you're ready to fire, so I'd assume that if I had made any sudden movements it could have been fatal.

Was this hyperbole or honesty? Drawing a firearm is a deterrent and is employed in order to prevent things to escalating to a point where an officer has to fire.

It's a common bit of firearm carrying wisdom. Not directly equitable to, but in the same vein as, "even when the gun is unloaded, its loaded".

Of course its a deterrent, but the only thing that makes it more of a deterrent than a whistle is that the officer is (or presumed to be) ready to shoot.

Sorry, I should have made it clear, he drew, then pointed directly at my head - I was looking right at the end of it. Wikipedia says the rule is "Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy".

So, going from what seemed like an ordinary traffic stop to looking down a gun, I figured he was prepared to kill me if he found it necessary. As I could not figure out any reason for him to want to stop me like that in the first place, it seemed logical there was some massive escalation I was unaware of.

Yes, that is a basic tenet of firearm safety. However if an officer delays drawing his weapon until he is ready to fire it can be too late. You cannot fire a holstered weapon.

I am not certain about the exact distance but I think a hostile person brandishing a knife within 20 or 25 feet is considered to have an advantage / pose serious risk of death (able to inflict serious trauma) over an officer with a holstered weapon. (In NYS)

Drawing a firearm as a deterrent can get you arrested for brandishing. If you wouldn't have been justified in shooting, you wouldn't be justified in drawing.

Police have their own rules.

We were talking about LEOs. What part of my comment made you think otherwise?

> No need to even change your caller ID, just hide it.

Is 911 unable to triangulate calls if you hide your caller ID? I doubt it's that simple.

You can't triangulate a land line. It's unlikely that the pranksters called 911 directly from their own cell phone. It's true that you can't just hide it with *67, but there are ways to spoof it, often involving VOIP gateways and such.

You can hide it with a *67 type service, depending on the PSAP. You don't dial 911, you call the admin line of the PSAP. This is a regular 10-digit number that goes to the PSAP. It's often used for VoIP 911 calls, if the VoIP/911 provider doesn't have direct connectivity to that PSAP. It's pretty common.