Yeah of course, they can't refuse the officer entry if the officer is responding to a crime or something of that sort... but its not handguns that are their worry, its explosives in my opinion....
Also, I would assume an officer to have their service weapon on them... but if I searched them and found other weapons it would be a worry would it not?
Quite a few can carry additional, not to mention depending have some other gear ( teargas etc which may contain some form of charge ). Look , one could very easily manufacture a small device (
NO, I will not specify how , don't be stupid! ) that would even pass a search, for the simple fact in how it is disguised as a standard every day carry item. I'm not talking about the responding to a crime or entry, my concern is the huge onus placed on officers around the responsibility of what they carry.
Give you an example, if they keep any weapons at home, it has to both adhere to normal gun laws as well as some more stringent requirements, especially if they are automatic. Even if adhering to those rules, the weapons are still stolen, the officer is generally in very very deep **** and undergoes a massive investigation.
In a previous life, many many many years ago, I was a child who grew up in a typical Portuguese tearoom shop and we never, suspected or prevented having police around, in fact it was encouraged and the local precinct used to actually shop with us quite often and we went through lengths to make them welcome. Not to say we never kept a gun under the counter but they always had our backs and we had a number of situations over the years. Sure, times have changed but I think it's a tricky line to walk and not one I would encourage from either the store owners perspective OR a person in charge of the officers.