Yeah that was a crazy time. They got REAL serious about keeping guns off the streets. At the time I was a state police officer, and it was decided that in the spirit of the new laws, we would have to leave our firearms at the station, (even if we were driving a marked vehicle) unless we were "undertaking duties likely to result in interaction with an armed offender."
The rule was rescinded after quite a number of incidents where unarmed officers in marked vehicles refused to attend bank robberies/shootings/domestic violence etc calls even though they were basically at the scene.
Oh they totally disarmed the National Park Rangers too. Made me feel a LOT safer. /sarc/