Is a request to inspect a firearm in the trunk of a vehicle a reasonable basis for a search?

A request to inspect a firearm in order to determine if it is loaded is not only possible basis for a lawful search. A police officer could properly open the trunk if he had independent probable cause to believe that the weapon, which he knew to be inside, was loaded. (Cf. People v. DeLong, supra, 11 Cal.App.3d 786, 791, 90 Cal.Rptr. 193.) Where the officer knows only that there is a weapon inside the trunk but has no other information which would lead him to believe the weapon is loaded, as is the case here, the officer does [93 Cal.App.3d 783] not have probable cause to believe the weapon is loaded. (Cf. People v. DeLong, supra, 11 Cal.App.3d 786, 790-791, 90 Cal.Rptr. 193.)

In the absence of probable cause to believe that the weapon is loaded, exigent circumstances might permit a warrantless look into the car trunk. (People v. Green (1971) 15 Cal.App.3d 766, 93 Cal.Rptr. 433.) In Green, the police arrived at a hospital where they were directed to the hospital parking lot and informed that a medical secretary had found a shotgun in a golf bag in the back seat of her car and that defendant had relieved her of the bag, placing it in the engine compartment of his automobile which was parked behind hers. The officers were further informed that defendant was an outpatient who on the previous day had been drinking on the hospital premises and had been asked to leave. When defendant identified the automobile as his but denied that he had a weapon, one of the officers opened the hood of the car, seized the shotgun and arrested defendant.