Q1: I thought it was law that if you are CCW that you had to notify the cop right away about it?
And on a personal level, being honest with a cop is definitely the best way to interact with him. Just tell him straight forward that you have a weapon on you, because what will happen should he discover a reason to pull you out of the car and then he discovers the weapon on your side? He's going to be pissed right?! In his mind he is now thinking of all that time you just had to potentially pull the weapon on him....and cops DO NOT like that. You can forget about him giving you a break now, because now he's pissed off and likely going to land as many charges as he can.
Like others have said, don't give any more information than is needed.