Open carry activists scare us?
Chief Tango sent us a link to a Daily Beast article which charges that the recent rash of open carry activists parading around in public spaces with their scary black guns is scaring folks away from support for the Second Amendment;
The incident is the latest headline-grabbing showdown involving open carry activists, who want the unconcealed carrying of firearms to be as normal as holding a cell phone. In groups armed with rifles and Gadsden flags, they’ve demonstrated at the site of President Kennedy’s assassination. They walk alone through state capitol buildings, and Home Depots, baiting police officers and frightening workers and ordinary citizens.
The brazen antics of this mainly libertarian coalition—think of them as the tea partiers of the gun rights’ movement—have had the unlikely effect of placing gun rights groups, law enforcement officials, and control advocates aligned in opposition. Legally, open carry activists are within their rights, protected, as they’re quick to remind their challengers, by the first and second amendment. But when does this type of protest become a menace, to the public’s safety and to the group’s own message of freedom?
I’ve remained largely silent on the whole thing although I fully support the open carry thing, the other side should be more concerned about the criminals who are carrying guns than peaceful activists. I fully understand the concerns that police might have, but none of those activists have opened fire on the unarmed. They have a right to be armed, if States allow it and just because a few anti-gun people are shaking in their Birkenstocks is not much reason to be harassing them. I don’t know about any incidents of open carrying folks committing crimes.
I’m not an open carry kind of guy and I fully understand their position, but if they’re open carrying their weapons they give the criminal something else to shoot at while I’m pulling out my concealed handgun.
Category: Guns
@ 7: “Open carry in the city — no. You make yourself a target for criminals who’ll kill you for what you’re carrying.”
Happens often, does it?
@ 11: Please don’t let me see you voting or speaking in public; it makes me a little nervous and it’s impolite.
Right?
@ 12: “They always carry over in Richmond (or they did until CA banned open carry, one of the few things the CA legislature has done that I actually liked), and you can definitely tell what kind of people they are.”
Please, elaborate. What “kind of people” are they?
“I only go to Richmond occasionally, and the punks walking around with sigs in full view flashing gang signs at each other from across the street is a big part of why.”
Documentaion (video?) needed, please.
“The people who carry openly are 90% of the time just doing it because they can, because they want to be masculine, or because they want to show off how tough they are. Those people shouldn’t be carrying, period.”
Actually, since you indicate that this is California, it’s probably because their locale refuses to issue carry permits. Or you can, again, provide documentation for your claims…..
Christ on a crutch, did I accidently open D.U. instead of TAH? (Checks address bar…) Nope, I wasn’t friggen’ hallucinating.
Some folks around here need to review the differences between Rights and privileges, and that your precious, delicate feelings have no bearing on what is “polite” or acceptable.
Unless you can show me the rule-book you’re operating from, and it better not have a D.U. taint to it.
@ 13: Who is “forcing a confrontation”, and how? Every incident I’ve seen or heard of, the police went out of their way to interfere with a lawful activity. How does that equate to Citizens “forcing” the police to do anything?
@ 15, 16 & 17: Well said!
@ 22:
1. Then your police are piss-poorly trained. Open Carry isn’t a problem for them here in Arizona; what are you folks doing wrong?
2. Terrible attempt at analogy. Playing music so laod that neighbors/passersby can hear it is actually interfering with other people. Openly carrying firearm is not. No “nuisance” created, except in the vapid imagination of the ‘rainbows and unicorns’ lump-ritariate.
@ 24: Excellently stated, sir!
I would think that 10 posts in a row on the same subject by the same poster within 20 minutes is a bit overdoing it. “consolidation”,,, works wonders.
@ 33: Yes, but that is on an individual, case-by-case basis, not a blanket policy for all public activity.
@ 59: I’m one of the ‘fanatics’ from #20, obviously.
Sorry, too much coffee and got carried away a bit. I just hate watching these things go down the rabbit-hole of P.C.
I’ll take a break for a bit…..
@59: I would imagine what you are seeing is somebody who is reading and reacting as he goes…and I tend to agree with him, and Old Trooper as well- I might have posted myself, but I chose to leave it to those who are more eloquent than myself.
I hate the “activism” label. When I go out and about carrrying openly, I occasionally get the chance to educate somebody- and my wife does as well. I have yet to be harrassed by LEO’s, and tend to think that maybe a criminal would choose me as his first target- but more likely, since they tend to be cowardly types, they will choose a place where folks are not armed, certainly not visibly so…
O.K., one more post….
@ 62: Yes, that’s what I do. I’ve found it easiest to reply to one comment at a time, in this non-tree-format forum. Helps to keep each reply distinct and referable.
And on the term “activist” being used as a pejorative: Every Right and Freedom we enjoy today was bought at a price in sweat, tears and blood by an “activist”. If the term is every used to label me, I’ll wear it with pride.
@51 Probably not. I live in a city where open carry is permitted. You won’t get any further than it takes a tourist to whip out a phone and put in a “Man with a gun” call.
That’s the primary reason I carry concealed. As much as I like our local police, I don’t want to have to talk to them every two blocks while I’m running errands.
Old Trooper, coyotes can carry rabies. If they are urban coyotes, they aren’t hunted so they have no fear of humans, they will go after your pet dog because they have ‘turf’ to protect, and they will bite.
Gangbangers, on the other hand, don’t carry rabies and if you carry a weapon on you, you can most likely scare them off. They are cowards at best.
Of the two choices, coyotes are by far the more dangerous.
@ 64: It just doesn’t seem to be a problem here in Arizona… and this state has a large tourism industry.
Just sayin’….
Lol, I love that the strongest support for the basic liberty of open carry is coming from my beloved Arizona. 🙂
My dear departed dad, who was primarily raised, and lived most of his life, in Chicago (Elmhurst, close enough), really had a hard time wrapping his head around the Arizona lifestyle, but loved it here all the more because of it.
Ex-PH2, Coyotes in rural areas where they’re hunted aren’t anymore afraid of humans than their urban family. Literally.
And weren’t you pretty much suggesting open carry is an open invitation to a confrontation in post #40? How does that jive with your comment that carrying will scare gangbangers off in comment #65?
And Pinto Nag, amazingly enough, Arizona’s reputation on this issue seems to precede her. I live near, and work in, one of the most heavily tourist infested regions in the state (Sedona), tourists damned near EXPECT to see armed men on the street in Arizona. Many of the businesses capitalize on it and make firearms an optional ‘uniform’ accessory. Locals around here are wayyyyy more likely to strike up a conversation based on what you’re carrying and how much you paid for it than they are to shun you or call the cops.
Lastly a ‘man with a gun call’ should be vetted by the 911 operator longgg before cops are dispatched. If it’s a problem where any of you live, I’d complain to the city council about the lack of training in the dept, not adjust my lifestyle to suit whiners.
@65: Well, I see coyotes on a daily basis and I see gangbangers on a daily basis and of the two, I keep my eyes on the gangbangers. Oddly, both the coyotes and the gangbangers don’t attempt to bother with my pet dog (170 lb. Great Dane) when we’re out for a stroll.