Posted on 06/02/2014 6:30:11 AM PDT by marktwain
| Open Carry Walk in Eureka Springs |
A fun evening at Wal Mart on Atlanta Highway. When I walked in the door, the young deputy sheriff crooked his finger at me in a "Come here" gesture. That got my blood pressure easing up immediately as I am most assuredly not a child to be summoned by some young squirt wearing a badge and a gun.Further down in the discussion, SFCRetired relates some of the local politics that preceded this incident:
His first question was, "Are you law enforcement?" When I told him that I was not, he proceeded to tell me there was a sign on the door and I could not carry openly in Wal Mart.
He then wasted his time, and mine, looking all over for a sign I knew damn well was not there. Unfortunately, with my wife rushing me, I did not get a chance to get this overdressed child's name.
But it should tell each of you something that he was insistent, despite being told better, that there was a sign on the door.
You would have to know all the history of the sheriff of this county. He, using taxpayer money, had signs printed up, "No Open Carry Allowed in this Business". His deputies gave the signs out to business owners and, it is alleged, told many of the owners they had to post the signs.Purchasing "No Open Carry Allowed" signs, then aggressively bullying people to put them up does not seem like a winning strategy for holding office in a rural Georgia community. With a little searching, I found that this has also been done in Alabama, according to a discussion on AR15.com. Bama-Shooter wrote in March of this year:
Thankfully, this sheriff is not seeking re-election. His chief deputy is running for the office and, from the accounts I have, fully endorses his boss' policies.
Those are paid for by the sheriff and given out to businesses that want them.In Eureka Springs, Arkansas, the Chief of Police talked about printing up signs and handing them out to local businesses. The remarks are in a video of the special meeting that was held on how to deal with an open carry walk.
I do wonder if tax dollars were used to print these signs.
I saw one at the movie theater in Prattville, said it was provided by the sheriff, Prattville chief of police and local DA.
IMO if a business wants such a sign they should have to go procure them on their own.
The worst I had seen was at a breakfast joint (The Pancake House? IHoP style, but not IHoP or Perkins) on University Ave between Madison, WI and Middleton, WI proclaiming that I was welcome but my gun wasn’t. I don’t even carry, but the snarky tone of the message told me that I wasn’t welcome either.
No Guns = No Freemen
I'd say polarized as well. The vast majority of law enforcement will still look with a microscope for some reason to harass/arrest those peasants bold enough to show that they're able to defend themselves. And can you imagine what would happen to anyone who carried in NY or MA? Probably get shot down like a family dog by the police, and if he survived that, would get serious jail time.
How’s a holders folk supposed to make a little extra cash? Dat EBT carit only buys some tings.
One evening as I was exiting my car to go into a Walmart, in a hurry as I got out I just stuck my 380 on my pocket. Apparently across the drive, that I did not notice was two 30ish bruthas parked pulled in ‘get away fashion’. One of them had started toward me when he caught a glimpse of my pistol going in my pocket and instantly threw his hands up, started apologizing that he was only wanting to “borrow” some money for diapers. Samuel Colt was right, they are EQUALIZERS and all things equal is not what holder’s peoples likes.
Jerk their chains: Wear a t-shirt with “I believe in open carry”, but not be carrying. See the reaction.
If I was in law enforcement, I would keep better vigilance on someone that was open carrying, just because I have no idea if he’s a bad guy or a good guy, but I would know for sure that he was armed.
I am a very strong proponent of concealed carry without a permit, and I regularly let my congress people know it.
I am not against open carry, I just don’t like it because it gets people upset easily, and easily upset people tend to do rash things.
This past Saturday, I was leaving my car in front of a Copps grocery store with my two little ones in tow as well.
As I exited the car, I had to slide my CCW to my lower back/belt. I looked up at the car parked right in front of me, the soccer mom in the drivers seat was smiling and nodded in aproval.
Point is, it’s good to know there is some sanity with folks.
And this is 10 miles from the Peoples Republic of Madistan.
Interesting perspective. Do you open carry or are you in an area where its frequently encountered?
As someone who does open carry frequently in an urban/suburban setting my personal experience has been vastly different. My experience: the majority of people don’t notice. For those who do notice, most don’t seem to care or assume I’m a cop. For the very small number who notice and ask if I’m LEO my stock response is God no, it doesn’t pay enough!
And the very small number who ask is in the 2 or 3 a year category.
I’m surprised about S GA. Georgia as the whole South has always had a gun culture. Everyone has guns. I blame it on this fusion carpola with the Feds trying to militarize the young cops. In the end its going to get a lot of them killed when the SHTF.
Virginia is open-carry just about anywhere you want. In the last 5 yrs, I have only seen one person carrying a sidearm, none with long gun. Once or twice a year, the issue may come up during a town event when someone sees a gun and makes a fuss. We can carry a loaded weapon in our glove box or console without it being locked.
I’m in Virginia as well. Outside of gun shows and such it seems to be unusual, but I’m seeing more of it as time goes on.
In the last 10 years I think I’ve run into 2 mildly unpleasant situations. Once maybe 8 or 9 years ago I was booted from a shopping mall. Another time, someone was obviously uncomfortable at a supermarket, so I just left. But for the most part its a big nothing burger.
Norfolk police can get pretty antsy sometimes. I’m hoping for concealed without permit.
The good guys are fed up and the bad guys know it.
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