Posted on 07/11/2010 12:48:32 PM PDT by thecodont
It was clear this was no ordinary community cleanup.
Trash bags? Check.
Gloves? Check.
Glock .45-caliber handgun? Check.
More than a dozen people packing pistols on their hips strolled down the Hermosa Beach strand Saturday, picking up garbage and distributing fliers about the rights of gun owners.
FOR THE RECORD: A story in Sunday's California section about participants openly carrying firearms at a community cleanup in Hermosa Beach misidentified the coffee shop where the group met at the end of the event. It was the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, not Peet's Coffee & Tea. The event was part of a burgeoning and controversial "open carry" movement nationwide promoting the right to carry guns in public. Although carrying a concealed weapon is illegal without a permit, California allows people to openly carry guns in many areas as long as they are unloaded, though they can keep ammunition with them.
Members of South Bay Open Carry, which organized the beach cleanup, said they hope such events will dispel misgivings about gun owners and make carrying a handgun in public more acceptable. Organizers said they turned the event into a cleanup to demonstrate that they are contributing to the community.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Firefighter Scott Brownlie wears an unloaded Colt M-4 Carbine slung across his back on a Hermosa Beach street. “If a lot of people were allowed to carry more … there would be a lot less crime,” he said. (Christina House, For The Times / July 11, 2010) |
In Kalifornia no less!
Fabulous!!!!! Maybe there is hope for California, after all.
People had better worry about criminals who commonly carry concealed w/o permits. Criminals don’t open carry and law abiding open carry folks don’t do drive-by’s.
Looks ok to me. Won’t affect his tan lines!
I still can’t agree with the carry of an unloaded weapon.
Mine rides concealed, if out and about, or over the shoulder if I’m down in the woods, but at all times loaded. Of what use is an empty weapon?
‘course we have our laws here, and they have theirs there.
I think it's interesting and a little ominous. This is Hermosa Beach. National conservative proclivity is to whitewash, stereotype, Californians as uniform liberals. More of that media illusion, if you will.
I don't know HB well, but good enough to know that it is a hodgepodge of different types of people and always has been. The sense of place is what unites people, and they love being there and will fight to stay there. That's a dramatic way of saying it, but So Cal beach towns draw a particular kind of talent and spirit. As far as guns go, they're putting their wares on display here, though -- an organized gang could conceivably steal a lot of pretty valuable weapons.
To walk around Hermosa Beach openly carrying a weapon, unloaded ... good or bad? I am stumped. And is this even significant? When's the last time it happened? Who are these people? If you lived in HB, would you join them?
I just don't know.
They have to carry UNLOADED guns?? Why aren’t I surprised. Hell, you’re better off with a baseball bat.
i wouldn’t openly carry around an unloaded firearm unless i wanted it stolen
Is that a gun in your Speedo, or are you just glad to see me?
Not more than a year ago a lot of people on this forum railed against "Open Carry" as the movement gained steam... "its dangerous", "it turns the public against the 2A movement", "its just John Wayne and Rambo showing off"... now that people are doing it across the country, a lot of those same people are now the biggest "Open Carry" proponents... just sayin!
The object is to show liberals that civilians can carry a weapon without the gun jumping to auto-fire, not injuring anyone close by or themselves.
"Aren't you afraid it's going to go off?"
Knowledge is power. Ignorance is dangerous.
And typos are downright malevolent.
I had a friend ask about a revolver once:
I’ve always been an open carry proponent; ever since I started caring about the issue.
There is, IMO, far, far too many ‘restricted’ places.
Unless it wasn't a typo! As an example, for example, both my neighbor and I both work for everyone here, at the new federal Department of Redundancy Department. The President is considering thinking about putting us in charge of offshore drilling, off the US coastline, because we don't have a corrupt culture of corruption!
Our motto: "Your tax dollars at work, working for you!"
;>)
One major problem in Kalifornia is the inability to even purchase a firearm - that M-4orgery in the photo isn’t exactly available at your local firearms emporium anymore, is it? And under the terms of the so-called ‘assault weapons’ ban, wouldn’t the owner have to transport it to a specified destination in a ‘compliant manner?’ I don’t remember the details (it’s been nine years since I lived out there), but I wouldn’t be quite certain that strolling down the street with the carbine slung would make certain authorities very happy...
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