You are a FReeper. I doubt you intentionally set out to make a scene that would arouse suspicion and worry. I know there are Jacka$$ cops out there looking to cause trouble, likely the same ones that stop blacks for driving in the wrong neighborhood.
You shouldn’t be harassed for driving around in biker gear even while open carrying. I live in a big city in the Midwest. I see bikers (and others) open carrying about once or twice a month. It’s not commonplace but it’s not unusual either. I haven’t seen anyone harassed even when cops are around.
All that said, this guy was wearing a bullet proof vest and carrying a rifle downtown. He was inviting a confrontation by police. I think police should be able to simply ask questions and get some reassuring answers so they can send him on his way. Had someone stopped any number of mass shooters on their way into a theater or college campus, they likely would have changed the outcome.
I am VERY pro 2A and do carry concealed daily. I don’t open carry but don’t disparage those that choose to. This is blatant to point out the conflict of having LEO in a “public protection” capacity at all. They can’t legally protect anything and must wait for a crime to be committed to do anything. This guy is pointing that out.
He doesn’t do anything positive for our cause of making guns in public more sociably acceptable. He makes us look like nuts. The lay person would assume there can’t be very many of us because they don’t see nuts like that every day.
I don’t support what he did.
No he was not. I mean really, you are not stupid. The guy was carrying a GUN CASE that was taped closed. It could have had bricks in it or a gun. What it should have had is a copy of the US Constitution.
Just because you would not do a particular thing that happens to be perfectly legal does not mean that you have the right to tell others they have to follow whatever notions you have. You simply do not have that right. Period. He is not you and he is not making "you" look "nuts" by the way. What is nuts is not seeing that he was within his right and the law and because of that he should not have been stopped and certainly not arrested. By the way, why would you give a damn what boneheaded libtards think? These "lay persons" have no right to dictate what rights any of us do or do not have under the United States Constitution no matter what they think or "assume".
I don't support what the police did!
You aren’t nearly as pro-RKBA as you think you are.
No doubt if we stop every person on the street, we are likely to change the outcome. That is no reason to do so. We could also impose curfews, and set up road blocks. We could have police search people's houses randomly. These would all make crime less likely.
A person wears a bullet-proof vest. So far as I know, that is not a crime yet. He has a gun in a locked container with him. That is not a crime yet. Is doing two things that are not crimes enough to give "reasonable suspicion" for the police to require a search? Is it against the law to not cooperate with a police officer?
There was a time when being black and walking in the wrong neighborhood would get you harrassed, or maybe beaten by the police. And blacks were told "be respectful, do what the cops say" -- and it only helped osmetimes. And it was wrong. And some would argue that harassing blacks walking in the wrong neighborhoods might well prevent a crime. And that may be true -- but doing so is still wrong. And harassing people for wearing safety equipment or legally carrying weapons is also wrong.
Be very careful of what you’re advocating. You are advocating pre factum apprehension of citizens without any evidence of a crime being committed, IOW the elimination of habeus corpus. Do you REALLY support proactive aprehension in the belief a person ~might~ commit a crime some time in the future? Do you believe in gassing people too? Wake up man!
Where I live, there is nothing wrong with carrying a rifle down the street if you aren’t doing anything threatening. Even the black activists have done it and had no problems.