Posted on 09/12/2013 2:33:00 PM PDT by marktwain
Two guys walking to Appleton's downtown farmers' market on Saturday — while carrying AR-15 rifles on their shoulders — swiftly attracted some gunpoint attention and handcuffs from Appleton police.
Whether that's surprising depends on where you stand about Second Amendment rights. One of the men happened to record the encounter, now making the rounds on the Internet, where at least some gun rights advocates are outraged by the police response.
The men, Charles Branstrom, 28, and Ross Bauman, 22, also were wearing holstered handguns. About six minutes after they are stopped, one officer sees Branstrom's camera, confiscates it and attempts to turn it off, but stops only the video. The device continues recording audio of police officers for about 45 minutes.
Ultimately, police release both men without charges or tickets.
"In a post Aurora-Newtown environment, it's a reckless and irresponsible stunt to strut around in public with an assault-style weapon and think police should assume you're well-intentioned," Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said Thursday, referring to mass shooting incidents in Colorado and Connecticut.
"It's just absurd," Flynn said. "This has nothing to do with the Second Amendment. These characters and those who support them should be ashamed of themselves."
Gun rights advocates think the police acted inappropriately.
"I would never blame police for following up on 'man with a gun' calls, but they still have to behave within the limits of the law and abide by people's constitutional rights," said Nik Clark, president of Wisconsin Carry, Inc., a gun rights group.
"I believe the police were acting outside of their legal authority when they pointed guns at the individuals and involuntarily detained them,' Clark said.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
It's not about being scared. It's about exersizing a constitutional right, and normalizing it in the eyes of the public.
/johnny
Two queries:
1. Please cite the mass shooting that began with a sighting of a man with a slung rifle and/or holstered weapons.
2. Please cite a mass shooting that occurred with the presence of one or more people with openly-holstered/slung weapons.
I get your point, but there’s 2 extremes: No Guns or Guns.
Guns sometimes WILL be visible. To not accept that is to admit compliance with propaganda for the other extreme and supporters of the other extreme make no compromise except for ‘no guns’ (a gun at home, unloaded, in a case/safe is equivalent to ‘no gun’).
That is unacceptable, IMHO.
Me neither. I've got an M1A (I despise the AR platform).
And to hell with the law and the Constitution. I see your point.
/johnny
I look at the profile under the shirt.......And this guy's admission of same.
All of us do but you don't influence the opinions of those who don't by throwing it into their faces....and those are the folks who will ultimately take your right away.
Then don't bother me with the rest, I've defended those arguments ad nauseum all my life........
Wow, "Irony much"...?
The whole idea of the 2nd Amendment is to arm the citizens so the government CAN"T take their rights away.
And hiding in the shadows because YOU are afraid you might offend someone with your evil gun is exactly the type of people we don't need in the USA.
Try Cuba, it sounds right up your alley.
But, beyond the fact that it is their right to carry, displaying these guns really serves only one purpose. It’s a political statement. Grandstanding really. Even in the old west very few people carried guns. If it’s not a political statement, then
They must feel threatened. You can not reach any other conclusion. I don’t see open carry of rifles as being accepted by the general public. Not after the massacres we have witnessed. I’ll be getting a concealed license soon. The element of surprise will be on my side. For these guys? Not so much.
so it’s ok to legally conceal carry, but not ok to legally open carry. is it ok for me to carry a 10-.22? or how about a Yugo 24/47? or a muzzle loader? where would you draw the line? where would you have the government draw the line? is it ok to conceal carry a .41 rem mag? or a .40 cal? or a bond derringer?
you guys are just like the government, wanting to impose your beliefs, will, upon others.
Not posted to you /johnny, u r just handy. :-)
*************************
Agreed.
As long as the bangers aren’t prohibited persons, I’m perfectly groovy with them or anyone else being strapped overtly or covertly.
As for your scared characterization...C’mon, scared? Really?
Look toward the stars and Uranus, your head's up there already......
/johnny
Either that or it’s deer season!
Why the contradiction?
Right and it’s the cops job to stop them and see what they are up to. After that happens a couple hundred times I’ll imagine these guys will decide it’s just not worth the hassle, not to mention lugging around all that weight. I think it’s called cutting off your nose to spite your face. And it’s their right to do so.
Your argument is kind of absurd, Fred, if you don’t mind my saying. Are you arguing that these two men, by virtue of the exercise of their right to keep and bear arms, would be scared of you if you had an AK strapped to your back?
Quite frankly, sir, I’d want to shake your hand, and I would point you out to my child as an example of someone exercising a right no different than someone preaching scripture in a public park or a political opinion in the editorial of a newspaper.
Free men, law-abiding men, do not conceal their weapons. Men who are interested in liberty do not carry a weapon in a pocket or under their shirt. Criminals who wish to do someone harm do not walk into a movie theater with an AR15 strapped to their backs, they stow the weapon in a vehicle parked outside the emergency exit, leave the theater halfway through the previews, and come back to shoot up the place.
Do you react similarly when you see cop in the supermarket or at the mall? Does your child recoil at the sight of a detective carrying a pistol on his or her hip in WalMart? Just because someone has a badge doesn’t make them a good or virtuous person. Likewise, a man with a gun with the open and honest displaying of the weapon without a badge does not make that man a criminal or a ne’er do well.
This is the sort of conditioning I’m talking about. Not even 50 years ago, firearms were so commonplace as to be normal. Concealed carry had to be passed as law across the nation, because it was previously considered illegal and uncivilized. Due to the limp-wristed weenies on the left and a few generations of indoctrination telling kids that guns are bad and only kill people, we now have a society that goes into a fit if someone is seen carrying a weapon but does not have a badge or uniform of some type. That’s NOT what the Second amendment and our right to bear arms is all about, and I’m disgusted that we’ve fallen that far in civil discourse to allow it.
You’re right. There can be no other possible reasons.
I am glad so many people like sitting in back of the bus and not eating at a lunch counter/S
As long as I don’t offend any body with my rights I am good to go/S
As long as the muslins don’t know what church I go to they well not kill me/S
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