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 ...
Excellent post.
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.
Warped logic because it is based on non factual information.
Until only a few years ago, it was an every day thing to see pickups in town with more than one rifle or shotgun or both in a gun rack over the back window.
I still have mine hanging in my farm tool room. Makes a nice place to hang electrical cord, etc.
People thought nothing of it.
Farmers and hunters rarely were out of reach of a gun and when they went to town, it went with them.
And of course many of those hunters lived in town.
Kids went to school with guns in their vehicles so they could go hunting immediately after school or in some cases early in the morning on the way to school.
I know. I was one of them.
The hysterics over guns is something relatively new, brought on by the hysterical press, Marxist educators and weenies.
Don’t be one of them.
The city is going to be paying out a settlement for the unconstitutional acts of the police.
/johnny
You couldn't be more wrong in this statement, sir. I would suggest you read up on frontier American life and esp. the lives of men and women in the upper midwest and southwest. It was considered criminal to conceal your sidearm, and traveling men including postal riders, train conductors, and ship captains had a complement of firearms on their conveyances to assure safe passages.
The fact that you indicated you have yet to get a concealed license tells me that you are either a young man or have recently converted to an interest in gun culture. I urge you to read up on your responsibilities and to not just understand the law but understand the history of American culture with firearms. You've been corrupted by the media and academic establishments in this country and world to believe something that is very much not true.
We need so many people walking around like this that people get used to it.
Unless they are police officers, then I first look to see if there are any dogs around. If not, I breathe a little easier.
Same here. Just twenty plus years ago we had guns in our cars in the school parking lot to go hunting after school. Hell, our HS and several others in the area all had shooting teams! We had kids in wood shop making stocks for guns.
How far we’ve fallen. :(
Well, you said “it is their right”.
SO it doesn’t matter if I like it or not. They can do it. And they should not be arrested for doing something they have a right to do, just because it makes others uncomfortable.
There was a time black people got arrested walking down a street because their very presence made white people uncomfortable. There are times when a guy with a bible gets harassed by police because he is too close to a muslim event.
We need to have open carry be so obvious, and so ubiquitous, that people get used to it.
Of course, I don’t actually buy your assumption that gangs have a right to have guns. My guess is that, being “gangs” indicates that they are probably underage, and most likely have a criminal record already. Otherwise, they are just clubs.
My answer: yes, I would be okay provided the following is true:
A) They are not felons, have no outstanding warrants, and are not brandishing the weapon but carrying it in a safe manner (muzzle down, not in "ready" position)
B) They are not in the presence of felons or in possession of any prohibited substances, are sober or otherwise unimpaired in their judgement, and are well regulated in their use of that weapon
Just because you don't like the idea of a perceived gangbanger in possession of a weapon, doesn't mean that person is immediately guilty of a crime or unlawfully carrying.
Free men, men who live a life of liberty, do not hide their rights under their shirts. You call these men cowboys, I call them free men. They have the right to openly carry, and they exercised that right. It's law enforcement and the citizens with whom they came in contact who need to be taught about the rights of free men.
I completely agree that someone should be ridiculed.
However the someone is not the person on youtube.
It would be someone who calls a rifle slung over the shoulder concealed.
Or an unmitigated idiot who points out how law abiding they are...in contrast to someone else who also has broken no laws.
This isn’t the proper site to infer that another’s rights should be infinged upon because their exercise of those rights makes one emotionally uncomfortable. Emotional sentimentality is the entire reason we got saddled with hate crimes legislation.
If a person has unfounded fears they should seek help, not bleat them here expecting sympathy.
It sounds like your argument is that people should be harassed for carrying openly, because if they aren’t, more will do it, and it will scare people, and they will pass laws that make it illegal to carry openly.
Which really sounds like you are saying it should be illegal to carry openly, because it scares people.
If your argument is that the police had a right to walk up to them and say “what’s up” — that is an argument that has nothing to do with what actually happened.
What happened was the police temporarily seized their property, and then unlawfully detained them for 45 minutes before finally agreeing that they were doing nothing wrong.
The GOAL is to get to where the police do nothing more than come up and ask “what’s up”. If I were carrying openly, I would not be offended if a police officer decided to question me — but then again, I’m not a minority who thinks any police questioning is racist.
The homosexual lobby has spent money and time pushing sodomy and sexual deviance to normalize the idea of homosexuality as acceptable yet a couple of men openly carrying firearms in public is considered a nuisance and a public safety issue. Unreal.
Real Americans and specifically conservatives need to make a concerted effort to normalize open carry. It used to be considered criminal and uncivilized to carry concealed. Now it’s preferred to keep the leftists from flooding emergency numbers. We need open carry across the nation. We are not a fearful people and show be proud of our rights and our heritage.
You should also make sure not to carry a bible openly, or talk about your faith in public, or put it on your facebook. As long as you hide your candle under a bushel, you should be OK until they are done with the more open ones.....
>>Would these two guys like it if I paraded down their street where their children were playing with my AK strapped to my back?<<
I wouldn’t have any problem with you doing that because my .270 is close at hand.
No doubt an over reach by the cops in this case. Maybe they get some nice new guns out of the deal. Still they will be stopped every time they go out. Certainly not worth the trouble, but that’s just me. Maybe they just wanted to cash in with a big lawsuit full well knowing they’d be hassled? Why else would you video tape things. Are these guys lawyers? Lots of angles here...
This is not something that just happened this one time. It's been going on all over the country for a while.
/johnny
Not at all. It’s their right. I just don’t see the point. It would like me wearing my tool belt every where I go because I might run in to a situation that I need a screwdriver. Open carry is legal in most locales. Guns are tools. Do you need your gun all the time? I just don’t feel the need(yet). And I respect everyones opinion on this.
>>I’ll be getting a concealed license soon. The element of surprise will be on my side.<<
Arizona hasn’t had any shootouts since they went to Constitutional Carry. They have what I consider the ultimate in the element of surprise. Government face recognition cameras don’t have a clue as to who is carrying concealed.
You don’t seem to have any difficulty bowing to the powers that be and begging to have your right to carry concealed reviewed. Then you didn’t have any problems paying your hard earned cash for the permission slip that you carry in your wallet. I have a problem begging for my rights as perhaps you can tell.
Tell you what Mr. internet badass from Ohio, post a video of YOURSELF with an AR over your shoulder and a handgun openly carried, walking down your city street and show us what kind of a reaction you get.............
Then justify it as your right rather than you just trying to make a stupid point..........
But that ain't gonna happen is it Mad Dawgg because when all is said and done, you ain't got the f'n guts to walk the walk...........
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