—ping—
—will be my last post for the month from the J-S—up to my limit and won’t subscribe-—
What a telling comment there on the end. The same people who appear to be scared into wetting themselves at the sight of a free person carrying a firearm, don't readily accept that it deters criminals. I guess they are just lesser people.
Like, OMG, I'm like OMG, there's like, OMG, police and no SWAT teams
and Helocopters, like, OMG.
Sounds about right. I’ve been open carrying for...a long time. Most people don’t notice. Most who do notice don’t care or assume you’re a cop. Those very few who do comment are usually more curious about the legalities than anything.
"His sidearm deters would-be criminals, he believes, although he says he has no proof of that:
I worked in a bad neighborhood for several years. When one afternoon two dirty looking white boys took offense at my driving.
They were yelling and gesturing at me to pull over for a beating when I reached under the car seat, as they were watching. Suddenly their demeanor changed and they turned at the next light.
So I have no 'proof' they were deterred....except thbis story and that I'm here to tell it.
Great post! I am a more comfortable with concealed carry, but I live in a poor-to-middle class mostly black neighborhood which is strongly leftist. I suspect that if residents saw somebody with a gun around here they would automatically assume you were up to no good. Unfortunately, that would not be an altogether incorrect assumption based upon past experience in this area.
Nevertheless, I have nothing personally against open carry by citizens. I just think some folks would have a larger learning curve in getting used to it.
--one of the key paragraphs, IMHO--
This journalist is missing a great opportunity for a big story.
Right off the bat, it is mentioned that he is a big black man with dreadlocks, and as such will get more attention than a (white) man with open carry. What wasn’t said is that the attention paid to him might have been mitigated because he was accompanied by a white man.
If he really wanted to make a splash, he could get a small group of black men, with open carry, and see what results.
This might be too radical, off the bat, so he might try some mix and match, and in one afternoon get enough observations for several columns. Keep it to groups of four for some standardization. All with open carry.
1) Two black men and two white men.
2) Two black men and two black women.
3) Two black men and two white women.
4) Four black men with neutral uniformity, like same color baseball caps.
5) etc.
