Posted on 12/28/2009 3:51:18 AM PST by marktwain
The sight of a man openly carrying a firearm in a Nashville-area park has scared some people, resulting in a law enforcement response. From the Associated Press:
A man carrying an AK-47-style semiautomatic pistol was detained at Radnor Lake State Park on Sunday after startled hikers complained to park rangers.
Some would consider that a scary-looking gun. Some would consider coloring the muzzle tip orange so it looks like an Airsoft gun scary. And some would consider gun owner Leonard Embody's choice of apparel, "a camouflage jacket, military boots and a black skull cap" scary.
That's how hiker Ellen Thomas described her encounter with Embody. And even Minneapolis Gun Rights Examiner and Open Carry.org co-founder John Pierce, who is quoted in this story, concedes appearances can be problematic.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
A lot of good he did.
I saw the post he was commenting on and it is not in the same context as what you are saying.
“sneeze and I’ll blow your s#$% away” is what the supposed cop stated. That sounds like someone who shouldn’t have a gun let alone a badge.
The loon in this case didn’t decline any commands so use of deadly force would be murder.
They exist, and apparently this guy broke no laws.
The man had no beat down club.
That's true. And if you purachase an AR-15 lower by itself, the purchase is treated as a handgun purchase for just that reason!
Mark
If a suspect is holding a weapon and does not comply with commands, (IE: does anything other than what they are told) then deadly force would be permissible and expected. It wouldn't matter if the suspect were legally armed or not.
I understand what you are saying. I’m saying that the post in question was apparently written by someone too unstable to make that judgement call.
Case here just last week. A domestic at the supermarket led to the cops being called. The woman waved the cop off and they drove away. Cop followed them until they stopped to argue some more. Guy went for a gun to shoot the cop and possible the woman and 3 young kids in the back. Woman wrestled with the man for the gun. Cop tried the tazer but failed to control the guy. The cop fired one shot and the guy was dead.
Heck of a Christmas memory for those three kids but he didnt have much choice.
It looks like he wasn’t ‘trolling’ the forums. He actually did what he said he did, and it was legal to boot. All those forums were wrong to call it a joke. I saw a guy on IRC saying he did the same thing, might have been him. I thought it was nuts, but apparently it’s legal.
I see people FR defending stupid AND illegal drug use all the time. If this guy wasn’t breaking any laws, what really is the problem? He was correct to say if this should be illegal, make it so.
Personal preference ... it's called freedom. *shrug*
” Personal preference ... it’s called freedom. *shrug* “
thats stupid, day glow orange tips were added to toys after kids playing with toy guns were shot by cops.
Saying you paint the tip orange to exercise ‘freedom’ is like saying you play russian roulette to enjoy your 2nd amendment rights.
Doing so causes confusion, which is probably your real reason. It creates additional safety hazards and provides ammunition to the gun banners.
‘If this guy wasn’t breaking any laws, what really is the problem? “
Because we don’t need a law to tell us when behavior is stupid.
I think I would support making it illegal to paint the tip of your gun orange.
The whole point ot the orange tips is to protect kids from getting shot by police officers.
It would be like waving a white flag and then shooting the people who come to meet you.
Unless someone can come up with a good reason to paint the tip of a real gun orange, that is.
We do give up small amounts of freedom to do meaningless things in the interest of the general welfare. Marking a gun like a toy seems like a reasonable thing to prohibit, in the interest of kids being allowed to play with toy guns.
We don’t do everything we have a right to do, because we live in a civilized society, where we respect the feelings of others and try to minimize harm, NOT because we are legally required to do so, but because we have manners and respect for our fellow man.
So while you can legally eat large amounts of baked beans, and then legally go stand in the middle of crowds and fart uncontrollably, most of us don’t, and we consider those who do as undesirable.
People who deliberately go beyond what they need to protect themselves and others with their weapons, simply to provoke feelings of fear and anger in others, are not behaving in a civilized, mannerly way.
They can be defended on a legal basis, and yet we can still make fun of them for being boorish.
Yes, that is stupid. Attempting to add more confusion to an already tense situation can be called nothing but stupid.
But this guy, the guy who was carrying the AK pistol, is going to take it to an all new level. He has been inquiring about armor piercing ammo and is trying to buy a suppressor according to some of his post on other forums.
It would not suprise me in the least to see commit suicide by cop. Luckily the police are well aware of his postings and history now.
Getting attention to make people aware is one thing. This is just plain crazy.
So you’re opposed to legal open carry? It seems the main problem he had was the cops didn’t know it was a pistol. I’d say the police were the real problems here.
You say it so much better than I do.
Then again the right of free sppeech does not allow you to yell “Fire!” in a crowded auditorium.
Justified as he may be under Tennesee law; this fellow is still as thick as two short planks.
As far as getting blown away by some over-zealous cop - it may not go down that way. He could also be dropped by a nervous rookie or anopther armed civilian who felt threatened and would possibly mistake any movement as aggression.
This fellow probably has no idea he is slightly unhinged and sees himself as some kind of crusader.
Sooner or later there will be a reaction to this jerk and he will be lucky to come out alive.
No, I’m opposed to people painting their real guns to make them look like toys, and parading around a park scaring people needlessly.
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