THe issue of painting your gun to look like a toy is separate from the issue of open carry, at least for me. I don’t see how criticizing a person for trying to make their gun look like a toy threatens to erode our 2nd amendment gun rights.
I support open carry of weapons, and think that if people did it more often, it would become less of an issue.
Gun rights are under attack, and taking actions that needlessly stir up opposition to gun rights seems quite counterproductive to me. Our rights ARE threatened, and encouraging those who threaten our rights is not a wise thing.
Yes, we all played with guns as kids, and none of us got shot, but then we didn’t live in a crime-infested housing unit where gangs used children to run drugs and commit armed robbery and other felonious acts.
I don’t believe my children were ever in any danger of being shot by police for having realistic-looking weapons either.
But apparently there are places in our country, mostly liberal bastions where guns were banned, in which children WERE shot by police. Did making the guns less realistic help matters? I don’t know, I guess not, and I also guess that smart criminals would have given the gun-running children weapons painted to look like toys, if it mattered in the least bit.
But the fight over 2nd amendment rights has nothing to do with the fight over whether kids should be allowed to play with realistic toy guns. The 2nd amendment does not protect the rights of a 5-year-old to have an authentic-looking ak-47 to play with. Government shouldn’t interfere in such things, but it’s not a 2nd-amendment issue, and those fighting for 2nd-amendment rights should not allow themselves to be distracted into tangential and unproductive fights over unrelated matters.
At the end of the day the people he encountered did not go home thinking of the fun they had. That they happened to encounter a responsible person openly and legally carrying a firearm.
They went home thinking all gun owners must be whacko. He only reinforced their liberal views.