Posted on 05/04/2015 7:41:52 AM PDT by rktman
“I’ve been around guns for longer than I can remember. With my dad as a police officer, our house had lots. Never treated them as toys, never needed to show off. Guess it is an age thing, but at 55 I carry or do not for its sake, nothing more, nothing less.”
The longterm attack on the second amendment has made the act of carrying a gun political, like it or not.
You write as if our second amendment rights are not under attack. A major component of that attack has been to denigrate people who exercise their rights.
I do not think that is what you intend; but it is what is accomplished when you belittle those who have the courage of their convictions. Those who risk hassle by the police show more courage than most. Many second amendment supporters lost much money, time, and sometimes their life, in pursuit of the constitutional right to do what you so casually dismiss as “attention seeking”.
Is it that you “never needed to show off” or is it that you feel social pressure not to exercise your rights publicly?
It is hard to tell the difference from the outside.
The concern I have over doing it is that the person exercising their rights in such a way really needs to be informed on the risks of doing so.
For better or worse, cops these days are trained in very aggressive active shooter response tactics. All it takes is a few angry and hateful Progs to call 911 with a report of a guy with a gun in a crowd and the guy could quickly go from a citizen exercising his rights to a martyr.
So, again, within his rights but, assuming he wasn’t trying for suicide by cop, definitely unwise.
Hmmm ... When I started to regularly carry concealed, I also started to wonder "why" I was concealing. Carrying a defensive weapon is a Good Thing ... it shouldn't need to be hidden. I understand the tactical debate over concealed vs open. That's not the point. The point is that owning guns and bearing arms for defensive purposes is a good thing. We shouldn't have to skulk around in constant fear of "printing" or "flashing" or other nonsense. Also, the police need to get it through their collective thick skull that "armed man" DOES NOT equate to "bad guy on the loose". Some officers get it. Many do not.
I agree. It is just that when these people dress up in tactical gear and make somewhat stupid remarks, it is not helpful. Think about it: (1) a person simply open carrying or (2) a person dressed up in tactical vest and toys also doing open carry. The latter looks a bit crazy and is making an unnecessary and counterproductive spectacle.
Nothing more fun than watching liberals pee their pants.
When cops are dressed up in tactical gear with a carbine do they look crazy? What makes it a crazy for a citizen to do the same thing? Don’t you think that calling people “crazy” for acting in a sane manner, but one that is politically incorrect, the very definition of cultural marxism? Do you think that your abject capitulation to cultural Marxist ideals is more or less crazy than citizens acting well within their rights?
“It is just that when these people dress up in tactical gear and make somewhat stupid remarks, it is not helpful.”
Why do you believe that?
Our biggest problem is not “public opinion”. Public opinion is transitory and means little. Create a core of activists, and they drive public opinion over time.
What we need are activists. Activists mean much more than transitory public opinion.
A book that explains how this works is “Rise of the Anti-Media You would likely find it useful.
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2014/07/book-review-rise-of-anti-media-by-brian.html
That book looks interesting. I wonder if the principles it describes could be used to defeat other media pushed leftist positions that are taking over our country? Or did it just work because 2A issues are more clear cut and well defined than some of the other ones we face?
The core is to find ways to work around the old media.
Yes, it can be done.
It is harder with other issues.
But that is exactly what you are doing.
"Seriously, just because we can carry, doesn't mean we have to or should. These two dressed up as they were and carrying are doing it, in my opinion, to stir up a reaction. Taunting people. That they did not get a reaction is good. Got their 5 minutes of media attention and went home."
No, they were doing it to show that there were people out there who actually believe in their rights as written by law, and not what the media are propagandizing them to be, and they won't be intimidated into doing otherwise.
It's called "street theatre", and is very much a favored propaganda tactic of the left.
"I was in a WalMart a few weeks ago and as I came in a woman and her friend did so. She had a Glock open carry. I observed her strut around a couple isles at the front of the store, then leave the store without buying anything. She was clearly tempting someone to say something. No one did, she left bored.
YOUR interpretation. I seriously doubt that you could read her mind and in any way know what her motivation was.
"I've been around guns for longer than I can remember. With my dad as a police officer, our house had lots. Never treated them as toys, never needed to show off. Guess it is an age thing, but at 55 I carry or do not for its sake, nothing more, nothing less.
Likewise. I'm 67. "Fired" my first shot around age 4 (dad's .22 pistol in my hand...with my hand in his). Farm boy in south Louisiana. EVERY household had guns, and not locked in "gun safes" either. No...they were in the corner by the door to outside so they could be accessed quickly on the way out (coons and possums in the garden...or any other reason). Kids were introduced to guns just as I was...and in my entire 55 years in Louisiana, I NEVER heard of ANY child ever being injured by a "home gun incident". Hunting accidents, yes, two or three in fifty plus years, but never an "infant with gun" scenario.
Heck, when I was in high school, I would often "motor" tractor and bush-hog to rented property a couple of miles from the home farm to clip weeds in rented pasturage. ALWAYS carried a pistol (0.22 cal) loaded with rat-shot rounds for snakes. Open carry, hip holster. I also always stopped in at the local grocery store for a cold Coke on the way home. NEVER, EVER had anyone comment in any fashion whatsoever about the pistol, which I never even thought about taking off.
We had a shooting range IN OUR HIGH SCHOOL in Idaho. Shot pistol and rifle competition. No one shot each other or teachers. Bet there are such ranges in school today!
Heh...by the time we got to high school, we didn't need "no steeking shooting ranges". We already knew how. Those kinds of fancinesses were for city kids. And indeed city schools had them...often with an associated high school ROTC connection. Just another thing the anti-gunners got rid of as quickly as they could.
I’m sure this was very educational for those folks. Most people have no idea Washington is an open carry state.
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