Charles C. W. Cooke has a piece over at NRO called Moms Demand SWATting. It deals with a disturbing trend among the idiot fringe of the gun control movement of calling 911 whenever someone is seen openly carrying a firearm. One recent incident resulted in an black customer in a WalMart being shot to death because he had an air rifle from the store shelves in his hands.
I live in Maryland, a state that engages in massive resistance to second amendment civil rights, so open carry is not an option for me except when I am in the field hunting. However, even when I am in place where my second amendment rights are not suppressed, I rarely practice open carry. I don’t believe that it is wise for me in most instances.
First, there’s the problem of nervous nellies calling the cops or other folks becoming excited. Having to deal with such nonsense causes needless delays. Second, and more important, there’s the tactical advantage of surprise which has been useful in a couple of situations. Third, there’s the advantage of discretion. If no one else knows I’m armed, I may be able to defuse an altercation without the implicit threat of a weapon on my hip.
Too many open carry advocates are proceeding in an unhelpful and off-putting manner. However, the response from the gun control nuts, “Exercise your rights under the law, and I’ll threaten your life,” is shamefully immoral.
UPDATE—Someone doesn’t seem to like this post. Among the suspects are several who are prohibited from possessing a firearm because a their status as a convicted felon or a fugitive from justice.
There is also the risk of an individual who may want to steal your weapon. That adds a potentially fatal risk to those who open carry.
I hate to be that guy, but the man shot at WalMart was not carrying a toy. It was a Crosman MK-177 air rifle. It looks exactly like an assault rifle.
Thanks. Correction noted.
And as seen on video he was stepping out from behind an aisle and pointing it at people. Not a great way to make people feel safe.
I saw the extended video of his walk thru Walmart. I didn’t see him pointing the gun at anyone. Which video are you talking about?
The one where he is in the corner of the store. He keeps stepping out into the aisle that runs 90 degrees to the one he is in and swinging the rifle up.
He’s swinging the rifle while talking on his cellphone. He never pointed it at anybody.
He didn’t deserve to die. The guy that made the 911 call is responsible.
The caller is responsible for BOTH deaths; a woman had a heart attack over the stress of the situation.
I saw the video too. While he was swinging the air rifle up and down aimlessly (pun unintended)but he wasn’t aiming it in my opinion. He was stupidly pointing it at items on the shelf. He had forgotten what it could possibly look like to others. Yes the caller and police overreacted.
In the Walmart case, I feel the guy who called 911 and described the guy as someone who was pointing the rifle at kids and acting aggressively should be charged with filing a false report. Elsewhere, I heard the cops were told they had an “active shooter” situation going on which could explain their very rapid response in the video.
However, I feel they over reacted and did not take time to analyze the situation when they had their “shooter” or whatever you want to call him in a corner of the store with no other shoppers nearby. Nor does it seem did they gave the victim time to realize they were talking/yelling at him. Finally, the video shows him facing the shelving when the cops were mostly concealed & 90 degrees off of his eyeballs while he was talking on the phone.
Open carry is the gay pride parade of gun ownership. The concept is the same. Exercise your rights in public. Be visible. Make people confront their prejudices about guns and gun ownership. It makes the general public squeamish. Just like how most people are squeamish about seeing a parade float full of jockstrap clad guys making out.
The more the left is made to see and talk about gun people, the more likely it is that gun people can successfully push their agenda of gun rights for all.
No word yet on gun marriage.
I am blessed to hail from a state where open carry isn’t considered cutting edge or “shocking”.
The “odd man out” in Yuma ISN’T openly carrying a firearm.
It’s true. You can walk down the street totin’ a bazooka and nobody will bat an eye in our state. Arizona is very tolerant of gun people and the whole gun lifestyle and agenda.
I open carry perhaps one percent of the time.
But I appreciate having the ability to carry my snake gun or Glock with no one even noticing.
It’s NOT tolerance when what you are doing is a Constitutional Right as stated in our 2nd Amendment!
And Bill must be on his last legs sanity wise. Why else would he try to submit a comment to someone who has a restraining order against him in such an easily-identifiable way?
“Hoggy Jr”? Who else uses that?
#epicfail
Someone rather obviously wants to be incarcerated.
Three hots and a cot are too good for him. Especially on the taxpayer’s dime. I’d be happy with double-wide confinement and no Internet access.
Wee Willy and Bunny Boy have been known to employ these entries from the Team Kimberlin Lexicon.
And this is why the Leftist talking heads don’t believe us when we declare we don’t want Obama (or any other Dumbocrat) as*as*inated.
Reblogged this on That Mr. G Guy's Blog.
I don’t open carry. I have thought about it but I have probably correctly concluded the idiot anti-gun fanatics and stupid cops would make my life miserable and just don’t feel it is worth the hassle even though I live in an open carry state. I just happen to live in a more liberal portion of the state.
From what I saw in the Wal-mart tape, there are one or more cops who ought to be facing a grand jury for murder or man slaughter. Based on what I saw, a DA should be investigating what happened. I’ll leave the trial to a jury but that shooting was highly dubious at the very least.
The victim may have been stupid as mud and was certainly situationally unaware but those aren’t crimes. And there is no valid reason he should be dead. You can’t just shoot someone for carrying a rifle in that state.
The Grand Jury verdict was to NOT indict the officers.
http://www.whio.com/news/news/special-grand-jury-selected-john-crawford-case/nhRwM/
Thanks. I didn’t realize that this took place back in August. If you can’t be indicted for this, then what does it take to indict a cop?
Wish we knew how much evidence was presented to the grand jury. Just as famously, a prosecutor can get an indictment on a ham sandwich, conversely it is possible to not indict a stone cold killer, if you don’t present all the evidence.