Recently this letter appeared in my local newspaper.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/carry-94035-open-hope.html
Oddly, I am not comforted by this guy’s willingness to look out for me. Quite the opposite, I’m more scared of him and his Dirty Harry Complex than I am of the criminals. (If I ever meet Clint Eastwood, I’m going to kick the bastard in the croutons for bringing that pathetic middle aged fantasy to life.)
Look, anyone who is Openly Carrying is not projecting the image they think they are projecting. They do not look capable and in-charge, they look rather sad and pathetic. By taking a gun into a situation where no gun is needed, they are telling the world that they are so scared of their own shadow that they are incapable of leaving the house the without their .44 caliber security blanket. Their swagger is fooling no one but themselves. Anyone who has been around dogs knows that the frightened dog is the one who is most likely to bite, and so it is with people. They are not saying to world, “Stay away from me because I’m tough”, they are saying, “Stay away from me because I live in fear and looking to pop a cap on someone’s ass.”
Let’s face it, untrained yokels whipping their weapons out in a deadly situation isn’t going to help much anyway. (No, watching numerous reruns of “Walker, Texas Ranger” doesn’t count as training.) Unless someone really knows what to do when faced with the extremely rare mass shooting situation, and has practiced the scenario multiple times, they will probably add to the carnage rather than prevent it. You’re better off paying your taxes and putting more trained professionals on the street.
The good news for the rest of us is that when they do whip out their pet firearm and attempt to go Dirty Harry on the perp, they will get shot first, leaving the rest of us time to escape. So I guess we do owe them some thanks for that.
Let's take a minute and step back in time to Wild West. Everyone was packing and law enforcement was grossly inadequate, and no one was safe. Anyone who thinks an armed society is a polite society, but doesn’t exactly have history on their side.
So, thanks but no thanks, Benny. Go protect someone else, on the other side of town.
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Anonymous guy
FusunA
Donna Carbone
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Damon E Walters
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Comments
r
It's idiotic, all the way around.
Lezlie
Frankly, how would the casual observer know for certain if the twitchy, nervous armed person over there IS carrying an 'unloaded' gun?
Shiral, thanks for the comment! We don’t know, that’s part of the problem. But if these yahoos get stopped by law enforcement, they scream like little girls when asked to show their firearm is unloaded.
Bill, Open Carry is legal in Ca, and a state legislator has introduced a bill to limit it. I believe the letter I referenced was written in response to this. I think someone has been watching too many John Wayne movies.
Absolutely, he's gonna get shot first -- he has no bullets in his gun!
L, if you read through the comments on the link, one of the posters confidently asserts that he can load his gun in less than 2 seconds. Poor twit has no idea just how long 2 seconds is in a life or death situation.
It is always interesting how these guys are out combatting crime in low, or no-crime zones as well. There was a great article in S.F. Gate this week on Open Carry. The comments were the most entertaining part of of it--and there were pages of comments. Several pointed out that you never see these guys in, for example, hard-core neighborhoods in Oakland.
Excellent point, Steve! Of course something else occurred to me after I posted this, I wonder how many of these guys would be so big on Open Carry if all of sudden all the Hispanic and African-Americans started packing heat.