http://backwoodshome.com/blogs/MassadAyoob/2015/03/10/open-carry-whats-your-take/
Is there an argument, pro or con, that he didn't hit on the way down?
But then he comes out with
It's when he gets to the Texas long-gun OCers that he goes ballistic - over the behavior of a small minority. It's still to early to see if that is a valid point or not since the cause keeps advancing in spite of that monority's behavior.
Is it worth trying to establish a dialog with Mas? (Tam, who admits to OCing on occassion, remains adamantly against the practice except when she does it for the reasons she has for doing it. I've written her off as a waste of breath/electrons.)
stay safe.
Open carry is the practice of wearing a presumably loaded firearm, visibly. It normally takes the form of a holstered handgun. It occasionally takes the form of someone carrying a rifle or shotgun into a restaurant, which has a history of causing restaurant chains to ban or at least decry the practice. There is also what gun writer and blogger Tam Keel calls “Open carrying at people,” which I think is the province of those colloquially known as “attention ******.”
A few years ago, Mark Walters hosted a three-way debate on the topic on his show “Armed American Radio.” The “pro” speaker came, IIRC, from Georgia Carry. The “anti-open carry” speaker was a cop from the Midwest who, though generally pro-armed citizen, thought open carry was counterproductive to both the public peace and the Second Amendment cause. I took the middle ground, which I still hold. One the one hand, I would like for every state to allow any citizen who has a clean record and hasn’t been adjudicated mentally incompetent to be allowed to open carry a holstered, loaded handgun. First, because there are some jurisdictions where if the wind blows your coat open and reveals the gun you are legally carrying concealed, a genuinely frightened citizen or vindictive anti-gunner can combine with an anti-gun prosecutor to create a perfect storm of criminal charges for illegal open carry. Second, because if a good person suddenly becomes a stalking victim or the target of death threats, I don’t want them to have to wait up to 90 days (gun-friendly Florida) or six months (the time it takes before a new resident can even apply for a concealed carry permit in California, which for the most part is decidedly non-gun-friendly). But on the other hand, I don’t think we win any friends for gun owners’ civil rights by flaunting deadly weapons in the face of a general public conditioned to fear guns and their owners by generations of anti-gun media and political prejudice.
Is there an argument, pro or con, that he didn't hit on the way down?
But then he comes out with
thaty pretty much destroys everything said so far.I do open carry a few times a year in public, just to gauge typical response, and have done so in jurisdictions from New Hampshire and Connecticut to Washington State. Most folks don’t even notice.
It's when he gets to the Texas long-gun OCers that he goes ballistic - over the behavior of a small minority. It's still to early to see if that is a valid point or not since the cause keeps advancing in spite of that monority's behavior.
Is it worth trying to establish a dialog with Mas? (Tam, who admits to OCing on occassion, remains adamantly against the practice except when she does it for the reasons she has for doing it. I've written her off as a waste of breath/electrons.)
stay safe.