Look, we all get it. He is exercising his right to carry a firearm. But his exhibitionist approach is rude and inconsiderate of his fellow citizens who have no idea who he is or what he is up to. [More]I don't think you DO get it.
If you can't see something it can't hurt you? Isn't that equivalent to a child pulling his covers over his head to keep the boogeyman from getting him?
What you're really saying is, you judge everything by your provincial outlook. When I went to the Georgia Carry Annual Meeting, hundreds were open carrying--in a real nice hotel in the metropolitan Atlanta area--and nobody freaked out because the practice has been socially normed there--as it has been in many places.
That won't ever happen in "gun friendly" Evansville if the very people pretending to support the right to keep and BEAR arms publicly scorn regional pioneers of the practice as "fools."
What kind of psychopath feels the need to know "who he is or what he is up to" about everyone else?
ReplyDeleteI would say that I don't know who most of the people I see in a day are, or what they are up to... and I'm fine with that. Whether they have a gun visible or not is meaningless. I'm not a paranoid fruitcake like the writer of that editorial obviously is. How sad that he (or she) isn't embarrassed by his (or her) problem.
I carry concealed myself but I won't criticize anyone that want's to open carry. Like Kent, I don't know most of the people I see in a day and I am not worried about what they are up to. If they are up to no good, what am I supposed to do about it? Unless they involve me directly.
ReplyDeleteSome of the more unfortunate elements in the comments:
ReplyDeleteThat CC is automatically safer/better
That the open carrier will be "shot first"
That anyone has a "right" not to be offended, startled, uncomfortable
The big blind spot is that anyone can ever know the intentions, ethics, morals or character of anyone simply by looking at them. In my experience, criminals work very hard to look "normal" and not draw attention to themselves. The occasional true psychopath might, but he/she's the exception.
And some of these commenters really should get out of their own neighborhood once in a while. What causes panic in these pantywaists of Evansville is fairly common and rarely even noticed in Newcastle, Wyoming.
Really hard to be an "exhibitionist" open carrying if nobody around you really cares. :)