Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Open Carry. What is Your Response?


Picture this: You are sitting in a restaurant having lunch and these two idiots walk in the door. What do you do? Why are they there? To me there are only two reasons. 1) they are crazy and are there to rob the place or commit some sort of mayhem! 2) they are crazy and are there to show off their guns and their 'Right' to carry them. I have no way of knowing if they are drunk, drugged, untrained or insane and I will not take the time to find out. The only safe assumption is that they are nuts and looking for someone to shoot.

Whether they are there to kill, rob or to compensate for their tiny penises, I don't care. My first responsibility is to reduce the danger to myself and my family. I stand up and walk out the nearest door immediately. I do not hang around to see what happens, to talk to the staff or to put myself between them and the cash register by paying my bill. I leave! The business, which has the right to ban guns, has obviously made the business decision that they want the gun business before mine. Fine, the restaurant can either absorb the cost of my partly eaten meal or they can ask the crazy guys with the guns to pick up the tab, I don't care.

Same thing with grocery or department stores. As soon as I see these guys I abandon my cart and walk out the nearest door. Someone else can put everything back on the shelves and deal with the thawed shrimp and melted ice cream. The policy of the store has exposed me to unacceptable danger and I am gone.

In either case I will get in my car, get out of range, call 911 and report a man with a gun. That is my responsibility. What the police do with that report is up to them and the people they answer to.

Texas has just become an "Open Carry" State. These idiots will be seen more and more swaggering around scaring the Hell out of normal citizens. We all have to decide what to do when confronted by them. I have made my decision.

16 comments:

  1. Back in November a guy was walking the streets in Colorado Springs, CO with a gun. When a neighbor phoned police to report it, she was told there was nothing the police could do since "open carry" was legal. The guy then shot and killed 3 people on the street at random.

    My response is exactly the same as yours. No matter what the business, if they let people open carry I'm outta there.

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    1. Oh, I know the police will do nothing. It just relieves me of the worry that I did nothing. Remember the old days when a report of "man with a gun" brought everyone running?

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  2. Americans revere the Constitution and uphold it with their lives. Sounds silly to me. This is an excerpt taken from a study done by the faculty of law at the Univ. of Chicago.

    "Our analysis of the constitutional life cycle leads us to think of constitutions as rather fragile organisms. Indeed, the average citizen outside of North America and Western Europe should expect to see her country cycle through six or seven constitutions in her lifetime."

    I think that pretty much sums up the problem with gun control and the 2nd amendment and the right to bear arms.

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  3. mexicroft,
    To be fair, the open carry laws (in Texas and the other 44 states where it's legal)are for handguns, not AK47's or assault rifles. Or whatever those are in that pic.
    But I still agree with your stance and will do the same as you - vote with my feet and my snowbird dollars.
    The ironic thing is that guns seem to be a right of passage in the USA, yet media/government still scares people about 'safety' when it comes to Mexico.

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    1. Kelsi, a quick Google search found many States where open carry of long guns is allowed. The following concerns LA.
      "Can I Open Carry a rifle/shotgun?
      Yes it is legal to open carry rifles/shotguns but for several reasons we do not advocate for it at this time. Our organization is focused on the right to openly carry properly holstered handguns in daily American life. We do NOT promote the carry of long guns. Long guns are great! LOCAL Founders and most of the members of this forum own at least one long gun - but due to urban area issues of muzzle control, lack of trigger guard coverage, and the fact that the long gun carry issue distracts from our main mission to promote the open carry of handguns in daily life, we will leave long gun carry activism in the capable hands of the future founders of web sites about long gun carry. Basically it distracts from our main mission of normalizing carry of firearms commonly used in self defense. 99% of the time the average citizen will be carrying a pistol instead of a rifle and that is what we concentrate on. One step at a time as we say."

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  4. Re Texas: "The state already allows any Texan to openly carry rifles, shotguns and other so-called "long guns."

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  5. Absolutely gobsmacked by all of the above. I for one, will no longer come to the great USA if this becomes commonplace. I will choose to fly right over top of it to ANYWHERE else in the world. Sad because we live in White Rock BC, a mere 3 minutes from the border plus we have friends and family in the USA. Sorry but I will practice my own form of protest by refusing to enter into a country that puts this type of stupidity front and centre........and they are worried about the "safety" in Mexico.

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  6. We feel exactly the same as you Croft, and our response will be the same.

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  7. Croft,guy on the left with the great hat must be really hung.Great move to leave,the establishment should not allow that type of display.

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  8. Sorry, as a citizen of the US (and friend of Croft and Norma) I find all these comments fairly amusing. I guess when one grows up around guns being used as tools, and knowing that the very vast majority of people use guns responsibly, the idea of open carry isn't that big a deal. The thing with laws is, only those who worry about laws will abide by them. The bad folks, and the ones who are mentally ill or otherwise impaired, will carry no matter what. I was under the impression that most places actually allowed open carry, it is concealed carry that needed the permit with the associated training and background checks. If I can see the gun I can make assumptions, like y'all are doing with the picture above, of how responsible I think the person is with the gun. If a person is carrying concealed, that person can get by with more before being noticed if bad juju is on their mind. Also, I just assume that anyone around me is carrying. Unless, of course, they fly the Canadian flag. :)

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    1. Ah yes, the peace of mind that comes from knowing that the 'very vast majority' of my granddaughters' classmates are not psychopathic killers with access to their mother's gun collection!

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    2. Hmmm... doesn't seem amusing when some nut carrying around a gun blows away an innocent. There are legitimate uses for guns, however packing one around on the streets or in a store isn't one of them. I still plan to go the other way when these open carry zealots are around. No big deal.

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  9. I figure my odds of getting shot here on my country place are: a million to one-a arab terrorist, 100,000 to one from a stray from target practice or a wayward hunter, 10,000 to one from that crazy man next door who mows his lawn strapped. 10,000 might even be too generous. I've cut off all contact with him because he is so erratic.

    I boycott all merchants who ware a gun. Someone wants to rob them, they will come in shooting. Collateral damage is what it is .

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  10. Perhaps boycotting the state of Texas wouldn't be a bad idea - no more snowbirds could make an economic dent - problem is many snowbirds and RVers want to carry too. I am not sure about the specific laws in AZ but in some areas we see lots of open carry - and AZ passed a law that it is OK to carry in bars - a specific law regarding carry where there is booze - yep booze and guns great idea.

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  11. When I was a trucker it was common for truckers to carry - illegal and concealed. I had two pistols. I started my gun training when I was about 11 years old. Won trophies. On Navy shooting team - .45 caliber hand guns. Lots of other training. But the more I thought about it the more I though carry in a truck was a bad idea. Several states at that time (80s) had mandatory 1 year in prison for illegal handguns in those states - legal in Colorado but not legal in NY or MA - judge as no option - mandatory 1 year in prison. But I also thought of the idea of actually shooting someone and perhaps killing them - could I live with that? Just give them the truck and the cargo and let the insurance company and law enforcement figure it out. I took the guns home and later sold them. I like target shooting but have no other use for guns - I hope.

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  12. What a mess this all is. People must give peace a chance before they can move ahead.

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