Tag Archives: Open Carry

Open Carry: Are you normalizing, or making yourself a target?

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who loves him some prior restraint of rights when it comes to “law & order,” does have some good advice. Stopped clock, twice a day, and all that.

Dan Crenshaw Right About What 2A Community Needs
Rep. Crenshaw cut to the chase about how the Second Amendment movement can continue the momentum and the importance for the industry and existing gun owners to change the way they recruit and welcome new firearm owners into the community.

“We need a lot less guys dressing up in their Call of Duty outfits, marching through the streets and we need a lot more women who are talking about how they need the right to defend themselves against a larger man.”

Tom Knighton elaborated in his own words.

“They don’t see those folks as ordinary people. They seem them as a violent militia that might start shooting at any given moment. They’re terrified of what that means.”

The Gun Feed referred to that as “pro-gun LARPing.” I agree; and I’ve addressed it before. Optics — viewpoint type, not firearm — matter. The people we want to persuade need to be persuaded precisely because they don’t view these things as do we.

If you want to sway these people to the Constitutionally correct view of the Second Amendment, do it right.

Tactical gear, ARs and AKs, and scary militant slogans aren’t going to suddenly persuade the Democrat delegates, Democrat senators, and Democrat governor that, “Well, gosh. We were wrong; these are just peaceable, reasonable, nonviolent people who make an excellent point.” Militant appearance and behavior at a lobbying event reinforces their belief that mere citizens are too dangerous to be trusted with arms.

If I’d been planning this, I’d have set up the rally as a silent protest outside, with everyone dressed as neatly as possible in their everyday work attire, to drive home the real point that we are just ordinary citizens, not nutjobs.

That’s one reason to avoid the tacticool look. But consider another. Police and federal agents are also watching.

Do you remember Duncan Socrates Lemp, killed in his bed by police? They targeted him because, due to his display of weaponry and gear, they decided he was an evil boogaloo/militia type. Lemp died for his optics. He won’t be supporting 2A rights much anymore.

Then there’s the “Hey, let’s form a militia, kidnap Gov. Witless, and put her on trial” morons. Sure, the feds had them heavily infiltrated with CIs and agents, and most likely talked them into the ridiculous “conspiracy,” but why target them?

Yep, militia, running around in public with ARs, and the like. They had the right-for-the-feds-purposes look.

They won’t be very active in the 2A community for a while, what with being in jail, awaiting expensive trials.

You absolutely have the right to rig up, and demonstrate with a rifle over your shoulder. But is it worth arrest or death? Does it “normalize” firearms ownership to do something that I’m quite willing to bet isn’t particularly normal even for the tacticool demonstrators? How many of them really dress and carry like that to doctor appointments, or grocery shopping? Outside of training sessions, do they rig up for anything but protests?

There are times and places for the the tactical look, if you want to drop the occasional hint to would-be tyrants. Consider getting a group of fellow veterans together to march in a Veterans Day parade, for example. In completely appropriate setting, you’re saying, “Our regular service may be done, but we’re still willing and equipped to respond as needed.” I’m sure you can think of other appropriate settings.

Otherwise, the setting is probably inappropriate for that sort of thing. If you want to normalize gun ownership through open carry, do it normally. Dress in your normal every day attire, possibly with a little extra attention to neatness. And open carry the pistol you normally carry. Do normal things while open carrying, like checking mail, or mowing the grass (yes, I do).

That’s a lot more likely to convince neighbors you’re a normal person who just happens to own a gun and “Huh, that must be common after all, and no big deal.”

That’s a lot less likely to convince the authorities that you’re another dangerous Lemp who needs to be eliminated, or low-hanging fruit ripe for harvest in a militia terrorism sting. Think of it as “OPSEC.”

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited, and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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Hopped-Up Little Mississippi Dictator Decrees Police State

Jackson, Mississippi Mayor King Chokwe Antar Lumumba posted videos on YouTube announcing an executive order “suspending” the state open carry law, in violation of Mississippi Code § 45-9-51, the state firearms preemption law.

Amusingly — in a morbid way — the first video cited as his “authority” a nonexistent code: § 45-7-17. That video was deleted after ridicule and questions. Fortunately, I saved a copy. It was replaced with a second video (also saved) with almost the same script, save that he omitted the spoken reference to the fake code, and included a screenshot of § 45-17-7, which does not give any such magical power.

The King declined to respond to questions about the order. Nor does the order yet appear on the city web site.

Only after the story was reported by The Truth About Guns, and was the subject of many social media posts, did any local news outlet pick it up. WJTV simply reported it unquestioningly as a good thing. But they did have a copy of the order.

Note that while the King’s video cites § 45-17-7, the actual order cites no authority for this whatsoever. He did it because he believes he’s all-powerful. One might wonder what other laws he’ll decide to unilaterally “suspend” indefinitely. Concealed carry? Firearm ownership? The Second Amendment? The entire Bill of Rights?

State Attorney General Lynn Fitch disagrees.

Cities can’t usurp the authority of the State’s elected Legislature and violate the Constitutional rights of the people. I support the 2nd Amendment and will enforce the laws of this State.

Loonumba is an oathbreaking, dictatorial scumbag with no respect for the law, the US Constitution, or the Mississippi Constitution. I suspect people are already preparing lawsuits in reaction to this unlawful order. This will very likely cost the taxpayers of Jackson a pretty penny. Normally, I’d disapprove of the people suffering for the misdeeds of the government, but apparently those citizens elected their king by a 93% supermajority. They’re getting just what they deserve.

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Presumed Guilt

Ran across this little bit about civilians terrified of open-carrying cops cops terrified of open-carrying civilians.

Enough is enough; we must get guns under control
“What is alarming to the police is that they have no power to ascertain the potential criminal background of an armed individual until a crime is committed, and by then it is too late,” said Ladd Everitt, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, an advocacy group.

Oh, noes! They can’t bust people until a crime is committed. How horrible.

Maybe they should consider the possibility that if the person isn’t doing anything wrong… then maybe he isn’t doing anything wrong. I know: it’s a difficult concept for public school-indoctrinated idiots in an age of imaginary microagressions.

Then again, claiming the worst without evidence worked so well for other police states.


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Shannon Watts Drools Inanities… Again

No one can accuse demented Mommy Demanding Action Shannon Watts of not taking advantage of an opportunity. Over the weekend, a man planted pipe bombs outside the Dallas, TX  police headquarters before opening fire on the building. James Boulware apparently lost it and decided to go on a killing spree of police, because he blamed them for losing custody of his son.

Shannon decided, however, that the time was right to blame the passage of an open carry law in Texas for the act of a demented criminal. The open carry law that won’t go into effect until January 2016.

Any reasonable, sane person would read this and laugh, but Shannon’s supporters and the Mad Mommies Demanding Disarmament are re-Tweeting Shannon’s inanity, almost certainly without actually checking the facts of the story.

Hey, fact checking is HAAAAARD!

Just your latest in gun grabber stoopid brought to you by Twitter and the letter “D” for “Dolt.”

 

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But If It Saves Just ONE Life!

How many times have we heard the plaintive cry from the anti-gun crowd? More gun/people control is needed to save just one life. You can tell how much life matters to the anti-gun crowd when the call for “SWATing” of innocent open carry citizens is suggested and celebrated. Even when it results in the death of two innocent people. One of who died of a heart attack after watching another innocent man be gunned down by the police. And Mommies Demanding Atrocities celebrated their death. Yep, if it saves just one life. Whine on. And people take Mommies Demanding Atrocities seriously. SERIOUSLY? Why?

According to this article:

“If you sync the phone call to the footage,” Bob Owens tells me, “you’ll notice that Ronald Ritchie, the caller, makes claims that are not true.” Among those claims, the Guardian records, were that “Crawford was pointing the air rifle at customers,” that he threatened “two children,” and that he was recklessly “waving it around.” This does not appear to have been the case. Indeed, when the lattermost statement was made, Owens notes, “the gun’s muzzle was pointed to the ground.” So pronounced are the discrepancies between Ritchie’s story and the surveillance footage that John Crawford’s family is hoping to take legal action. “He’s basically lying with the dispatchers,” the family’s attorney, Michael Wright argues. “He’s making up the story. So should he be prosecuted? Yes, I believe so.”

In this case a black man was shot because of a false police call made by Ronald Ritchie.

A radio show host has called for people that open carry to be gunned down by the police, according to this article he hates guns, and the police, so figures pitting them against each other is a great idea. The fact he has to lie, put every innocent person at risk doesn’t seem to trouble him a bit. But then he is a liberal, and anti-gun idiot. But I repeat myself. He doesn’t care that the open carry advocate is innocent, he doesn’t care that the other people around are innocent, he doesn’t care that the police that show up are innocent. He just wants them dead, because after all, guns are evil, they kill people. Life is so important to him, he’s willing to kill off a few innocent people to save just one.

My solution to people like Ronald Ritchie? I think he needs to be charged with premeditated murder. He knew what would happen when he lied to the Police and told them Mr. Crawford was threatening children. I think anyone, especially Mommies Demanding Atrocities, that SWAT someone because they are opening carrying should be charged with premeditated murder.

Ok, hang on to the saddle horn, we’re going to make a jump sideways.

If you look at what is going on in Ferguson, MO right now you see a mess. A black man was shot by a white police officer. While this is fine with Mommies Demanding Atrocities if he was doing nothing wrong and innocently carrying a BB gun through a Walmart, it’s not ok if he may have been in the process of assaulting a police officer. Initially the media portrayed him as this “gentle giant”. That narrative kind of came off the rails when video surfaced of him assaulting a store clerk a bit before his run in with the police. Oops. Then it was the Police “gunned him down” needlessly. Well, it seems forensics may not exactly bear that out.

Then protesters rioted, torched stores (it seems they left a tatoo parlor being guarded by armed owners with those “deadly, no sporting purpose, evil black rifles” alone) demolished a Quick Trip to achieve justice for Michael Brown. Um, well, hmm. While it may have appeared to the rest of the country that the Ferguson Police were a bunch of racist Barney Fifes running around with an itchy trigger finger (and who knows, maybe they are) but what has not been pointed out is that a large portion of those arrested are not, in fact, from Ferguson. Duane Lester of The Missouri Torch did a lovely job of detailing some of the out of town guests that showed up to the party. One of the first being Greg “Joey” Johnson, a communist revolutionary arrived fresh from Chicago, to stir the unrest. Photos too!

ACORN was also involved, as were the Black Panthers. You know, they ones that showed up during the Trayvon Martin debacle. Sort of Govenor Jay Nixon did his best barak obama impression by stating “a vigorous prosecution must now be pursued” of the officer that shot Michael Brown. Wrong Way Jay might have wanted to wait till some actual facts came in before he said that. But since obama had already used “the police acted stupidly” I guess he was trying to come up with the next best idiot line before someone else thought of it. Some of the other out of town guests were Code Pink, RevCom, the New Black Panthers, Socialist Party USA.

Several pictures have come out of Ferguson with the cops suited up like the military, and there were certainly charges of heavy handedness. I do not like seeing local police with tanks, humvees, nor do I like seeing them act like they are fixin’ to storm Bin Laden’s lair. That being said, they have families, they want to go home of a night in one piece. I understand. There are certainly an abundance of out of town scum that are there trying to stir the people up into a frenzy and they want more rioting and social unrest. Heck, just yesterday a anti-gun state Senator got herself arrested drunk and carrying a gun. She has a CCW. What a shocker. She’s anti-gun for thee, but not for, well, herself.

So where am I going with all this? While I don’t want to open carry because I choose not to give away my tactical advantage and because it scares the sheep, I don’t want to deny those that want to do so their rights. Those in my state, with a CCW have undergone a FBI background check, taken a class and passed a proficiency exam and written test. All necessary to utilize your Second Amendment rights in this state. Can Mommies Demanding Atrocities PROVE they are such law-abiding citizens? I doubt it. The Police and the CCW or Open Carry people SHOULD be allies. We are the law-abiding ones that just want to be left alone, we want to protect ourselves and our families. We don’t bother anyone, and we don’t want anyone to bother us. We don’t riot and burn down Quick Trips, we don’t SWAT people because we disagree with them politically hoping they will be killed. We don’t go out and incite people to attack the police. And yet, the left, the people of “tolerance” are the ones showing up, inciting strife and suggesting it’s a great idea to walk out of a restaurant without paying or make a false police report hoping it results in the death of an innocent person.

And people listen to these moonbats when they call for more gun control howling “if it saves just one life”? Inconceivable!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhXjcZdk5QQ

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