"Open Carry" laws being abided by at Obama protests

[Ras Asad]

hell yeah.
this guy was fucking stupid.
im for guns to.
but this dick was just that... a stupid dick.

[LotRev]

Hahaha, Chris Matthews just tore some guy apart about this shit.
I'll post the video when it becomes available.

I know everyone on one side of an issue isn't an idiot, but I sure do like
watching people come onto talk shows hoping to get their point across
and they end up looking like they didn't get out of high school.

edit:
Just answer the damn questions intelligently, don't avoid the topic,
and you won't look like this guy.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#32482384

CM: Why would you be particularly trustworthy in a situation carrying a gun with the president present?
Guy: Because gun owners in this country are the most law abiding segments of society we have.
....uhhh what?

[Hippie3]

Originally Posted by dead_diver

For all anybody knows the guy could have been an "agent provocateur" sent by the very people who would like to see a total gun ban in the US. The infiltrator is always the first to incite violence. There is just no telling what the guys reason could have been but no matter how you look at it, it's in poor taste.

it's conspiracy theory shit and belongs in the twilight zone, not here.

[dead_diver]

Originally Posted by Hippie3

it's conspiracy theory shit and belongs in the twilight zone, not here.

I did come off sounding like I was in the twilight zone but what I said I meant in a totaly hypothetical sense as in nobody can really know his reason for carrying. Was it to assert his right to bear arms or to incite a reaction? Fuck if I know?!

[Hippie3]

who gives a fuck what his real reason was,
this ain't psych 101-
frankly i don't give a shit WHY he did it,
it's enough for me that he did.

[Hippie3]

here's how a man with a rifle can kill without firing it-

[mydarling]

Originally Posted by LotRev

I still fail to see where the law matters here.
We (this community) obviously do not respect the law much
when it comes to hobbies, so I don't see how referencing it
for selected use is a fair argument.

The law is wrong on many occasions.

Doing something irrational or stupid because it is within the law
is absurd. It IS common sense that you don't go walking around
with assault rifles. Protesting, or even just standing outside of any
function/group meeting you don't agree with holding a gun is
intimidating, that's the point of bringing the gun. Was the meeting
about guns? What purpose did the guns serve? And the extra rounds?
He wanted to cause a frenzy over it, and he succeeded.

There are all kinds of things you can do to incite riots and violence, within the law,
that doesn't make those things right or ok. No, he didn't cause riots and violence,
but easily could have. People react in crazy ways to all kinds of things.
Fights break out all over the place already, and a heated political venue
is no exception. Adding guns to that mix does not register as common sense to me.

well said, lotrev. i completely agree.

[growurown]

I was reading about this earlier and the guy with the AR said that. I what he said. But have to agree that its just setting the stage for violence latter. With all the attention drawn to them some one might have been able to slip in. Im sure all the attention wasnt on them but it probally weakend secruity. glad nothing bad happend. He got me a temp. job atleast

[heritage ranch]

i find it interesting that so much debate has been sparked over this. are we really all that worried about a man openly carying a gun? do we worry about the man with a badge, carying a gun? and dont tell me that a man with a badge is to be trusted just be cause he has a badge. just ask kara knotts family.

it is not the man i see with a gun that worries me. he will know the spot light is on him and obviously does not plan to use it to do anything wrong. it is the punk in the crowd hiding a gun in his pocket trying to not be noticed that worries me. plenty of criminals carry guns everyday, and for nefarious reasons. do we feel safe just because we dont see them?

have we as a country been so dumbed down that we fear the gun, and not the criminal. if so the gun grabbers have already won. and the next trophy for them will be far more devastating, and we will have no recourse but to bend over and take it.

[Hippie3]

some might take a shot and not care if everyone sees him do it -
Sirhan_Sirhan made no effort to conceal nor run away.

one easily can conceive the idea that some lunatic fringe racist
might shoot the president in public.

as for the police-
no fan of theirs
but still they do get some training and are screened for mental illness,
which is more than one can say about the kind of folks that take AK47s
to political events.

and even if they never fire
there's still voter intimidation,
a violation of federal law.

what if that citizen takes it one step further-
shows up with his AK and wearing white robes of the KKK, emblazoned with swastikas -
it's still legal, right ?
yet the chilling effect on the minority voters cannot be overlooked,
a man feels less free when there's someone with a gun there, watching him.

[hallucinogeneti]

Many violent conflicts happen very quickly and unexpectedly. That guy could act cool all day and it could change in a second if the wrong person tried some shit. It's just reckless endangerment imo. We've all seen violence suddenly escalate without warning.

If 2nd amendment people want to hide behind the technicalities of the law, and toy with the odds of people losing their lives, I hope they realize the magnitude of responsibility that they take on for the events that could unfold.

[bb2681]

well where i live we dont have open carry..l.we have concealed carry, i have to go through a rather strict qualification test both shooting and written...then the sheriffs background check, but rest assured i will always have my .45 tucked into my back anywhere i can legally carry it, but it will never come out unless im defending myself or another when there is no other option...but if i saw a guy with an ar-15 walking into a courthouse or town hall i would not think 4 a second that was for self defense

[heritage ranch]

Originally Posted by bb2681

well where i live we dont have open carry..l.we have concealed carry, i have to go through a rather strict qualification test both shooting and written...then the sheriffs background check, but rest assured i will always have my .45 tucked into my back anywhere i can legally carry it, but it will never come out unless im defending myself or another when there is no other option...but if i saw a guy with an ar-15 walking into a courthouse or town hall i would not think 4 a second that was for self defense

nowhere in the constitution does the right to keep and bare arms get restricted to selfdefense

an armed society is a polite society

the government SHOULD fear the people, not the other way around

[Sidestreet Getaway]

Originally Posted by heritage ranch

an armed society is a polite society

Not always. Just a few months ago a man was shot dead in a park blocks from my home over a basketball dispute. Obviously not a polite resolution of the conflict. This happens all the time in many places.

Just compare America's gun violence rate to, say, Britain's.

(This is not a comment on the 2nd Amendment, which I am for)

[Hippie3]

Originally Posted by heritage ranch

nowhere in the constitution does the right to keep and bare arms get restricted to selfdefense

an armed society is a polite society

the government SHOULD fear the people, not the other way around

those slogans just do not hold up in the real world
and all the proof is plain to see in other areas of the world-
'armed citizens' can go too far,
in Gaza there are no gun control laws,
a man can have ak47, rpg, grenades.
and no doubt the government, what little there is left,
is in fear of it's citizens.
the same situation prevails in Somalia,
and dozens of other third world failed states.
-----------------
as for going beyond self defense,
i don't think you'd want to go there.
if there were no limits
i'd shoot a guy openly carrying
just to make sure he could not pose a threat.
it'd be open season.

[Manofmanyhats]

[QUOTE=LotRev;758550]I still fail to see where the law matters here.
We (this community) obviously do not respect the law much
when it comes to hobbies, so I don't see how referencing it
for selected use is a fair argument.

The law is wrong on many occasions.

Doing something irrational or stupid because it is within the law
is absurd. It IS common sense that you don't go walking around
with assault rifles.

I completely agree. I support the 2nd amendment but I don't see any responsible or rational reason why you would tote your AR to a political rally. This guys actions are a total abuse of the laws in Arizona.

[kcmoxtractor]

Originally Posted by Hippie3

that's because it's just common sense and consequences-
open-carry as an 'ideal' is like free speech-
in the real world there must be limits.
free speech doesn't allow death threats,
and open-carry should not include political rallies.

Mixing guns and anything that becomes "heated", like a political debate, seem like a bad idea IMO.

What about the probability that the rally turns into a riot and someone gets hurt? That would look horrible for 2nd amendment rights.

I try to plan my actions thinking about what the worst possible outcome could be, and act like that is what's going on. That guy definitely didn't give the "worst possible outcome" any thought or consideration.

[Heisenberg]

WTF that's fucking stupid. He's pushing the limits on open carry. Remember that punk who took an SKS to the mall?