Mike
Site Co-Founder
imported post
http://www.star-telegram.com/242/story/1091084.html
Scares the bad guys
A letter writer asks why he should make others uncomfortable by wearing a gun if he only wants to protect himself from bad guys. (See: "Open-carry law pushes the limits, Dec. 6)
I’ll tell you why. First of all, it shouldn’t make law-abiding citizens uncomfortable; second, if it unsettles a law-abiding citizen, it will scare the tar out of anyone planning nefarious deeds.
There is, quite simply, no reason to be scared of a gun on a hip. A uniform and badge does not suddenly make that gun "safe," no more than its absence makes the gun somehow "dangerous." The gun is only as safe as the person who carries it, and I think that the 45,000 signed supporters of the open-carry petition, to say nothing of the millions of Texas gun owners who do not have a CHL, would consider it a great insult to infer that they are somehow "unsafe" because they don’t have the Texas Department of Public Safety’s seal of approval.
What it comes down to is choice. You choose to conceal a handgun to protect yourself while appearing "normal" and thus retaining the element of surprise. You have had the ability to make that choice for almost 14 years, but you didn’t always have it and had to fight very similar arguments in order to finally get it enacted.
I would like the choice of openly carrying my weapon as a deterrent, for comfort reasons and for practical reasons, including access time and weapon choice. I cannot make that choice simply because of the state I live in; 44 of 51 jurisdictions allow me to do exactly what I want to do here, and yet Texas, stereotypically the most gun-friendly state in the union, will not.
— Keith Shannon, Dallas
http://www.star-telegram.com/242/story/1091084.html
Scares the bad guys
A letter writer asks why he should make others uncomfortable by wearing a gun if he only wants to protect himself from bad guys. (See: "Open-carry law pushes the limits, Dec. 6)
I’ll tell you why. First of all, it shouldn’t make law-abiding citizens uncomfortable; second, if it unsettles a law-abiding citizen, it will scare the tar out of anyone planning nefarious deeds.
There is, quite simply, no reason to be scared of a gun on a hip. A uniform and badge does not suddenly make that gun "safe," no more than its absence makes the gun somehow "dangerous." The gun is only as safe as the person who carries it, and I think that the 45,000 signed supporters of the open-carry petition, to say nothing of the millions of Texas gun owners who do not have a CHL, would consider it a great insult to infer that they are somehow "unsafe" because they don’t have the Texas Department of Public Safety’s seal of approval.
What it comes down to is choice. You choose to conceal a handgun to protect yourself while appearing "normal" and thus retaining the element of surprise. You have had the ability to make that choice for almost 14 years, but you didn’t always have it and had to fight very similar arguments in order to finally get it enacted.
I would like the choice of openly carrying my weapon as a deterrent, for comfort reasons and for practical reasons, including access time and weapon choice. I cannot make that choice simply because of the state I live in; 44 of 51 jurisdictions allow me to do exactly what I want to do here, and yet Texas, stereotypically the most gun-friendly state in the union, will not.
— Keith Shannon, Dallas