Pace
Regular Member
imported post
http://www.libertypace.com/journal/2010/2/15/california-police-open-carry.html
I’m quite supportive of most police officers and most police departments – I think personally that they risk their lives every day and most of them do their job with the utmost honor. Many of them get up every day early, put on a uniform and badge and enforce the law as they know it. These people deserve our respect and gratitude for the work they do, period. I wanted to make this clear before I continued, because some people have written me about my comments here and other places that I am “anti-police” which is farther from the truth.
There was a debate on a gun-rights message board on how citizens should act around police officers. In the open-carry movement in California there is a growing amount of gun-owners protesting by carrying unloaded open guns in the local streets, in order to make a point about gun ownership in California. Many police departments have responded correctly follow the law, while some other police departments need to be educated and have arrested, detained and harassed open carry advocates. Many of the gun-rights people in California thus have recommended that people in California never open carry as a form of protest, because it might “harm the gun rights movement” or worse a police officer might respond incorrectly, and shoot someone OCing.
First of all, in this country there is a long history of peaceful protest under the law, and unfortunately some police departments responding violently and often illegally. When someone wants to protest legally, no matter what it is for, they have a right to do so, and protecting those rights should be important to every American, no matter what you might believe about the gun debate in general. The same excuses have been made for almost every other civil rights protest, where people told blacks to not “rabble rouse” and go to the front of the bus, or asked women not to leave their homes to get the right to vote. There are always people who say that protest is dangerous and ask that people stay home, not protest. However, this country was founded on protest, and it’s an extremely important form of expression – for any cause, and most importantly for the open carry and gun rights movement.
The second part of the question, and the most important part, is how police respond to Open Carries. As the movement has grown in California, most police officers have become educated and respond as they should, within the guidelines of the law. There are those who feel that open carry is “asking for trouble” and that it is not a proper thing to do, to provoke police officers or challenge their authority. Let me remind you, the police signed up for their job and are expected while they wear the uniform, to act like professionals and treat all citizens in a respectable manner. This is their job, their duty. Citizens on the other hand, have a right to be jerks, protest, to open carry or act in any way they want under the law. If a citizen wants to open carry an unloaded firearm in many places in California, he has a right to and the Police have a responsibility to respond in a professional and unthreatening way – which most of them are now. Similarly, as citizens we have an expectation that we can following the law, protest and not be endangered by police officers responding to a protest, whatever it might be.
Something to think about.
http://www.libertypace.com/journal/2010/2/15/california-police-open-carry.html
I’m quite supportive of most police officers and most police departments – I think personally that they risk their lives every day and most of them do their job with the utmost honor. Many of them get up every day early, put on a uniform and badge and enforce the law as they know it. These people deserve our respect and gratitude for the work they do, period. I wanted to make this clear before I continued, because some people have written me about my comments here and other places that I am “anti-police” which is farther from the truth.
There was a debate on a gun-rights message board on how citizens should act around police officers. In the open-carry movement in California there is a growing amount of gun-owners protesting by carrying unloaded open guns in the local streets, in order to make a point about gun ownership in California. Many police departments have responded correctly follow the law, while some other police departments need to be educated and have arrested, detained and harassed open carry advocates. Many of the gun-rights people in California thus have recommended that people in California never open carry as a form of protest, because it might “harm the gun rights movement” or worse a police officer might respond incorrectly, and shoot someone OCing.
First of all, in this country there is a long history of peaceful protest under the law, and unfortunately some police departments responding violently and often illegally. When someone wants to protest legally, no matter what it is for, they have a right to do so, and protecting those rights should be important to every American, no matter what you might believe about the gun debate in general. The same excuses have been made for almost every other civil rights protest, where people told blacks to not “rabble rouse” and go to the front of the bus, or asked women not to leave their homes to get the right to vote. There are always people who say that protest is dangerous and ask that people stay home, not protest. However, this country was founded on protest, and it’s an extremely important form of expression – for any cause, and most importantly for the open carry and gun rights movement.
The second part of the question, and the most important part, is how police respond to Open Carries. As the movement has grown in California, most police officers have become educated and respond as they should, within the guidelines of the law. There are those who feel that open carry is “asking for trouble” and that it is not a proper thing to do, to provoke police officers or challenge their authority. Let me remind you, the police signed up for their job and are expected while they wear the uniform, to act like professionals and treat all citizens in a respectable manner. This is their job, their duty. Citizens on the other hand, have a right to be jerks, protest, to open carry or act in any way they want under the law. If a citizen wants to open carry an unloaded firearm in many places in California, he has a right to and the Police have a responsibility to respond in a professional and unthreatening way – which most of them are now. Similarly, as citizens we have an expectation that we can following the law, protest and not be endangered by police officers responding to a protest, whatever it might be.
Something to think about.
