Doug Huffman
Banned
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/mailbag/article_af96a2b4-c7c8-11df-a301-001cc4c03286.html
.Madison-area residents should be grateful to the woman who asked police to investigate when men displayed guns at a Far East Side restaurant.
Although brandishing a loaded handgun in public is obviously provocative and dangerous, the State Journal reports that is not always a crime in and of itself. However, sometimes it is, and a citizen has no way to tell which gun flaunters are law violators or dangers to the community, and which ones want to demonstrate that they are protected under "open carry" rules and may be less dangerous.
Investigating gun incidents should be a higher police priority than virtually anything else except an actual violent crime already in progress. The police force has capable legal advisers to determine how to handle the situation without violating the rights of those carrying guns.
Citizens who value safety and public order and who witness gun display incidents owe it to the community to request immediate police investigation. Congratulations to the woman who did the right thing this time.
- Kenneth J. Doran, Madison