noname762
Regular Member
If I weren't already planning to vote for RON PAUL in 2012 I'd give this guy my vote!! He's got more COMMON SENSE in his pinkie finger than Obamy has in his whole body!!!!!
Folks who live in states like California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey and are native to those states fail to see, understand, and even believe that people in states like Virginia who carry rarely have problems with the police or public. They are of the mindset that when an officer sees an OC'er, that citizen is probably going to windup being cuffed and perhaps thrown to the groun
Don't forget your neighbors to the north, across the moat, in the People's Republic of Maryland...
.....uh, no we don't, we too many LEOs like Officer "Smith" already.
Thanks to skidmark for sending me an email telling me about this forum, and the reference to my blog.
It has been almost a month since I received that email, and I just got around to reading it today. I guess I should check that email more often eh?
Anyway, I am all for people being able to defend themselves when it is necessary. I DO NOT advocate shooting folks just for the sake of shooting them, but if your life or someone else's is in genuine danger, by all means you should be able to protect yourself.
The interesting thing about me joining this forum, is I have developed rather a negative opinion about open carry here in California. Now that I've said that, don't just brush me aside without reading on and discovering why I have developed the opinions I have.
Here we go...
In California, we are one of the few states remaining where it is nearly impossible to obtain a concealed carry permit. Because of this, we have had a number of issues with folks who have taken to open carry, by carrying an unloaded pistol on one hip with loaded magazines on their other side. This used to comply with the law (until the laws were changed BECAUSE of the behavior of the open carry "activists").
There are many reasons this form of open carry did not sit well with me.
#1) If you are carrying an unloaded weapon, you are a target. Anyone who is illegally carrying a CONCEALED weapon can be on you before you have time to load, and they can take your gun from you without you being able to do anything. Gunfights take place in seconds. Seconds you will not have available to load your weapon. An unloaded pistol is nothing more than an expensive paperweight.
#2) When a pistol is openly carried in a populated area in California, people freak out. While it is an every day sight to see someone walking around with a gun on their hip in Texas, it is not such a common sight in California, and the sheep here tend to get a little uptight when they see one and there is not a badge to go with it. It doesn't bother most cops, because we know what's up and how to deal with it. But the unfortunate fact is that the vast majority of folks here in the Nanny State believe guns are evil. You can blame that on many factors I don't have NEARLY enough room to delve into here. You would not BELIEVE how many people in my town I have suggested purchasing a gun to, who replied with "A GUN!? NOOOOOOOOO. Guns are dangerous. Etc."
#3) The majority of the open carry folks in California seem to have an agenda. Every single one I have contacted was less interested in exercising their second amendment right, and more interested in trying to catch the police in a mistake so they could sue for a civil rights violation. Every last one has had a video recorder of some sort, has insisted upon recording our contact (which bothers me not at all), and insisted they knew the law and their rights (which most actually didn't). Most of the folks I spoke with were hesitant to let me inspect their weapon (as I HAVE A RIGHT TO DO). Some would refuse to even tell me their name. All were incredibly discourteous. When you give the outward impression that you are up to something, instead of preserving your rights you'll just get them legislated away, just like has happened here in California.
So, the bottom line. Am I for the responsible carrying of some sort of defensive weapon by all folks who are not otherwise forbidden from possessing such (i.e. felons, parolees, mentally unstable, etc.)? Absolutely. Am I for open carry? Not the way I've seen it done around here. Am I dead set against it? Absolutely not. It just needs to be approached from a different direction and handled much more responsibly. The all around BEST way, in my opinion, is to make California a SHALL ISSUE state and eliminate the need for open carry altogether. But with the legislators we currently have in office, I doubt that's going to happen any time soon.
We've all heard the saying that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Well in this case, it would appear the squeaky wheel just got removed from the wagon completely.
On that note, thanks again for inviting me in.