open carry

Open Carry on the Daily Show

Runcible — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 03:12:44 +0000

The guys from OpenCarry.org decided it would be a good idea to go on The Daily Show, and I suppose they did OK. The show was unable to effectively depict them as lunatics, which I'm sure was the goal, and if anything the Brady Campaign's Paul Helmke comes off as having less humor and more hubris than John Pierce from OpenCarry.org.

I don't really understand the motivation for civilians carrying openly in populated areas. It seems needlessly provocative to me, even obnoxious. If someone lives 20 miles outside Roanoke, that's one thing, but I grimace when I see a civilian with an OWB holster walking around downtown Richmond. That said, people are free to be obnoxious and I'm not particularly worried about people who are precise about carrying in a lawful fashion.

Check out the coverage of this story at Snowflakes in Hell.

Open Carry Op-Ed in the WSJ

Runcible — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:40:17 +0000

Wall Street Journal editorial board member Nancy deWolf Smith wrote an opinion editorial for today's issue, discussing the problems inherent in the open carry movement. One of her stronger points is that:

Most of the time, citizens who carry weapons in public places are doing it for protection, and that means concealment. They don't want their handgun easily grabbed by some idiot in a checkout line, and they don't want a potential aggressor to know what they have on them or where it is.

I think in most cases we can rely on people's sense of etiquette to govern when and where they carry openly. I'm glad the right is protected in Virginia, but I'm also glad that most people decline to exercise it when in populated areas.

[Have Gun, Must Flaunt It? - Wall Street Journal]

RedEye weighs in on guns in Starbucks

Runcible — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:15:20 +0000

Not tremendously informative but it is pretty funny.