Open Carry Stuff
Clayton Cramer has more on his position regarding open carry. Sebastian has more.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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October 26th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I’m sure glad our friends speak out against exercising our rights so the Brady’s don’t have to.
Acceptance does not come from hiding in the closest.
Acceptance does not come from following the group.
Acceptance does not come from being afraid of offending every one.
Shrug.
Not scaring those who suffer from hoplophobia doesn’t seem to work all that well. In fact, it seems all of the recent progress in open carry has been as a result of, you know, open carrying.
I see no other means of approaching the issue.
I admit I could be very wrong though, there might be advancement of open carrying that didn’t involve actually open carrying that I don’t know about. There might be other ways of pushing the issue in court of government.
October 26th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Acceptance does not come from hiding in the closest.
Acceptance does not come from following the group.
Acceptance does not come from being afraid of offending every one.
Which is why, among those Christians who believe gay sex is a sin, they just lurve them some Phred Phelps. /sarc
Being serious:
If your attitude is “Piss off, I’ll do whatever the hell I want” then how other people react is really not your concern.
But if you really do want to convince people and change their minds, you do have to be mindful the other person’s perspective. Given the vast evidence of *yawn* that OCers have experienced I think OC really isn’t changing minds for or against. It’s simply a non-issue for most people. But that doesn’t change the matter that *if* you are trying to gain converts (on any subject) you can’t take a “fuck you” attitude about it.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
I’m not sure the anti-OCers really understand the effort much. If absolutely nothing else increasing prevalence of people open carrying and being in the news without accompanying reports of a bunch of people killed by the open carrier will, over time, desensitize people to the presence of guns. This is a very time honored and effective technique to help people with various phobias. You don’t have to convince people that they should like guns, just that the presence of guns is not, by default, a threat to them. Not much different than desensitizing someone to flying or snakes or spiders or whatever.
BTW, this is exactly the same technique that the anti gunners used to “sensitize” people to guns…a never ending barrage of lies and tails about how guns are killing everyone, people are fairly easily programmed, sometimes (maybe often) against their will.
October 26th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I have nothing against OC in general, I just think *mixing* OC activism with other Conservative “causes celebres” is the height of douche-baggery.
Don’t send mixed signals. You’re not fighting for 2A rights only for conservatives but everyone. And you need to persuade/convince everyone, not only fellow conservatives.
Just sayin’. Yes, the recent protesters in AZ were within their rights, yada yada, but when people were being arrested/harassed/detained under the Bush Admin for wearing the “wrong” t-shirt and being anywhere near the former Prez…that contrast is what rubs me the wrong way. Both sets of Americans were within their rights.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
“Both sets of Americans were within their rights.”
I say they belong to the same set– the one that wants to exercise their legal rights without being harassed for it.
I’m more for the “it desensitizes people” argument. Taking the gay rights or the black civil rights issue as an example, that sort of thing works. Or it certainly worked for those issues. If you’re over 50, you remember the push to get more black people on television, in ads, in kid’s books, etc. It’s a feature, not a bug. Sure; some (dumb) people got pissed. Really, really pissed even, about openly gay people, or about blacks marrying whites, etc., but the attitude the activists took, successfully, was that if such a thing pisses you off it’s your problem. Quit being a damned bigot, or whatever, and get over it.
Again; those are two of the working examples we have, in reality. Now show me where it’s been tried, really tried, and been a failure and maybe I’ll listen to the “we-can’t-exercise-our-rights-because-it’s-too-scary-or-might-offend” argument. Forget about your theories and lets look at reality.
This is getting close to what I call the Republican Disease– Republicans don’t want to get too insistent or be clear about certain things (little insignificant things like liberty and the constitution) because they want everyone on the planet to like them. That’s never, ever, I submit, been a winning tactic in a political battle with two distinct sides, and the gun rights battle is such a battle.
The bottom line reality of any conflict is that the majority of the people have no real dog in the fight either way, or so they think to themselves. No, these sorts of battles are fought and won or lost by a small minority of the total population.
I have observed a long and slow desensitization (or phobia reduction) of people toward guns in the last 20 years, and it certainly is not happening because pro gun rights folks are keeping their mouths shut (or their guns hidden) in fear. It is happening (can only happen) because some people are willing to push the envelope a bit here and there.
All that being said, if you’re carrying purely for defense, it makes sense to carry concealed so the bad guys never know who’s armed or who isn’t.
October 26th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
It is wrong to have an aversion to open carry by private citizens and complete acceptance of open carry by government agents.
October 26th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.
October 27th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Now show me where it’s been tried, really tried, and been a failure and maybe I’ll listen to the “we-can’t-exercise-our-rights-because-it’s-too-scary-or-might-offend” argument.
I do believe it was the sight of blacks being armed that started the gun control movement in the first place.
Desensitization by exposure works only if you are on the margin. There’s a reason why there weren’t any Gay Pride marches in the south in the 1920s.
So yes, there are plenty of historical examples where desinsitization did not or would not work. However, I think that in the vast majority of places OC is sufficiently on the margin or already fairly commonplace. Exceptions might be, say, Berkley or San Fransisco.