Wow, they're actually allowed to put "fact sheet" on this pile of crap article about open carry?
Open carry proponents are becoming more emboldened by the media coverage their events generate, and the absence of any organized counter effort to remind Americans that the open carrying of firearms:
- Creates deliberate confusion for the public and law enforcement as no one can be sure that the carrier is doing so legally, or is a criminal with violent intent.
- Threatens the safety of children and others from accidental shootings
- Creates difficulties for police who are trained to assume that anyone armed is a potential threat
- Provides no protection to open carriers who primarily carry in safe, suburban and rural areas where the threat of violence is essentially zero
- Pits the rights of a paranoid minority against the safety of the majority of Americans who recognize that the risks of openly carried handguns far outweigh the potential benefits
"Deliberate confusion?" Yes, the entire reason people open carry is to confuse you and make you wonder if you're about to get attacked! Jeeze, and
we're the paranoid ones? Not to mention, what criminal open carries? LOL. They illegally concealed carry because they don't want people to know they're armed. Who wrote this?
Threatens the safety of children? How? I had a friend say this to me the other day about concealed carry. "You wouldn't concealed carry around children would you?" Yeah, I would, why? "Well that's dangerous!!" I really don't get where this feeling comes from. Is it because people are more protective of children that they freak out when guns are anywhere near children? It's not like I'm handing my gun to the kid to let him or her play with it. It's in a holster, hidden under my clothing, and it's secure and under control. There is virtually no danger there. This seems paranoid to me.
Police are trained to think that anyone armed is a potential threat? Well, yeah, that makes sense because it is a potential threat. It has the potential to be a threat. So does every other person out there. However, the police are there to enforce the law. They should know what the laws are to properly enforce them. If they don't, they need to be re-trained. If open carry is legal, there's no reason these people should be treated differently, they've done nothing wrong.
Provides no protection? Yeah, cuz muggings, rape, and assault only happen in the hood.
Well, I would think that if the majority of Americans recognized that the risks of open carry outweighed potential benefits it wouldn't be legal in all those states now would it?
I'm not even a big fan of open carry but man this is so full of garbage. It even goes on to talk about how Starbucks is ENDANGERING their customers by allowing open carry and it shows a picture of open carriers in California. Yes, an unloaded handgun with no magazine in it and an empty chamber is clearly a danger. It could accidentally fall out of the holster and land on someone's foot! Ignorance really must be bliss to some.
