March 16, 2011

Goddamn Republicans and their guns

Seriously, Steve, can you talk me down on this?

Okla. Senate OKs Bill Allowing Open Carry Of Guns - Politics News Story - KOCO Oklahoma City

2 comments:

steves said...

Let me look at this further and I will try and offer a better though out response.

steves said...

I don't know if I can talk you down. I have somewhat mixed feelings on the issue.

First of all, I don't consider myself part of the open carry (OC) movement, though I don't have a problem with people exercising this right.

To the best of my knowledge, this movement became active some time in the mid-1990's as a grass roots effort. There really isn't any kind of national group, nor does the NRA or any other major gun rights group advocate OC. People involved in this seem to belong for a variety of reasons, but it seemed to come about when people realized that concealed carry was very restrictive, there were not many laws against people carrying openly.

I am not familiar with the gun laws of your state, but in MI, there is no prohibition against open carry. There are a few places where you can't, but it is much less restrictive than concealed carry.

I don't see this as much more than a fringe movement. Among 'gun' people, very few are interested in open carry. Personally, I can't think of many places where I would want to do it. Besides drawing a huge amount of attention to the person, I think the cons outweigh the pros.

As I indicated in the beginning, I have no problem if people want to do this. There is no reasonable basis to conclude that the public is at risk. As far as I know, no one part of this movement has snapped and hurt anyone.

That being said, just because you have the right to do something doesn't mean you should. I think some OC'ers are too provocative and not respectful of the fact that not everyone is comfortable with people doing this. While some states may be OK with this, I think that it will encourage some legislatures to step in and be more restrictive with gun laws.