ALL STATES SHOULD HAVE OPEN CARRY LAWS
Why the gun control groups should support open carry laws.
posted almost 10 years ago
An interesting phenomenon was happening last weekend. As the Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were getting ready to play the Seahawks in the Superbowl, a group of open carry supporters posted pictures of themselves on twitter in different stores with their fire arms visible. What followed was a kind of backlash that we have grown accustomed to from twitter and the social media universe. And it was swift too. With in a few minutes and in the following hours, groups like Moms Demand Action and others re-tweeted the pictures and thousands declared themselves never shopping from the store that the armed guys had taken their pictures at. In fact as the information continued to flow in, it was revealed that one of the armed guys was in fact a convicted felon who is not allowed to possess fire arms, leave alone carrying them publicly. But that is beside the point I am trying to make.
I am deadly afraid of guns. This fear goes back to when I was a child and armed men stormed our house in the middle of the night. Then in my teen years, I discovered a friend who blew his brains out with an AK-47. Since then, I always try to steer away from anyone I see with a gun. To me, anyone with a gun who is not in uniform means me harm.
So why would I support open carry laws?. The answer is really simple. Through personal experience and instinct, I have learned to get as far away from someone with a gun as possible as quickly as I can. What their intentions are does not matter. To me, its the same as seeing a wild lion in the jungle.
In my mind, the sole purpose of a gun is to instill fear and intimidate. Nothing is ever gonna change that. The bigger the gun, the more fear it will instill.
My point is exactly what a lot of the twitter response was. I would never enter a store that I visibly saw someone carrying their weapons openly. And it would not be because I am protesting the store necessarily. Rather, it would be because of the ingrained instinct in me to run and never look back.
So, rather that states ban people from carrying guns opens, I would have them make it a law that if you take your firearm into public, you should have it visible for everyone to see. After all, as it is your right to intimidate and instill fear, it should be my right to run away. Or tackle you like the Florida guy.
(edited almost 10 years ago)