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In Defense of the Public Square [View all]
The arrogance of open carry just might be a tipping point
In the wake of the Jan. 1 enforcement of the Texas Legislature's open carry handgun law, it's been gratifying to see the lengthening list of Austin and Texas businesses announcing that they'll ban weapons in their venues – not just 30.07 bans (no open carry) but 30.06 as well (no concealed weapons). Our News email has been peppered with so many business owners letting us know ("Add us to your list"
, that we've been having trouble keeping up, and the state list (at the website for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America) is of course much longer. Folks have thanked us for providing the DIY signage in last week's issue – a special thanks is also due to Moms Demand Action and local activist Ed Scruggs for diligently asking businesses to discourage guns and gun-brandishing. It's nice to know, for example, that H-E-B and Fresh Plus are united at least in this policy: Leave your guns at home.
It's also useful to know that major businesses like Target (for a different example) are waffling, declining to take a public stand, telling the media they "respectfully request" their customers not carry guns, but refusing to post the signs that would actually prohibit people from doing so. Even worse, Wal-Mart has imposed on its employees the responsibility to ask gun-brandishers if they happen to have a license. How many of those conversations will turn into dangerous confrontations, necessitating police intervention, or worse? "An armed society is a polite society," goes the gun-fetishists' mantra – yet witness the explicitly threatening behavior of the Constitutional Carry crowd last year at the Capitol ("Gun Bullies Lead ... Lawmakers Follow," Jan. 23, 2015).
Most gun owners are responsible, support rational restrictions (like universal background checks), and don't in fact see any sense in walking around openly armed, unless your intention is to intimidate people or provoke a dispute. "Open carry" expressly hands public power to the most reckless and irresponsible gun owners, who want to walk about openly armed like displaced movie villains, and let everyone else guess their intentions.
http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2016-01-15/point-austin-in-defense-of-the-public-square/
In the wake of the Jan. 1 enforcement of the Texas Legislature's open carry handgun law, it's been gratifying to see the lengthening list of Austin and Texas businesses announcing that they'll ban weapons in their venues – not just 30.07 bans (no open carry) but 30.06 as well (no concealed weapons). Our News email has been peppered with so many business owners letting us know ("Add us to your list"
, that we've been having trouble keeping up, and the state list (at the website for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America) is of course much longer. Folks have thanked us for providing the DIY signage in last week's issue – a special thanks is also due to Moms Demand Action and local activist Ed Scruggs for diligently asking businesses to discourage guns and gun-brandishing. It's nice to know, for example, that H-E-B and Fresh Plus are united at least in this policy: Leave your guns at home.
It's also useful to know that major businesses like Target (for a different example) are waffling, declining to take a public stand, telling the media they "respectfully request" their customers not carry guns, but refusing to post the signs that would actually prohibit people from doing so. Even worse, Wal-Mart has imposed on its employees the responsibility to ask gun-brandishers if they happen to have a license. How many of those conversations will turn into dangerous confrontations, necessitating police intervention, or worse? "An armed society is a polite society," goes the gun-fetishists' mantra – yet witness the explicitly threatening behavior of the Constitutional Carry crowd last year at the Capitol ("Gun Bullies Lead ... Lawmakers Follow," Jan. 23, 2015).
Most gun owners are responsible, support rational restrictions (like universal background checks), and don't in fact see any sense in walking around openly armed, unless your intention is to intimidate people or provoke a dispute. "Open carry" expressly hands public power to the most reckless and irresponsible gun owners, who want to walk about openly armed like displaced movie villains, and let everyone else guess their intentions.
http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2016-01-15/point-austin-in-defense-of-the-public-square/
19 replies
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