Fish Or Man has it posted on his blog now. It’s a worthwhile read. I’m pretty pleased with it. Thank you so much Jason. I know this was a great burden to bear. We all owe you a big thanks.
The View From North Central Idaho
Ramblings on explosives, guns, politics, and sex by a redneck Idaho farm boy who became a software engineer living near Seattle.
I’m glad that he won his case, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s a dumb-ass. While it may not be against the law to carry openly (in a bank no less) it just doesn’t strike me as a smart thing to do. And you certainly shouldn’t be surprised when someone calls the cops on you.
He ought to get a CPL and stop giving law-abiding gun owners a bad name.
bcl
Would you have said something similar to Rosa Parks? Perhaps something like, “Just sit in the back of the bus like you are supposed to?”
Totally different situations.
Look at it this way – you’re in line to deposit your check and the guy in front of you has a .45 sticking out of his waist-band (another no-no, good way to get your equipment blown off). How do you feel? What threat mode are you in?
Or how about this: You’re carrying your cocked and locked .45 in plain view. The scumbag druggie who’se planning to rob the bank takes note and blows your brains all over the ceiling.
I am in total support of Alaska and Vermont’s carry laws — no license to carry concealed. I’m even in support of open carry laws, I just think its dumb to practice it where the ‘natives’ are likely to get spooked or where you lose the element of surprise.
bcl
Yes. He should have been using a holster. It was a stupid way to carry a gun. And I think carrying concealed is a far better way to carry your personal protection devices. However stupid it was it was still legal. Being stupid is it’s own crime and has it’s own punishments. No need for getting the justice system involved.
As long as all other indicators were normal I wouldn’t give it a second thought if I saw someone in line at the bank carrying opening. I’ve seen police officers (at least they were in uniform and had badges) carrying opening at fast food restaurants. I trust the average citizen as much as do someone dressed as a police officer.
I don’t see much of a difference between this and some non-white person in line to use a whites only drinking fountain. It violates the local law, offends the locals, invites trouble, and is perfectly legal by a higher law.
Funny it is, Brian.
You are having a worse reaction then anyone that saw me carrying that day, including the officer who only wanted to check to “make sure” I was legal. He left me carrying that gun the same way you now condemn. The cashier who helped me had noticed the gun in previous transactions and did nothing before. Yet that day, the cashier only mentioned the gun to his boss. The boss, who NEVER SAW me carrying, got his panties in a knot over the mere thought of the open carried handgun, (no surprise–he was a transfered employee from the Seattle area).
The manner I carried may have been stupid, but only in the eyes of “warranting alarm” in more sheeple’s eyes. I never carried that handgun with a round chambered without a holster. Therefore, I left it cocked but not locked…
When the smart “gun expert” police officer took the gun from me, he never checked the safety or whether a round was in the chamber before sticking it down the back of his pants… lol… and you think it was dangerous for me!!!
As for the element of surprise against criminals… the statistics don’t even exist it happens so rarely; Either taking your gun from you because you are open carrying; Or shooting you first because you are open carrying. While I grant you their are some odds that play into effect, the chances are so low as to make them worse then the lottery. Plus, I counteracted most of those odds by carrying front and center, with a dark shirt for background, (I was rarely noticed).
But, I do have one thing you can bet on: the general population, being exposed to firearms only by the media, politicians, and police will be happy to vote those guns right out of your hands. And if you are counting on the Constitution, the NRA or anyone else to change the outcome of that vote, you are playing with fire far more dangerous then the one I MIGHT face carrying openly.
Signed,
Dumb-ass FishOrMan