Quote of the day—Dean Weingarten

Once you internalize the decision to be unarmed, arguments on the other side become understandable. The voluntarily unarmed people we are attempting to understand are those who have moved from the decision to be unarmed, to the policy statement “guns are bad”.

Armed people have a power advantage over unarmed people. People do not want others to have a power advantage over them. It makes them uncomfortable. To prevent this, the voluntarily unarmed often want everyone else to be unarmed.

It is why many who are voluntarily unarmed dislike concealed carry, but violently abhor open carry. Open carry presents them with a reality they cannot easily ignore. It destroys their comfortable fantasy.

Dean Weingarten
May 5, 2021
Learn to Think like Someone who Chose to be Unarmed
[That last paragraph seems particularly insightful to me. The observation that they violently abhor open carry rings true. I had casually wondered why they get so upset about open carry by one out of a thousand or 10 thousand when, on average, about one out of every 50 people they meet on the sidewalk is a carrying concealed firearm. The hypothesis that open carry destroys their comfortable fantasy seems reasonable.

Now I wonder if this might be something we can use to our advantage. Destruction of their fantasy might be a good thing, but yet I can easily see open carry being something that unites and activates them.

My initial analysis is that widespread open carry is probably counter productive until we have a solid SCOTUS decision saying the right of the people to keep and bear arms includes carry in public. I could probably be persuaded otherwise.

Please present your arguments and let’s discuss.—Joe]

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19 thoughts on “Quote of the day—Dean Weingarten

  1. I agree with the “counter-productive”. If the other side has delusions that make them resist less, apply Bonaparte’s rule and don’t interrupt them. As you said, open carry makes them get their dander up and fight harder, something we don’t need to encourage.

  2. Current Tennessee laws contain two different permitting schemes. The Enhanced Carry permit requires 12 hours of training and demonstrated range time. This permit doesn’t specify how you carry. I carry openly in most cases since I simply find it more comfortable. Most people never even notice.

    There’s a concealed only permit that is simple taking an online test and submitting the application. This permit doesn’t allow open carry.

    Starting July 1st the law changes to a semi constitutional carry which allows pistol/handgun carry without a permit and you can carry however you prefer. Open carry of long guns isn’t included however the law allows for a “truck gun” without any permit required.

    • Beware of fish and game laws/regulations banning loaded (defined differently by state) long guns in vehicles. Hopefully your Tennessee law clarified this, if it was an issue to begin with.

  3. I agree that open carry and even display of weapons is counter productive unless you are on your own property.

  4. Rabbits don’t want to be surrounded by other rabbits who are fit, fast, smart, alert, and capable. The able rabbits will escape the jaws of the fox. Rabbits want to be surrounded by others who are more defective than they themselves are, so they may escape being eaten not be being fast, just by being faster.

  5. It’s been tested. Texas, because it was one of the first to have “shall issue” concealed carry, had a pretty restrictive system. (Nature of being the first out of the gate.) Texas had fallen FAR behind other state in the 20 years since the last law was passed.

    Open carry groups in Texas started doing their thing, and gun blogs (including some of the same people here) called it counter-productive. They called the open carry people whackos. Gunnies called them every name they could think of, up to and including dick jokes. (Familiar?)

    And then the lege passed an open carry law, changing the CHL to a license to carry. Now, two years later, Texas is going be Constitutional Carry, as soon as the bill clears reconciliation and is signed by the Governor (which he has vowed to do.)

    So the reality is, a handful of whack-job “counter-productive” open carriers in Texas did in about six years what 20 years of internet bitching failed to do.

    History says that nothing is as PRODUCTIVE as open carry.

    • And history has a counter-example as well. California in the old days allowed open carry, until the Black Panthers etc. open carried in the state capital and freaked out the Legislature, who reacted by banning it. So this can be argued both ways.

        • The problem is, you can’t repeat the experiment under identical conditions.

          You might be right, you might not be. You just don’t know for certain, because we can’t go back and try it the other way.

          It’s a reason to at least question your assumptions and keep an open mind about things.

  6. All of the above may be so, but I wouldn’t discount the hysterical Karen narcissism of “Someone out there somewhere could be doing something that I do/do not do, and I’m offended by the possibility of that happening!”

    To which, the kindest thing that could be said in response is “Fuck off, Karen.”

    • Absolutely! It won’t matter how much you give up. The bitches will still be whining.
      And it’s FOC. Fuck off, Commie. (We need hats and Tees with big block letters!)

  7. In my state, as part of the state pre-emption law, cities have the power to ban open carry (OC) except for those who possess a concealed carry (CC) permit. Sounds strange, but the legislative intent was to keep cities from prosecuting people who might either ‘flash’, or ‘print’ accidentally and the way it was written turned out to provide broader coverage for standard operational OC.

    Even though I personally don’t care which way people carry – and most people around here don’t really give OC a second glance, if that – I don’t OC and my advice is the same. That is a not a political but a tactical consideration. The deal being to keep everyone guessing until the situation arises where it’s necessary to remove all doubt and take care of business.

    • I am in agreement with Miles’ last statement. For me, Open Carry is just an invitation to a bad guy to “shoot me first” if there are bad people with bad plans being put into action. This is when I really want my carry status to be a BIG surprise!

      Open carry, in my mind, is more of making a political statement than being prepared for reality. Open carry if you wish but I think it is foolish and counter productive to the reason for carrying a firearm at all.

      • I respectfully disagree. A bad guy seeing a weapon puts him in a whole new level. Even stupid criminals are doing threat assessment before acting. And the last thing selfish people want is to get they ass shot off.
        The real problem is your own situational awareness. Look and act like a victim. You will end up one. With or without a gun.

        • Not to be contrary, but I do have strong feelings about this that makes sense to me and is consistent with my observations and experience. If there are evil people putting evil actions into play, unless they are really stupid (quite unlikely in my mind), they will have done some threat assessment as well. Attempting to draw when someone already has the drop on you is very rarely effective and most likely will have a negative outcome for you that you won’t like.

          Situational awareness is vital but is not infallible no matter how proficient you are. An open carry can be spotted well outside of any reasonable situational awareness perimeter and then neutralized.

          As I said before, open carry if you wish but it is a risk I am not willing to take.

          • Very good. Threat assessment would make one ask, Quo Bono?
            So you walk up behind me in Walmart and shoot me in the back of the head? And gain what? If you want me that dead I wouldn’t stand a chance anyway.
            But, in the same Walmart a lazy person concealed carried in to the bathroom thinking no one knew he had a gun. And got rolled by a couple guys for it.
            To me, what carry position has more to do with the situation.
            I use to carry the keys to 100’s of thousands of dollars worth of machineguns and suppressors. Our little shop use to get probed by cartels weekly. You want to take on that kind of fight with a Ruger 380? Be my guest.
            I carried my XDM loud and proud. You want to fight? Bring it. You ain’t boxing me in. You may win, but it won’t be for the lack of me shooting back.
            Now, Should I have to stop and explain myself to every Commie Karen in Walmart? Sorry.

  8. Able destroyed Cain’s comfortable fantasy. It’s been a non-stop bloody war ever since.

  9. Men have gotten a bad rap over the ages because we occasionally have to tell the bitches of the world to mind their own business. Then put them in their place.
    Such is the times we find ourselves in. Again.
    It’s really no one’s business why I open carried for years. And now I don’t. My reasons were perfectly logical. And I took the time to explain myself on several occasions. Even liberals agreed it was the right thing to do.
    But once again, If someone feels triggered for some reason. That’s their problem.
    My rights as a human are not up for debate. On any level, time or place. And the fact that our forefathers knew it would come down to this. Tells us all we need to know about those wanting to have one.

  10. The Black Panther response by Governor Reagan was not the end of Open Carry in CA. That just partially restricted it to mostly the rural counties. What finished it off were the people who figured out you could open carry an unloaded pistol with a full mag in a pocket or pouch. THAT was the final nail as far as the politicians were concerned. The legal response was to point out that the courts said that open carry being legal was their reason for banning shall issue. I think that might be still working it’s way around the various courts.

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