Thoughts On The Second

I have a friend that open carries everywhere allowable by law that he goes. Usually he will chose not to go to those places where he is not allowed to carry, either by law or by the request of the place in question.

I have yet to hear anyone comment, either for or against, in our hearing.

There has been quite a stir lately in the MSM about people openly carrying weapons at townhall meetings and other public gatherings. What you don't usually hear is that the weapons are carried legally and that no one has been arrested for carrying them.

The MSM has even gone so far as to call the carry of weapons racist, and to illustrate this has used a picture of a rifle being carried. What they failed to mention is that the weapon in question was being carried by a black man.

Fifty years ago it would not have been an issue, this open carry of weapons. Since that time we have gotten away from the practice, mostly due to the whining of the Gun Fearing Wussies.

Unfortunately also since that time the open carry of weapons has become something viewed as somehow criminal or crazy. Carry laws are not known or understood, even by the LEO's that are supposed to be enforcing the laws.

Reading around the net it is possible to find blogs who's owners claim to be all for the free exercise of Second Amendment rights, and yet those very same blogs have opinion pieces written by said owners who frown on those who open carry at the events. Their reasoning is usually that the open carry makes the wussies cry, and that making the wussies cry generally isn't good for promoting the Second.

I disagree.

I think that if everyone who can open carry does, the general public will become accustomed to seeing it, and the cries of the wussies would decrease (or at least fade into the background). Additionally, as the criminal element sees more and more people open carry they will become more aware that there are a lot of firearms out there. This has been shown to cause them to find another line of work. Both of these are good things.

Eventually I would like to see the open carry of firearms in accordance with the Second Amendment to be just as commonplace, and as unremarkable, as open carry of books and newspapers in accordance with the First.

I don't know that it would ever happen, but one can dream.