"Open Carry" Insanity Sweeps the Country: We Should Be Scared and Ashamed

One Imagine Sticks All Day

(John Cole nails it)

How the Rest of World Sees Us

(pride, right - yeah, right)

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” – does that mean with a gun or rifle strapped on your hip or slung across your shoulder while banking, ordering a double cheeseburger, waiting to get a haircut, getting your annual PE, dental checkup, or filing up your car?

Today a growing attitude about “open carry (a gun just about anywhere) seems to say yes, that’s great – it's our Second Amendment right, i.e., “It is my right to be fully armed like Wyatt Earp on his way to the OK corral. Simply shoot first, even in doubt or fear of harm (real or perceived, or not. Then plead your rights after the other guy's funeral.”

I say this about that: Imagine two people arguing in a parking lot over a parking slot, or during road rage, or facing a young punk screaming at you with a ton of 4-letter words while giving you the middle finger, or how about over a dog owner who won’t clean up after his/her dog messes in your newly trimmed lawn, or how about slow service someplace where you are in a hurry and the person helping you is not. 

All of these are possible scenarios in everyday situations where one side may whip out their gun and open fire and say: “I feared for my life.”  What a moment frozen in time. Oh, yeah, BTW: what if the other person is also packing heat? Or what if an innocent bystander or two or more are shot in the process? A simple oops won't suffice, will it?

Arming America to the teeth with these crazy “open carry” gun laws is just like a passing, yet deadly fad. In a word, they are totally insane. Yet, we have the gall to call ourselves civilized and progressive and compassionate people. Just listening to any NRA spokesman or “gun nut” rebuttal is enough to reinforce my point.

Finally, remind me why we are paying billions and billions for police and SWAT teams and security like it was 1984, when in fact we could just buy a pair of matching Colt .45’s or an AR-15 or two, and call it “in the name of public safety and my right to defend myself.”

M1911 Colt .45 Pistols 

(military got a lot of use out of them - I know I did)

Finally, with this asinine "open carry" gun policy that we see more and more in these crazy times, it appears to me that this is the real gun we all face.

Thanks for stopping by. And, thank you, Mr. President for speaking out and getting ready to seek a more concise and perhaps extensive background check - good luck with that. It is surely a critical step to helping stop this insanity.