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"Time to Grow Up and Put Your Guns Away"
allen griggs
Member Posts: 35,695 ✭✭✭✭
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9662672
Walsh: Time to grow up and put your guns away
By Rebecca Walsh
Tribune Columnist
Article Launched: 06/22/2008 12:34:35 AM MDT
My 20-month-old nephew loves Elmo and Dora. He also has started making explosion and gunfire noises.
I get the inevitability of little boys' fascination with guns.
What I can't figure out are the men and sometimes women who don't grow out of the gun-crazy stage of childhood, who need to have a handgun on their hips at all times, who need their neighbors to notice.
Ten of them stormed the West Valley City Council meeting last week to back up Travis Deveraux, a 36-year-old credit card company worker, who was detained by police in December while exercising with his Smith & Wesson.
"I don't blame them for being a little bit extra careful," Deveraux said. "But there's a line they crossed between being a little bit careful and a little bit too careful."
I thought there was no such thing as "too careful" - especially with a gun. But the OpenCarry crowd's literal interpretation of the "right to bear arms" and self-appointment as our "well-regulated militia" undercuts careful law enforcement, membership in a civil society and even reason.
It's in the Constitution, their thinking goes. They are "peaceably going about their business while armed," standing on the watchtower, the last line of defense against government tyranny and crazed criminals. We should thank them.
I understand the thrill of firing a Glock(I've done it), the euphoria of hitting the center of a target (and that, too), generations of family deer-hunting weekends and the legitimate self-preservation instincts of Utah's elected concealed weapon carriers.
But the OpenCarry movement is a mystery to me. What kind of psychology - overcompensation, paranoia, antisocial personality - is behind that thinking?
Steven Gunn, an attorney and board member of the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah, believes it's pure ego.
"We have inconsiderate boors walking around on the street carrying firearms openly," says Gunn. "I don't think they are truly afraid for their safety. Most of them are trying to make a statement about the Second Amendment."
Anthropologist Charles Springwood says open carriers are trying to "naturalize the presence of guns, which means that guns become ordinary, omnipresent and expected. Over time, the gun becomes a symbol of ordinary personhood."
OpenCarry.org, run by two Virginia gun lovers, claims 4,000 members nationwide. According to the Legal Community Against Violence in San Francisco, just seven states prohibit packing in public and eight restrict carrying handguns openly without a permit.
Utah's OpenCarry activists put on a show for the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago, trying to appear warm and fuzzy, shopping at Costco, just like you and me - but with their handguns flapping in the breeze. They meet once a month at restaurants like Denny's and Sweet Tomatoes to socialize.
"We don't want to show up and say, 'Hey, we're here, we're armed, get used to it,' " Kevin Jensen told the Times reporter.
But that's just what the showdown in West Valley City was about. The cowed mayor and City Council members referred the case to the officers' professional standards review board.
Police are struggling to strike a balance between gun owners' rights and those of the rest of us.
"There has to be some common sense on their part, too; they have to take into consideration the concern that they cause other citizens," says Layton Police Chief Terry Keefe. "I do not walk around when I'm off-duty with a weapon displayed."
Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank would rather gun owners get concealed weapon permits than carry openly.
"In light of Trolley Square, mall shootings, school shootings, anyone walking around with a gun potentially creates a lot of phone calls for us," Burbank says. "How do you expect an officer to deal with that - other than to point a gun at them and go through the process [of elimination]? There's no other way to make that determination safely without putting officers at risk."
Utah lawmakers set up this stalemate when they wrote the state's anything-goes concealed weapon law. They deliberately left open a loophole for those who carry their guns out in the open. Under Utah law, open carriers must be 18 years old and keep their bullets out of the chamber. That's it. No training, no background check required.
"Second Amendment questions aside," says Springwood, a professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, "the real debate seems to me a cultural and social one: Do we want a society in which it is an unconscious emblem of everyday life that folks move about with 'portable killing machines' strapped to their bodies?"
Legislators already have made that decision for us; we're living in the modern heart of the wild, wild West.
walsh@sltrib.com
Walsh: Time to grow up and put your guns away
By Rebecca Walsh
Tribune Columnist
Article Launched: 06/22/2008 12:34:35 AM MDT
My 20-month-old nephew loves Elmo and Dora. He also has started making explosion and gunfire noises.
I get the inevitability of little boys' fascination with guns.
What I can't figure out are the men and sometimes women who don't grow out of the gun-crazy stage of childhood, who need to have a handgun on their hips at all times, who need their neighbors to notice.
Ten of them stormed the West Valley City Council meeting last week to back up Travis Deveraux, a 36-year-old credit card company worker, who was detained by police in December while exercising with his Smith & Wesson.
"I don't blame them for being a little bit extra careful," Deveraux said. "But there's a line they crossed between being a little bit careful and a little bit too careful."
I thought there was no such thing as "too careful" - especially with a gun. But the OpenCarry crowd's literal interpretation of the "right to bear arms" and self-appointment as our "well-regulated militia" undercuts careful law enforcement, membership in a civil society and even reason.
It's in the Constitution, their thinking goes. They are "peaceably going about their business while armed," standing on the watchtower, the last line of defense against government tyranny and crazed criminals. We should thank them.
I understand the thrill of firing a Glock(I've done it), the euphoria of hitting the center of a target (and that, too), generations of family deer-hunting weekends and the legitimate self-preservation instincts of Utah's elected concealed weapon carriers.
But the OpenCarry movement is a mystery to me. What kind of psychology - overcompensation, paranoia, antisocial personality - is behind that thinking?
Steven Gunn, an attorney and board member of the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah, believes it's pure ego.
"We have inconsiderate boors walking around on the street carrying firearms openly," says Gunn. "I don't think they are truly afraid for their safety. Most of them are trying to make a statement about the Second Amendment."
Anthropologist Charles Springwood says open carriers are trying to "naturalize the presence of guns, which means that guns become ordinary, omnipresent and expected. Over time, the gun becomes a symbol of ordinary personhood."
OpenCarry.org, run by two Virginia gun lovers, claims 4,000 members nationwide. According to the Legal Community Against Violence in San Francisco, just seven states prohibit packing in public and eight restrict carrying handguns openly without a permit.
Utah's OpenCarry activists put on a show for the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago, trying to appear warm and fuzzy, shopping at Costco, just like you and me - but with their handguns flapping in the breeze. They meet once a month at restaurants like Denny's and Sweet Tomatoes to socialize.
"We don't want to show up and say, 'Hey, we're here, we're armed, get used to it,' " Kevin Jensen told the Times reporter.
But that's just what the showdown in West Valley City was about. The cowed mayor and City Council members referred the case to the officers' professional standards review board.
Police are struggling to strike a balance between gun owners' rights and those of the rest of us.
"There has to be some common sense on their part, too; they have to take into consideration the concern that they cause other citizens," says Layton Police Chief Terry Keefe. "I do not walk around when I'm off-duty with a weapon displayed."
Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank would rather gun owners get concealed weapon permits than carry openly.
"In light of Trolley Square, mall shootings, school shootings, anyone walking around with a gun potentially creates a lot of phone calls for us," Burbank says. "How do you expect an officer to deal with that - other than to point a gun at them and go through the process [of elimination]? There's no other way to make that determination safely without putting officers at risk."
Utah lawmakers set up this stalemate when they wrote the state's anything-goes concealed weapon law. They deliberately left open a loophole for those who carry their guns out in the open. Under Utah law, open carriers must be 18 years old and keep their bullets out of the chamber. That's it. No training, no background check required.
"Second Amendment questions aside," says Springwood, a professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, "the real debate seems to me a cultural and social one: Do we want a society in which it is an unconscious emblem of everyday life that folks move about with 'portable killing machines' strapped to their bodies?"
Legislators already have made that decision for us; we're living in the modern heart of the wild, wild West.
walsh@sltrib.com
Comments
"There has to be some common sense on their part, too; they have to take into consideration the concern that they cause other citizens," says Layton Police Chief Terry Keefe. "I do not walk around when I'm off-duty with a weapon displayed."
Notice he said "off-duty"
I wonder if the Chief is pushing to have his on-duty officers conceal their weapons....after all, we don't want cause "concern" for other citizens
D-U-H
When my English wife first came to the US, she was walking down the street in Richmond VA, and was STUNNED- I mean SPEECHLESS- to see a man walking down the street with a REVOLVER on his side- just right out in the open for anyone to see. Never saw such a thing in her life! Oh- he was a uniformed police officer. Umm- she has pretty well adjusted by now. [:p]
Article is proof that being published is not an indication of intelligent life.
WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW WONT HURT YOU IDEA.
keep it concealed and nobody gets up tight but let someone see it and
OMG A GUN
There are more then you think packing now days, I had some holsters I was selling last week at a flea market, 2 guys ask
DO YOU THINK THIS HOLSTER WILL FIT THIS GUN,
and BOTH pull there shirt back to show them off. I know they just wanted to show it off because both just stood there for about a minute turning back and forth so all could see.
i guess open carry would help weed out some that should not carry a gun.
i also think if a bad guy started something and there were 2 of you there one open and one concealed carry, the bad guy will most likely focus all his attention on the open carry gun guy first.
i love the response of
"well, you know not everyone carries a gun?"
you can and should
That is by far the dumbest thing that I have ever read!
Here's my funniest thing I'VE ever read;
quote:eboydell:
with Quote
Obama is elected President of this Union. As in 1861, at least 11 Confederate States will secede and, as in 1861,we will take all of the best military minds with us. I have already been appointed "ad hoc President" of the Confederacy until elections can be held. I shall personally secede, taking my property out of the Union. However, I will allow mail and other needed provisions to enter by way of a visa.We shall not leave until the cotton is picked in late October. Also, all oil and gas will be cut off to the Yankee Nation during the Fall and Winter months. Despite my new position, you all may still call me "Earl". Sir, have the band play Dixie! We will be recruiting hard from the U.S. Marines (both infantry and pilots). You may start enlisting today! Remember, Jefferson Davis needs you!
Worthless concept.
I keep my portable 7/16 boring tool with me whenever possible. [8D]
quote:eboydell:
That is by far the dumbest thing that I have ever read!
Here's my funniest thing I'VE ever read;
quote:eboydell:
with Quote
Obama is elected President of this Union. As in 1861, at least 11 Confederate States will secede and, as in 1861,we will take all of the best military minds with us. I have already been appointed "ad hoc President" of the Confederacy until elections can be held. I shall personally secede, taking my property out of the Union. However, I will allow mail and other needed provisions to enter by way of a visa.We shall not leave until the cotton is picked in late October. Also, all oil and gas will be cut off to the Yankee Nation during the Fall and Winter months. Despite my new position, you all may still call me "Earl". Sir, have the band play Dixie! We will be recruiting hard from the U.S. Marines (both infantry and pilots). You may start enlisting today! Remember, Jefferson Davis needs you!
Scott -
Once again I find myself appreciating Earl's humor.
Doug
if i remember correctly, the sheriff told cowboys where and when to check the guns in before entering certain places if he deemed it appropriate.
so...isnt that what modern society is asking gun toters?
open carry gives away the element of surprise. if i was crook, id target the toter first and then do my deed.[B)]
i think usa is just reinventing itself. i dont see anything new here.
Former Member U.S. Navy Shooting Team
Former NSSA All American
Navy Distinguished Pistol Shot
MO, CT, VA.