Guillermo Opined:
Mongoose,
After reading your posts, where you attack every argument, including by those with a lot more knowledge in OC areas.
A lot more knowledge? Of what? Social Change?
To be an expert in OC you have to....OC. Big deal.
Of course you haven't come up with one single, solitary solution other than "continue to conceal" which is not a solution. That is giving into the antis...in which case, they win.
You must not have read the things I posted then. I've never said "Continue to Conceal" is a solution.
And when, Guillermo, you say I said things I never said, you call into question your entire argument. You're making things up. I don't appreciate that--not very High Road if you ask me.
What I've said--and you'd know this if you were more interested in what I said than in dissing me--is that the in-your-face approach to Open Carry carries great costs.
There are other approaches, and I've written about them. Did you read them or just put in some kind of box simply because you don't agree?
Here are two posts which explain some of it, from the "How to Convert Your Liberal Friends" thread:
http://thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=6268764&postcount=145
and
http://thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=6268793&postcount=146
Interestingly enough, the tone of your rants are that of an anti. A troll? Quite possibly.
Or quite possibly someone who has given this more thought than the knee-jerk "I know my rights and I'll jam them into anyone's faces who objects" reactors we've seen here.
I teach social change. I do it. I'm good at it. I'm what you might consider to be an expert at it. And when it comes to reaching the people in the middle, an in-your-face approach typified by large groups of people open carrying as a protest is exactly the kind of thing--were I actually an anti--I'd exploit the devil out of.
I'm really surprised at your vehemence here. It almost makes me think you're an Anti plant, trying to get gun owners to do stupid things so they look immoderate and push more people over to the anti-gun side.
The bottom line is that your whining and attacking while offering nothing is useless and not very HighRoad.
Wow. I'm discussing tactics; that changes nothing I've said into either whining or uselessness.
This kind of reaction, Guillermo, is exactly what I'd do if I were trying to spur gun-rights people into doing stupid things.
Sort of like what has been done w/ the Tea Party protests.
As for me, I am going to avail myself of the delightful device provided by the wonderful people that run this outstanding board...the ignore button.
The universal plaint of those who've lost an argument.
That's fine. I can't reach you. I can continue to contribute, however, to a discussion with the thoughtful members of THR who won't stick their fingers in their ears and repeat "La, La, La" so they can't hear anything which is counter to their own carefully constructed beliefs.
That said, now that Guillermo isn't listening, let me note something again I said in a previous post: Open Carry, per se, isn't bad; the odd person here and there, doing prudent OC, not jamming it in others' faces, not being threatening (and to understand what is threatening means one has to look at the "threat" from the others' point of view); that, I think it's clear, can be effective. Over time, not a bad tactic.
Groups of gun owners doing protests? I'm wondering if this truly is the work of anti-gun activists, looking for pretense to create a social protest against Open Carry, which can then translate into more efforts in congress.
I find it difficult to believe the in-your-face group-carry approach to be the work of thoughtful gun owners. I'd almost think it
has to be the work of anti-gun plants stirring up people to do things that are not in their long term interests. It's certainly consistent with that kind of approach, and certainly the kind of tactic I'd employ were I on that side.