Just what proactive steps do you imagine we can take? And sorry, hordes of citizens engaging in open carry is
not going to happen. Yes, I've heard all the arguments before: the more people who do it, the more people will get used to it and see it as normal and realize armed citizens are no threat.
Folks, this is not going to happen. There are two obstacles, a practical one, and one of perception. The practical one is that you
not going get that many people doing it. Even back in the days when there were essentially no restrictions on the purchase and ownership of firearms, and guns hadn't been stigmatized by a liberal media for generations, only a miniscule number of people in most areas carried openly. It's not going to happen folks. Most people in our culture are not that "warriorlike" for lack of a better word. Most of those who can and do carry, will not carry openly when we can carry concealed, because we consider concealed carry tactically smarter, and it doesn't alarm people.
The problem of perception is the second difficulty. To be frank, the idea that citizens will eventually embrace open carriers as ordinary joes is naive. Folks, most people are not "gun" people. They aren't part of the culture, and they wonder why we think we need them
at all let alone carried openly. They
do not look at this the same way we do. They have a different perception entirely. As evidence of this, I reproduce here, an editorial letter from my local paper, "The Virginian Pilot" after he saw an open carrier in the grocery store.
RECENTLY, I ENCOUNTERED for the first time someone openly carrying a gun. I'd stopped by a grocery store at nearly 9 p.m., almost closing time. As I approached the door, a man in his late 20s or early 30s stood near the entrance, texting. He had a large handgun holstered on his hip, with his jacket hiked up over it.
He nodded, and I entered the store. For a moment, I thought he might be a guard, but he was not wearing a uniform, nor did he have the manner of someone on duty.
He came and shopped in the produce section. I moved away, because I found his presence disturbing. When I went to check out, he was at another register, chatting with store employees. He left the store at about the same time I did. He tried to engage in small talk with me and asked if I needed help. I thanked him for his offer and said my husband waited for me in the car.
I was thinking: 'What a pathetic loser.' I wondered whether he really thought that his 'hail-fellow-well-met' approach and his openly carried gun made me feel more secure, not less. And I wondered whether he really cared. Do promoters of 'open carry' laws instruct otherwise presentable young men to appear armed and act nonchalant and cheerful toward store clerks, shoppers and others, as a way to desensitize the public to openly carried guns?
Virginia has a lenient open-carry law. Why did the General Assembly loose this on the public? What does it say about our state that residents are forced to go about our mundane tasks in the midst of armed strangers?
I grew up around guns. I enjoy target practice. But I was brought up to believe that guns are to be respected, not flaunted. They are not toys. They are not fashion items. For a private citizen to carry a handgun openly in public is deliberately confrontational.
I am angry, disgusted and disturbed.
Minnie Fleming
Virginia Beach
And in today's paper, there were two letters in response.
Re 'No need to bring a gun to buy groceries' (letter, April 17): The man is well within his rights to 'open carry.' It is, however, a foolish thing to do. Most of the people who practice 'open carry' are trying to intimidate others.Why is 'open carry' a bad idea? One day, someone is going to be drunk or on drugs, and that person will challenge someone who is openly carrying a gun. They might even turn the gun carrier's gun on him.
My advice to those who 'open carry': Go to class. Learn to carry a concealed weapon and get a permit. Then you won't stand out at the grocery store.
Warren Brogren
Norfolk
Re 'No need to bring a gun to buy groceries' (letter, April 17): The young man described by the letter writer is apparently within his rights to openly carry a firearm at his local supermarket.
But I say this as a gun owner: Was it a smart move? No. It was stupid and immature.
Yes, state law allows such 'open carry.' However, if enough people are scared by people like this man, who openly flaunt their weapons (in a supermarket, no less), then the privilege of 'open carry' in Virginia will just go away.
Presumably the young man in the letter will have to content himself by wearing his precious sidearm while parading in front of the mirror at home.
Jack Meagher
Southern Shores
I am not posting these letters because I agree with everything written in them, I am posting them to draw your attention to what people who are not gun enthusiasts, even though they may be gun owners, think of open carry, and it's
not what a lot of people here think. They see a guy carrying openly, and they think "mall ninja," "Rambo wannabe," and "pathetic loser." That last is a direct quote from the first letter. Their perceptions may be widely off the mark, but they are still their perceptions, nonetheless. And people with these perceptions got their legislators to rescind open carry laws in Florida (birthplace of "shall issue" no less) and California recently.
