This story was in the dispatch on sunday. The dispatch is circulated in the Pittston are.
May 25
Random notes on the news
by JACK SMILES -
[email protected]
On Friday, May 9 about a dozen people from the Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association (PAFOA) carrying guns in holsters had dinner with their families at the Old Country Buffet in Dickson City. One of the other patrons called 911. The police arrived, handcuffed one of the gun guys and took his gun. Turns out the cops were wrong.
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Until this happened I didn’t know that Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, meaning it is legal for persons who are not prohibited by law from owning guns to openly carry a handgun in plain sight with no license. “Openly” being the key word here. A permit is required to legally carry a concealed weapon.
Because I, and lots of other people including one lawyer I talked to, didn’t know that open-carry is legal, isn’t an excuse for the police not to know it and the Dickson City chief admitted he didn’t know.
But I’m not writing about this to criticize the police. I find this fascinating because it illustrates divergent ways of thinking.
Some people are horrified. They deride the gun-carriers – Who do they think they are, Wyatt Earp? What is this the Old West? This is Dickson, not Dodge City – like that.
On the Steve Corbett radio show, Corbett said that Philadelphia has a local ordinance against open-carry and that Dickson City and other towns should consider doing the same.
Then the Old Country Buffet put up a sign on the door. I’m not sure exactly what it said – that gun carriers wouldn’t be served or what – but it was an attempt to ban patrons from openly carrying guns in the restaurant.
Steve Corbett loved this because he believes that law-abiding citizens carrying guns made the restaurant unsafe.
I say exactly the opposite. That restaurant was never safer than it was for the hour or so that the PAFOA members were there having dinner. Criminals are mostly cowards, but they are not all stupid. They wouldn’t try an armed robbery in a place where a dozen law-abiding citizens are carrying guns.
That’s why, in my view, the sign banning guns is stupid. The sign might as well say: “Want to pull off an armed robbery. Come on in. We promise you’ll be the only ones with guns.”
And how is it that the Philadelphia ordinance against open-carrying makes Philadelphia safer than other parts of the state? Is Steve Corbett saying the safer place is the place where only the criminals have guns? Get it? Law-abiding citizens with guns are the problem, not criminals with guns.
It reminds me of Virginia Tech, which was by the decree of its administrators, a gun-free zone. Open-carriers and concealed-weapons permits holders were not allowed to take their guns on campus and were disciplined when they did. A bill was introduced in the Virginia state to allow permit-holders to carry guns on campus. When it was sidetracked, a Virginia Tech administrator cheered and said that students, professors and visitors would now “feel safe” on campus. And these people are educators?
As though Cho Seung-Hui, the VT killer, would stop and read a sign declaring VT a gun-free zone and then slap himself in the head and say “oh damn, I guess I can’t kill 35 people here today. I forgot this is a gun-free zone.” We all know how that worked out.
Who obeys laws? Who obeys rules? Law-abiding citizens.
All gun-free zones do, all ordinances against open-carry do, is guarantee that only the criminals and the nut-jobs will have guns.
One day I heard Corbett say he’s for big government because he doesn’t want airplanes to fall out of the sky. That’s the thing with the government regulation crowd. They think it’s the federal government that keeps air travel safe.
As though the airline companies would send their $50 million airplanes with 300 paying customers on them into the air when it wasn’t safe knowing full well that a crash would put them out of business. Remember TWA?
Are we supposed to believe that regulators from Washington know more about airline safety than the companies that built the planes and the companies that fly them?
Remember the election in 2006? Remember that, when we voted in the Democrats to take over control of the House and Senate. Let’s see 2006? Oh, yeah, I remember. Consumer confidence was at a 2 1/2 year high; gas was $2.30 a gallon; the unemployment rate was 4.5% and inflation was at historic lows. Here’s what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at the time, and I quote: “We will produce a common-sense plan to bring down the price of gasoline at the pump.”
Man, she’s a riot.
Three of our most pressing problems can be laid right at the feet of Democrats – gas prices, home foreclosures, and food price inflation. By blocking new drilling in Alaska and off shore and just about anywhere else they ensured our dependency on foreign oil and ensured that production remains flat. Then with their ethanol scam, they drove up food prices
Democrats can also take credit for the Community Reinvestment Act, a law which compels banks to make home loans in minority neighborhoods to people who were poor credit risks.
But let’s keep electing them and believing that the federal government has all the answers.
Here’s a question for Ed Rendell, who believes that Pennsylvania citizens are too hapless to take care of their own medical care. Ed, should the taxpayers of PA pay for the health care of a fellow citizen who loses $75 a week in one of your casino black holes?
