Mainsail
Member
sonyhoppes said:
Poppycock. In all my experiences open or concealed carry I have never seen or heard of anyone reacting with a ‘deeply ingrained fear’. I have watched a female friend, who is an experienced and highly respected surgeon, literally leap behind me when she saw a slug in her potted plant. She reacted similarly to a large spider. Despite being a very liberal southern California transplant, who dislikes guns and thinks they should be outlawed, who also happens to dislike my carry of a firearm, she has never reacted in such a manner towards it.
I have never met or heard of any person with a bona fide phobia towards the view of a firearm, and this includes people who have been shot, either accidentally or on purpose. Yes, people can be nervous around many things, but you shouldn’t try to prop up a weak argument with hyperbole, and that’s exactly what the phrase ‘deeply ingrained fear’ is being used for here.
As to being nervous around an armed person, the big answer is, “So what?” People were nervous when MLK exercised his right to free speech. People were nervous enough after September 11th to burn down mosques in an attempt to prevent another’s exercise of their freedom of religion. Others are nervous when Larry Flynt published adult magazines (me included). Every day in America overworked police officers cut corners and violate the privacy rights of citizens. But here’s the quote you can remember: The peaceable exercise of one person’s rights should never be suppressed due to the unreasonable sensibilities of another.
I can't believe i'm reading this. Hey, california makes a standard AR-15 illegal, i guess we should all turn our in for destruction because CA outlawed it. MA requires magazines of 10 round capacity or less...i suppose i should just destroy my 30 round 9mm magazines now! Nevermind that I don't live in either of those places and it's legal for me to own both here. Perhaps you should go and live in the UK - they gave up their guns nice and easy and i'm sure you'd fit in with your current attitude. Your logic is inherently flawed; if we cannot practice OC for fear of it being made illegal, then how exactly is it any different than not being able to practice OC because it IS illegal? OC is not illegal in his state; he should be allowed to do so any time without being harrassed by the police. How anyone who claims to believe in our right to bear arms could argue with this concept of not being harrassed for doing something that is legal is beyond my ability to comprehend. The fact that 'the public' can be so terrified of seeing a holstered weapon on somebody is evidence to the fact that people not O/Cing is a bad thing; if this was a more common sight - as it should be, since it is not illegal - people wouldn't remark on it nor would there be any excuse for police to harrass someone about it. Case in point: Arizona.
I'd like to believe we're all on the same side, but everyone is going to feel/interpret things differently for themselves. That's just the way it works.
