Open Carry

[Old Dog]

Considering the feelings of others isn't a weakness, but an alertness to the need to get along with people who don't understand us or what we are about. We don't need to make any more enemies. We just need to understand the impact on others of our choices.

Are we accomplishing something good by open carrying, or are we just demonstrating a lack of care or awareness of others?

Gosh, I quite agree. NO ONE should be allowed to wear a red MAGA ballcap, it will certainly hurt peoples' feeling and make enemies, perhaps even lead to getting physically assaulted. Thank goodness that doesn't happen … oh wait, never mind.
No one should be allowed to put an NRA decal on their car window. It'll just make enemies and get their vehicles keyed. Don't want to upset the anti-gun folks.
No one should be allowed to actually express an opinion, even if it's telling a bunch of young folks in the IHOP on Sunday morning to stop using all the F-bombs and other filthy words while the senior citizens are eating breakfast with the grandkids. We do not want to upset these fine young people by letting them know we don't approve of their language.
No one should ever ask their neighbor's teenage son to stop driving through the neighborhood at 3:00 a.m. blasting his gangster rap at 400 dB. He's just expressing himself.

Heavy sigh. "The need to get along with people who don't understand us …?"

What is now considered socially acceptable as far as public behavior would have been grounds for arrest, involuntary commitment or complete ostracization by the community fifty years ago. No normal folk cursed loudly in public places (or wore clothing with four-letter words imprinted), wore their pants with the waistbands below the butt cheeks, exhibited blatant sexual behavior in public, flaunted homosexuality in public, played their music at intolerable levels at all hours, rudely and routinely shouted down others who expressed a political opinion with which they didn't agree, loudly and publicly derided people for holding conservative views, living in rural areas, hunting or, by accident of birth, growing up white, or stating that they don't believe in abortion.

And now we have members say we, the gun-owning community, have to consider the feelings of others, not flaunt our beliefs at the risk of making more enemies? Are you friggin' serious? What about our feelings? Not seeing much consideration from the other side.

Maybe I'll open carry to Wal-Mart tomorrow. Yeah.

 

[AlexanderA]

And now we have members say we, the gun-owning community, have to consider the feelings of others, not flaunt our beliefs at the risk of making more enemies?

People vote according to their feelings, and not necessarily on a rational basis. It's not about offending people's feelings per se, but about the political results of offending those feelings. As I said, open carrying in northern Virginia is poking the bear. Do it often enough, and instead of "normalizing" open carrying, you end up getting it abolished. We're right on the razor's edge of having terrible things done to gun rights here. I get emails on a daily basis from my elected representatives bragging about how much they are doing against guns. This wouldn't be happening if the pro-gun side had any clout left. I think the best strategy, at least here, is to keep a very, very low profile. Frankly, I'm afraid of what's about to happen.

 

[Old Dog]

I think the best strategy, at least here, is to keep a very, very low profile.

I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree. If we quietly cower in the shadows, it's almost tacit agreement that our position is wrong, and we're just gonna quietly let the other side trample gun rights. Support him or not, our President has shown that by standing up to those who don't agree with you, even if your position is not popular, you can often get your opponents to reveal how subjective, biased and weak their positions really are.

 

[Officers'Wife]

Gosh, I quite agree. NO ONE should be allowed to wear a red MAGA ballcap, it will certainly hurt peoples' feeling and make enemies, perhaps even lead to getting physically assaulted. Thank goodness that doesn't happen … oh wait, never mind.
No one should be allowed to put an NRA decal on their car window. It'll just make enemies and get their vehicles keyed. Don't want to upset the anti-gun folks.
No one should be allowed to actually express an opinion, even if it's telling a bunch of young folks in the IHOP on Sunday morning to stop using all the F-bombs and other filthy words while the senior citizens are eating breakfast with the grandkids. We do not want to upset these fine young people by letting them know we don't approve of their language.
No one should ever ask their neighbor's teenage son to stop driving through the neighborhood at 3:00 a.m. blasting his gangster rap at 400 dB. He's just expressing himself.

Heavy sigh. "The need to get along with people who don't understand us …?"

What is now considered socially acceptable as far as public behavior would have been grounds for arrest, involuntary commitment or complete ostracization by the community fifty years ago. No normal folk cursed loudly in public places (or wore clothing with four-letter words imprinted), wore their pants with the waistbands below the butt cheeks, exhibited blatant sexual behavior in public, flaunted homosexuality in public, played their music at intolerable levels at all hours, rudely and routinely shouted down others who expressed a political opinion with which they didn't agree, loudly and publicly derided people for holding conservative views, living in rural areas, hunting or, by accident of birth, growing up white, or stating that they don't believe in abortion.

And now we have members say we, the gun-owning community, have to consider the feelings of others, not flaunt our beliefs at the risk of making more enemies? Are you friggin' serious? What about our feelings? Not seeing much consideration from the other side.

Maybe I'll open carry to Wal-Mart tomorrow. Yeah.

Even though I feel a rant coming on… I will attempt to comment on this in as calm a manner as possible.

Starting with Mister Roosevelt's Great Society we had been brow beat by our own compassion. Children are starving in America so we must increase the SNAP program while taking the money away from agricultural programs the Bureau was designed for. Our compassionate programs have created a society of dependents who now feel entitled. With those entitlements they have set out to remake societal standards in their own image all the while browbeating us with our better natures.

And oddly enough the more we have allowed our compassion to act without regard to consequences, the more "inhumane" the defendants claim we are all in the hopes that our better natures will result in an even better unearned lifestyle. Of course the neighbors can drive through the neighborhood at 3 AM blasting loud music. They don't have to get up at five and milk cows or deliver newspapers. Why should they? All they have to do is find a reason they should be considered "disabled" and they can apply for SSI disability payments and live off the system they didn't pay into. Thanks to the compassion of the poor scarred up fool that has to take overtime in a dangerous job to be able to keep his head above water from the outrageous government demands on his income. We have elected the Roosevelts, the Johnsons, the Carter's, the Clintons, the Daschles and a host of other tax-and-spend politicians that are leaving an entire class of people to have nothing else to do but show their contempt for the working class being made slaves to their own government.

Make no mistakes, your complaints are legitimate. However, they are self-inflicted. And the sad part of it is… Had not the Russians felt that Hillary was in their better interest to be President, the odds are very great we would have Bernie Sanders for President and our society destroyed completely.

 

[buck460XVR]

And now we have members say we, the gun-owning community, have to consider the feelings of others, not flaunt our beliefs at the risk of making more enemies? Are you friggin' serious? What about our feelings? Not seeing much consideration from the other side.

There's flaunting...and then there's flaunting. While I do agree that there are examples of OCing that may distance other folks neutral or anti-gun, done respectfully and responsibly can do nuttin' but help. Similar to a group of Harley Riders. Have 20 of them come into town and take up a block of parking spaces while jacking the throttles on their straightpipe bikes with other folks around as compared to the same group sensibly assembling for a toy run. Similar scenario, but two different images.....one positive and one negative. Gun owners trashing other gun owners is not the answer. The answer is to lead by example. Trashing just lowers yourself to the level of the folks you are attempting to trash.

 

[psyopspec]

NO ONE should be allowed to...

Those are your words, not those of the person to which you're responding. I think you may be missing the nuance of what rust collector is saying, because that's not it. 'Think before you act' is no left wing radical notion.

"Support him or not, our President has shown that by standing up to those who don't agree with you, even if your position is not popular, you can often get your opponents to reveal how subjective, biased and weak their positions really are."​

I'll willingly stick my neck out and say I'm one of those people on the other side of POTUS, but I'm still not understanding your point. As a progun person, he stood up to me and my ilk by setting a dangerous precedent for gun control by executive order. I'll cop to my pro-2A bias, but I'm not sure how that bias equates to weakness. Can you elaborate?

 

[psyopspec]

Even though I feel a rant coming on… I will attempt to comment on this in as calm a manner as possible.

Starting with Mister Roosevelt's Great Society we had been brow beat by our own compassion. Children are starving in America so we must increase the SNAP program while taking the money away from agricultural programs the Bureau was designed for. Our compassionate programs have created a society of dependents who now feel entitled. With those entitlements they have set out to remake societal standards in their own image all the while browbeating us with our better natures.

I'm admittedly not a big government type person, but since you brought it up: how specifically was the $867 Billion (with a B) 2018 farm bill not sufficient to meet the needs of the agricultural programs you're concerned about?

 

[Robert]

Well, that's it for this round. Have no fear, it'll be back soon.