Please critique my editorial

[Anonymous6]

Sorry to not do this under my standard account.

Here's an editorial in my local paper:

'Leave the gun in the car'

I'm going shopping at Costco tomorrow with a loaded crossbow. Or maybe I'll go in came, with an SKS rifle over my shoulder as I taste-test morsels of ready-to-serve snacks.

What? That would make you uncomfortable as you push your grocery and kid-laden cart past? Get over it; I'm just exercising my rights. I'm inspired by the shopper I saw recently paused at the display of Kirkland hams, with a cocked automatic pistol on his hip.

Carrying weapons openly is legal and it should stay that way. Discretion in exercising that right is what separates the responsible citizen from the gun-worshipping boor. Shipping armed at Costco border on delusional. Leave it in the car! For my part, when trouble brews in the deli section, I grab one of the those three-pound dry salamis (they have the heft of a real weapon).

Openly packing just because you can, bunches you with the overly loud sports fan, street-corner evangelist, or one who blabs on his cell phone while waiting in line. They are all within their rights; they're just devoid of common courtesy.

If you're a handgun owner (as I am) you know that handguns, rightly or wrongly, are icons of violence. Wearing them openly only exacerbates that impression. If you're packing because of a genuine concern for public and private safety, then qualify for a permit and carry concealed. That demonstrates a respect for your neighbors with no constraint on your rights. If you're packing to make a political statement, get a life. Wearing "Abortion is Murder" on your chest also is offensive and self-indulgent political statements (sic) but you can't inadvertently kill a fellow shopper with a T-shirt.

XXXXX (name)
Bozeman

My reply, first draft:

I would like to apologize to the members of the Montana law enforcement community for comments made by XXXX XXXXX in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle Opinions, April 16. While he may feel that open display of your firearm (an ‘icon of violence’) is in poor taste and highly offensive, most of us recognize the fact that you don’t attempt to conceal it as a matter of practicality and necessity.

The private citizen Mr. XXXXX recently observed to be likewise carrying a self-defense firearm openly may have had similar concerns, but we will never really know for sure. What we can know with certainty is that for some people, the observation of such a firearm will lead to instant pre-judgment of the armed person. Was the man Mr. XXXXX saw polite? Was he friendly and courteous? No, with his pistol securely holstered (and with the safety engaged, hence cocked but LOCKED), he was reduced to being just a man with a gun. What could have been an opportunity to learn what good citizens armed people can be ended up as a lesson in preconceived notions and stereotypes: the inanimate object defines all you need to know about a person. How sad.

As we are bombarded with violent television, music, and sensationalist media 24/7 I would hope that positive images of a responsible armed citizen would be a welcome change, but clearly it is easier to warp our experiences into a consistent negativity. I am well familiar with this behavior, as my workplace contains such vehement anti-firearm discrimination that I dare not identify myself as having such opinions. Perhaps some day we may be more enlightened and capable of avoiding such prejudice.

Anonymous, by necessity and not choice.

I'd appreciate some feedback. I know I've left out some really blatant things I could go after: strawman w/ SKS, the 'cocked' thing, killing fellow shoppers, etc, but I think it will be better received if I make it a human-interest piece rather than a technical argument.

 

[Lurper]

Go with it. The only other thing you might point out is that a responsible citizen would not leave it in their car where it is out of their direct control. They would carry it with them so that no one else can get access to it. For all we know, the guy was coming home from a range and stopped to do some shopping.

 

[SANman]

The dolt that wrote that article was not a gun owner, just another Liberal who hates guns but thinks chopping up defenseless babies is a "right". Only a gun hater would take "offense" to an openly carried firearm, just as a pro-abortionist would take offense to an pro-life T-shirt. Falls under the John Kerry politics of claiming to be a hunter but voting for every gun grabbing law that comes to light.

The worm that authored that waste of ink is to PC for its own good!