Sunday's Tribune posted an article about open carry which was pretty negative about guns in general. This is what I wrote back to the opinion section...we'll see if it gets printed:
In regards to the article about putting your guns away, I would like to offer the following. While I do not necessarily agree with people open carrying just to prove a point, the fact is that it is not illegal. There may be a few individuals who choose to carry openly, however this is not the way most people carry a firearm, as most carry concealed and you would never know. I have not seen mass hysteria because someone has a gun in a holster walking through a store or anywhere else. Most people don’t even notice the few times it occurs. Do you or anyone else think that the common criminal who uses a gun in a crime carries it openly in a holster on their hip? No. The criminal runs in with the gun waving around threatening people or shooting. Show me just one incident where someone carrying openly in a holster is the one shooting the place up. Are they waving it around? No, it's just sitting there. Perhaps the hysteria is because this thing is going to magically jump out of the holster and start shooting the place up. Get real. It's not the people who are legally carrying firearms for their protection that you have to be afraid of.
The overwhelming majority of concealed permit holders are law-abiding citizens. Look at statistics where armed citizens have stopped crimes in progress and you will be amazed at the numbers. People should support laws, lawmakers and judges who act against the criminals and stop trying to put stupid restraints on law-abiding citizens. Those persons who did choose to carry openly did nothing wrong. Also, don't say that our Legislature here in Utah has created the Wild West for standing up for citizens' rights. They have instead created more of a tame west compared to other "gun free zones" where shooting incidents seem to always happen. I applaud our Legislature for it. Stand up for enforcing laws that are already on the books and send criminals to jail with required minimum sentences when they commit crimes with a gun instead of more unnecessary and hysterical gun control laws that don’t work and only affect and restrict law abiding citizens.
All the hysterics should move to a model gun control area such as Washington D.C. where as a citizen you can't even own a firearm to protect yourself in your own home, and it has one of the worst crime and murder rates in the country. Right along with New York, California, etc. Works well doesn't it? The police cannot be everywhere to protect everyone all the time. In fact, if you read Warren vs. District of Columbia, the Superior Court ruled that police have absolutely NO duty to protect individuals, only society as a whole. This has been upheld in several other cases across the country. So, the courts there in our Nations Capital say the police don't have to protect you and the city says you don't have the right to protect yourself either.
Maybe people can just throw their cell phones at the bad guy when they get put on hold after getting a busy signal from 911 for 3 minutes. Or, they can just sit in a corner, hold hands and pray that they won't be the next victim when the bad guy opens the closet door they're hiding in waiting for help during the next mall or school shooting. Maybe, we should ban all weapons so only the bad guys have them like in D.C.
Or, just maybe that horrible person with that scary death machine on his hip as it was called might just save you too.
In regards to the article about putting your guns away, I would like to offer the following. While I do not necessarily agree with people open carrying just to prove a point, the fact is that it is not illegal. There may be a few individuals who choose to carry openly, however this is not the way most people carry a firearm, as most carry concealed and you would never know. I have not seen mass hysteria because someone has a gun in a holster walking through a store or anywhere else. Most people don’t even notice the few times it occurs. Do you or anyone else think that the common criminal who uses a gun in a crime carries it openly in a holster on their hip? No. The criminal runs in with the gun waving around threatening people or shooting. Show me just one incident where someone carrying openly in a holster is the one shooting the place up. Are they waving it around? No, it's just sitting there. Perhaps the hysteria is because this thing is going to magically jump out of the holster and start shooting the place up. Get real. It's not the people who are legally carrying firearms for their protection that you have to be afraid of.
The overwhelming majority of concealed permit holders are law-abiding citizens. Look at statistics where armed citizens have stopped crimes in progress and you will be amazed at the numbers. People should support laws, lawmakers and judges who act against the criminals and stop trying to put stupid restraints on law-abiding citizens. Those persons who did choose to carry openly did nothing wrong. Also, don't say that our Legislature here in Utah has created the Wild West for standing up for citizens' rights. They have instead created more of a tame west compared to other "gun free zones" where shooting incidents seem to always happen. I applaud our Legislature for it. Stand up for enforcing laws that are already on the books and send criminals to jail with required minimum sentences when they commit crimes with a gun instead of more unnecessary and hysterical gun control laws that don’t work and only affect and restrict law abiding citizens.
All the hysterics should move to a model gun control area such as Washington D.C. where as a citizen you can't even own a firearm to protect yourself in your own home, and it has one of the worst crime and murder rates in the country. Right along with New York, California, etc. Works well doesn't it? The police cannot be everywhere to protect everyone all the time. In fact, if you read Warren vs. District of Columbia, the Superior Court ruled that police have absolutely NO duty to protect individuals, only society as a whole. This has been upheld in several other cases across the country. So, the courts there in our Nations Capital say the police don't have to protect you and the city says you don't have the right to protect yourself either.
Maybe people can just throw their cell phones at the bad guy when they get put on hold after getting a busy signal from 911 for 3 minutes. Or, they can just sit in a corner, hold hands and pray that they won't be the next victim when the bad guy opens the closet door they're hiding in waiting for help during the next mall or school shooting. Maybe, we should ban all weapons so only the bad guys have them like in D.C.
Or, just maybe that horrible person with that scary death machine on his hip as it was called might just save you too.
