Office at this point is functional, so I've gone back to writing on THE NEW SURVIVAL GUNS, although I need to get some .32 H&R reloading done this afternoon for my Sweetie's cowboy revolvers.
This morning's WSJ takes a slap at open carry, written by their TV critic, Nancy DeWolf Smith:
Speaking of serious shooters, I don't know a soul among gun owners who is itching to prance around showing everybody what is in their holster. Most of the time, citizens who carry weapons in public places are doing it for protection, and that means concealment. They don't want their handgun easily grabbed by some idiot in a checkout line, and they don't want a potential aggressor to know what they have on them or where it is. If flashing an armory were anything but a stunt, our air marshals would be strapped like Pancho Villa.I personally think Air Marshals should open carry, although perhaps without the linked shotgun bandoleros of Pancho Villa. I wonder that WSJ considers their television critic, who recently delved into the sociopolitical implications of Cougar Town, suited to write about anything but this week's Survivor episode (which was, BTW, excellent). To be fair, Ms. Smith sits on the WSJ editorial board, in case perhaps there's some critical international financial issue with Two-And-A-Half Men this week.
My friend Caleb over at Gun Nuts Media says that shooting revolvers will "make you a stud." Perhaps I should mention this to my Sweetie...no wait, she shoots revolvers, too! A stud-ette, maybe? Seriously, or as seriously as I'm likely to get today, it's a good article on how mastering the DA revolver will make you a better shooter...just ask Jerry Mickulek.
Finally, my good friends over at Crimson Trace and Ruger are getting some great mileage off Texas Governor Rick Perry whacking a coyote with a CT-equipped Ruger LCP .380 while out jogging with his dog:
Perry said he was jogging shortly after sunrise when the coyote appeared, stopped in its tracks and stared at his dog.
“I holler and the coyote stopped. I holler again. By this time I had taken my weapon out and charged it. It is now staring dead at me. Either me or the dog are in imminent danger. I did the appropriate thing and sent it to where coyotes go,” he said.
Texas state law allows people to shoot coyotes that are threatening livestock or domestic animals. The dog was unharmed, Perry said. Perry holds a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
The governor left the coyote where it fell. “He became mulch,” Perry said."Mulch"...I like that! Notice the coyote didn't even laugh one little bit at being shot with a "mousegun" in an "inadequate" caliber...how can that be?
Finally finally, in our Cheesecake De Jour file, the guys over at International Military Antiques are offering a WW2 metal sign repro of Hellcat Honey, complete with Thompson:
This'll probably send Nancy DeWolf Smith straight into an aneurysm! Put your head between your knees, Nancy, take a deep breath and go back to watching The View...everything will be all right!
Ms. Smith at the WSJ clearly hasn't descended into either the subways or railroad stations of NYC lately. Open carry is practiced by NYPD and National Guard members all the time. In fact the latter are dressed in...YIKES...camouflage, with M4's no less! It sure doesn't bother me. God forbid that honest citizens might want to protect themselves in the fashion they elect.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that she hasn't left the haunts of the upper East or West Sides in quite a while. And if she has, it's been in a limo, been a brief visit, and most likely to a new "in" diner establishment. What a dope.
I don't really see anything wrong with the WSJ article.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, we are having the same debate with in the shooting community with unshakably Pro 2A activists saying exactly the same thing.
Mossad Ayoob said essentially the same thing on Armed American Radio a few months ago.
While I disagree with her position on open carry it say nothing about her stance on the 2A.
Tom Bogan
I'm thinkin' along the lines Tom Bogan is thinking too. In my state of Michigan, there has been a recent effort to "inform" the public about the legality of open-carry and it kind of went over like the proverbial "turd in the puchbowl". There were several rallys and people overtly carrying "open". That's all legal, as a very supportive LE Official put it, but the shock value wasn't worth it, in my humble opinion. Too many people were upset by the sensationalism, even though they mostly supported the law. I think that the method, overpowered the message.
ReplyDeleteLife Member
It's ridiculous having people say we shouldn't open carry because it scares people. The point of these OC picnics/dinners/meetings is to educate the public that "Look, we are just like you. Law abiding citizens going about our daily lives, and we just happen to have our holstered guns on our hips." We should conceal it just because it scares/offends people? Ridiculous, especially when the law says it is legal to OC.
ReplyDeleteWe need to continue our push to mainstream guns. Open carry is an essential part of that. I want to be able to open carry on the street around my home...I'm in a rural area and carrying concealed is less convenient and slower than open carry. I want to open carry when I get a tank of gas, buy groceries or whatever.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the secret hidden bunker, but mountain lions are site within 300 yards of my home and development several times a year and exactly on the paths I walk. They eat the local foo-foo dogs and the foo-foo people are still thinking foo-foo was lost or stolen. Stolen it would be, lost in fur it is.
I'm more interested in protection from the malcreants. Malcreants that pass through every neighborhood from time to time. Open carry enhances my ability to protect myself by removing the penalty that slows me down. It is also a visible deterrent.
Or, we can get swept up in the "blood will be running in the streets" thing and "people will be alienated and get rid of guns" thing that went around before every concealed carry battle. I had this convesation with my next door neighbor yesterday as he brought up the Oklahoma open carry law being brought up to override the Governor's veto. He and his family owned no guns 10 years ago...they looked down at us to avoid eye contact when they found out we had dozens of guns several years ago. Reality has grabbed them when we didn't murder them in their sleep, helped them when they were sick and treated them like, well, neighbors. Now they own three guns and the neighbor was saying yesterday that the fear of open carry is hooey. Mainstreaming guns may only shock the people who want to ban guns and will desensitize the ambivalent. That's what we want, to desensitize after decades of tripe hype to "bring awareness".
Four people won to our cause who recognize guns equal protection and bad guys are allergic to guns. Fudds may find this hard to believe, but it is true...guns are for more than hunting, hunting is not included in the Bill of Rights and people like my neighbor need a place to shoot (got a dig in there since it was easy).
OH, I forgot something, the neighbors moved in from Denver and were vegetarians when they got here. Now they eat meat and own guns.
ReplyDeleteSee Michael, there is hope for Boulder County after all.
I like the Rick Perry story for a couple of reasons. One he protected his dog and two I have the same pistol as the Governor! I do carry it and practice with it alot. All I can say is Perry is either a great shot or that Coyote was really close.
ReplyDeleteOn the open carry, I would like the option to carry openly. That doesn't mean I would all the time but the option would be nice. There is something to say about having your weapon concealed.
RKL
I'm sorry but I just can't mount serious support for the open carry movement. In principal I agree but in my opinion practice is a different matter. Police use retention holsters for a reason. Hopefully they also get continuing weapon retention training throughout their careers. I get the impression many (most?) do. Non-LE pistol packers rarely if ever obtain either the hardware or software to properly deal with gun snatches. I live in an OC state but personally wouldn't consider anything but concealed carry outside of something like a riot. Of course then I'd probably have a long arm in my hands.
ReplyDeleteJeff Cooper, the Gun Guru, open carried all over Arizona right up to his death and long before open carry was an issue.
ReplyDeleteHe chronicled his adventures in his commentaries.
If it is good enough for the Gun Guru, it is good enough for the rest of us who actually draw and fire our sidearms periodically on the back forty.
Let the incremental gungrabbers and their RINO NRA enablers pound sand.
The great danger of Concealed Carry, particularly licensed concealed carry, is the tactically dangerous legal duty to retreat malarkey passed on as gospel by the mandated curriculum.
This is just the latest inroad by all the usual suspects who pursue all the usual agendas.
Just say no.
In Liberty,
JJH
Michael...great blog on this one. Your "offensive" comments were quite entertaining, and very interesting counter points from commenters. In this part of the country (Ohio), Open Carry in the cities seems exclusively for LEO and the like. East of the big river and north of the MasonDixon Line, Open Carry is only actively practiced in more rural areas. Possibly some special training should be recommended before Open Carry is practiced by some. But a right is a right.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, We can hardly condemn the WSJ article when we are having the exact same debate, (as you folks have so effectively proven for me ), among ourselves LOL
ReplyDeleteTom Bogan
Bill:
ReplyDeleteThe "but cops are experts!" line is a fallacy. Police are generally not as well trained as us mere citizens.
Police shooting standards are abysmal, on average. PPC was created because most cops got their heads handed to them in IPSC.
Carrying is merely a job requirement to most cops.
Kristopher,
ReplyDeleteYou're wrong on all accounts. I never said "cops are experts." But on average they do get more training than the vast majority of non-LE pistol packers. The individual citizen who attends multiple shooting schools is in a distinct minority. Don't kid yourself into thinking otherwise. Few of the schools non-LE do attend address gun snatches. Fewer still have significant one-on-one training, let alone on a recurrent basis.
So you're intimately familiar with police marksmanship standards nationwide? If not, your comment that "police shooting standards are abysmal" is meaningless. I can tell you from my own experience shooting IPSC, IDPA, pins and plates with many LE officers that they are no better nor worse shots than most other gun enthusiasts.
Finally, PPC predates IPSC by a significant margin. The former dates to the mid-1960's, the later was established in 1976.
Bill:
ReplyDeleteI disagree.
Being a cop does not make you an automatic expert.
The PD you are familiar with may actually spend the money needed to properly train its officers ... good.
But your statement still contained the assumption that cop = better than mere citizens.
And I cannot support ANY training requirement for citizen carry, as such will always be morphed by the nanny-state crowd into an excuse to deny rights.
This is part and parcel of the usual elitist thin blue line crap, in my opinion, and needs to be put a stop to. Police officers need to be citizens first, and cops second.
Bill lester:
ReplyDeleteover the past at least 15 years, there has been a deliberate effort by the police administrators to weed out any gun culture adherents in hiring new officers. This, combined with the increasing urban population that has less contact with guns in a family environment leads to most police officers that have zero personal backgrounds involving guns. These are facts, that most police and military have no shooting skills or enthusiasm to engage in shooting on their own time. The odds of a civilian gun owner being able to outshoot a cop are therefore pretty high. They tend to shoot because they like to shoot, or because they perceive a serious threat to them due to business or other personal reasons. The vast majority of cops only go to the range if they are being paid to go. The only guns they know are the ones they are issued. The beat cops with the best range time schedule are CHP, who are required to go once a month. Most don't care for it, as the grumbling I heard attests.
The very high missed shots rate by the typical cop are a very good indication that the hiring and training processes suck. They tend to hose the scenery, utilizing the "spray and pray" method, which doesn't work (even with full auto weapons). When they shoot dozens of rounds, (or more!), and only get a minor hit on a bad guy, something is wrong. If it were feasible, I would make them all carry revolvers. The general public would be safer then, and it might force them to shoot more carefully.