Posted on 08/07/2014 6:45:44 AM PDT by marktwain
| Open Carry in Arizona |
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"I consider myself to be a freedom activist, a man of peace and a responsible American citizen. I fully respect the rule of law and have complied with it my entire life. I am also an educated and responsible gun owner who has earned the legal right to have a concealed weapons permit. I have received extensive training in the safe handling of firearms as well as the substantial legal responsibilities that accompany firearms ownership. I enthusiastically support the rights of my fellow Americans to peacefully and responsibly keep and bear arms. I also strongly oppose the irresponsible use of firearms by anyone. I take my constitutional rights and the constitutional rights of all people very seriously, and I believe those rights need to be exercised and protected or they will be lost.
I am a peaceful political activist, and my purpose in walking around the airport with my AR-15 rifle was entirely political in nature. Put simply, I decided to make the point that a peaceful citizen can openly and responsibly carry a firearm - including an AR-15 - for the protection of themselves and their community. I wanted to help educate the public and employees at the airport on this point by allowing them to observe a peaceful person responsibly carrying an AR-15 while doing things that people normally do there, like waiting and drinking a coffee.
I chose to make this lawful political demonstration at the airport because there are few places in our society where the contrast between our liberties and their erosion is so stark. On the one side of a line on the floor, in the shopping area, we are relatively free, and can safely keep and bear arms. On the other side of that line we have the TSA, a large federal bureaucracy which completely disarms people and subjects them to gross invasions of their privacy, simply because those people want to travel somewhere.
As I was making this political statement, I was careful not to disturb or endanger anyone. Indeed, I was never aware of any person being disturbed in any way. At all times I was extremely careful to ensure my firearm was never pointed at anyone. In addition to carefully handling my firearm, the safety was engaged at all times. I have no plans to repeat this demonstration as I believe I have now made the important point that peaceful and responsible people can safely be trusted to handle firearms, even AR-15's, even at the airport. There is never anything to fear from peaceful responsible gun owners.
That is all I have to say."
I googled BK bud found only bad people. Where did this happen?
Having had an idiot neighbor who had no clue about not pointing a firearm EVER at something you do not intend to put a hole in I have zero tolerance for anyone who doesn't take such procedure seriously and execute it perfectly. (accidentally point a weapon at me or my wife and you'd better be ready to use it, or know a good proctologist). But it sounds like he knew what he was doing and was in a legal area.
He's gpt a good point in that the TSA is everything that is wrong with government rolled into one entity.
What. An. Idiot.
And how am I, a traveler at that airport, supposed to know that the gun toting idiot is a peaceful citizen and not a terrorist? Because he's smiling? Because he's white? He obviously has no common sense if he thinks it's a smart thing to do!
If you saw a middle East man with a beard, dressed in robes, walking through the terminal carrying an AR-15, would you just sit back and sigh a relief at that peaceful citizen protecting you? What if it were a young black man dressed in low-slung jeans wearing a T-shirt of some rap group? He may be the most peaceful citizen in existence, but would you ignore the AR-15 he's carrying? After all, it's his right.
Would you approach him and insist he leave and store his rifle in his car?
When did Open Carry cease in AZ? I remember years ago when anyone could open carry.
I'm assuming you realize that there is a difference between open carry on you own property and open carry in an airport?
But I'm curious; why the airport? Why not a school or a prison or a military base or a bar?
But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this
should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch,
then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts,
because doing that is good, and right, and just.
And if in this I should fall,
let me be found atop a pile of brass,
behind the wall I made of their corpses.
~
The Rifleman's Prayer
Unknown (but printed, framed and hanging over my office desk)
Thanks for posting it.
The “appear to be false charges” link has the footage of the event.
You do realize that this is in the unsecured part of the airport, don’t you?
If he had a case, such as a golf bag, or a gym bag, that could contain a rifle or sub-machine gun, or numerous pistols, would you feel better? They could be brought into play as quickly and easily as a slung rifle.
“When did Open Carry cease in AZ? I remember years ago when anyone could open carry.”
It has not; in fact, it has been reinforced, legally. That is part of the point the Doctor is making.
Because it is illegal to carry firearms in a school, prison, or military base.
“But I’m curious; why the airport? Why not a school or a prison or a military base or a bar?”
I am not the Doctor, but he seems to answer your question directly.
He chose the unsecured part of the airport in order to highlight the differences between where it is legal to carry and where it is not. In Arizona, all the other places that you mention are places where it is illegal to openly carry. The unsecured part of the airport is just like any other public place in Arizona. It is not like a prison, school, military base, or bar, where open carry is limited by law. When these “gun free” zones are made, a line must be drawn somewhere, or everywhere becomes a “gun free” zone.
Unless and until someone carrying a firearm shows an intent to use it illegally, they DO have the right to carry, regardless of personal appearance.
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