Open Carry Group Praises Gun Decision(SD)

keloland.com ^ | 11 July, 2012 | Kelly Bartnick

[marktwain]

Gun advocates are celebrating Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether’s announcement rescinding an Executive Order banning guns on city property.

The city attorney said the policy would not hold up if challenged in court. Representatives from Open Carry South Dakota, a group in favor of open weapons laws, say the repeal expands personal freedoms.

“The people doing this legally are not the people you'll be afraid of. The people you'll be afraid of are the ones doing it anyways,” Open Carry South Dakota Spokesman Don Hixon said.

The group made the announcement Wednesday night in front of City Hall. Before the announcement it would have been one of several buildings and parks where handguns were not prohibited.

“The right to self defense shouldn't stop when we bring our kids to the park or city property,” Hixon said.

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Sioux Falls city ordinances do still ban weapons like knives and brass knuckles from city property.

[marktwain]

The Second Amendment applies to all arms, not just guns. The law should be reformed to reflect this.

[Dead Corpse]

Agreed. But you really shouldn’t bring brass knuckles to a gun fight...

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

There needs to be an evolution of thinking beyond stopping just the “keep guns out” attitude, to encouraging a “bring arms with” attitude.

The reason for this is that there are lots of public situations where more guns and arms in the hands of good citizens is better for keeping the public peace. Often in such situations, the ratio of LEOs or private security to the public is low or none.

And if it is an event in which a street gang and their rivals, or a ‘wilding’ mob might show up, armed citizens could put a halt to such nonsense in a hurry.

Many events that were previously very family oriented, like state fairs, carnivals, and car shows are now at risk for being targeted by such criminals, often because of the expectation that few people there will be armed and thus easy to attack, then using the crowd to make good the attacker’s escape.