Yeah, what he said…

Jason,

I don’t have any way of confirming that you’re who you say you are, but for the sake of argument I’ll assume it’s true. So I have a couple questions.

One of the articles mentioned that a woman asked if you had a gun, and you lifted your shirt to show it to her. Is that true? If so, why did you show her?

Why did you decide to open carry in the park? I know it’s legal, but did you have a specific purpose for doing so?

Thanks in advance.

I was that guy who carried in Fowler Park your right .I never once talk to Rabb or seen her ,When I was there I never talk to no one ,I was there to walk the park and try to lose weight .Rabb lied about all of it only people I talk to was the cops which was officer Yeaton and officer Lee .Yeaton was trying to charge me with Crimal trespass which he cannot do on public proptary because GA law forbids it.I wish I could Sue Rabb.

The world can’t always be held accountable for making you scared, angry, or uncomfortable. The only common denominator in all of your problems is you. Personal responsibility, integrity, honor – what’s happened to all that?

I’m bothered by this societal fetishization of weakness and helplessness. The reflexive urge to pity rather than respect people who’ve gone through sacrifice or misfortune. You see it in how so many people want to treat returning veterans like yourself – as poor, traumatized suckers, brainwashed into patriotism and tricked by the recruiters’ lies, innocent children who’ve now come back as broken men; alcoholics, sexually abused, PTSD wrecks, suicides waiting to happen.

Rather than what most of you are: tough, courageous people who volunteered for one of the hardest jobs there is, who, whether or not the wars were truly justified or successful, still gave it their very best, put up one hell of a fight whenever there was a fight, and came back home with something or another to be proud of. People who’d very much appreciate your respect but have no time or need for your pity. People who want to shake hands, not hold hands – that’s something they need from their loved ones or closest of friends, not from a stranger and not from society as a whole.

Pretty off-track by now, but I suspect the same root causes at play behind both that misperception of our war veterans and this kind of hysterical gun-phobia – our society has been made desperately afraid of trauma or anything that could cause it, and doesn’t know how to sensibly approach or respond to the issue.

hey no worries, i don t think the email adress was still valid.
On the first video as you said the guy just want to make a statement, even if could be much more efficient if he just gave his name or ID to the LE right away, this police officer stays extremly patient with those guys, but on many videos lots of people just want to push the cops to their extrem limits and make them cross the line.
Making a statement is fine, but one at a time, wanting to promote OC and wanting to promote a “i don t have to answer” at the same time doesn t help any causes for me

Groupthink and lazy, cut and paste “Journalism” explain this phenomena …… one person writes a story, full of second information, and puts it out on the web. A gazillion TwitterTwits read it and take it as Gospel, writing their own thirdhand screeds …. THAT is why you can’t find anything reliable about the original story ….. it’s all based on the original story….. a copy is always less accurate than the original, and the original was not exactly “nothing but the facts”: “Stalking a Little League baseball game”? Stalking=sneaking up on …. a 52 piece brass band could sneak up on most LLBB games I have been to ….

This was written by and for the Emotionally Driven.

They don’t live in the same world I do.

F ’em.

As for Open Carry, it’s legal here, and I’ve gotten a lot more more grief from alledgedly “Pro-Gun” people on the Internet about it than I ever have from people I see on the street here while OC-ing… none other than Rob Pincus (who is running for NRA board, I understand-he’ll NEVER get my vote!) condemned people who OC …. maybe he could write for the DKos ….

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=499503

JimP

You’re right, there tended to be significant…umm…kerfuffles back when open carry activism got started in Northern Virginia a decade or so back. But brave and hardy souls just continued to do it. There’s one young black man in Richmond who got jammed up pretty hard by the Richmond PD, twice that I remember, and he sued them and won both times.

You can reach Ed at VirginiaOpenCarry.org and their Facebook group facebook.com/groups/virginiaopencarry/. I’m not sure how to get his email address to you privately, but I can get that to you as well if you want.

The whole point is to make OC normal. Dress normally, act normally, just be yourself. And as we all say, don’t be an idiot while doing it (which is hard here in Texas, since you can only OC with a rifle).

And yeah, while I might OC here in Pflugerville and the parts of Austin in Williamson County, if it were legal to do so with a pistol, plenty of eyes would bulge. But if the OC person doesn’t make a spectacle of themselves, most people don’t even notice the pistol, in my experience.

Boyd,

Understood, thanks for that. My gut reaction is that even in places like San Antonio, Houston and Dallas (definitely Austin, no question) some people would still freak out at seeing someone openly carrying, and they’d call the cops, and the carrier would be questioned, and people would stop and stare and videotape, and it would just be a gigantic pain in the ass that works against the principle of being the “gray man” when armed. But if your friend has the opposite experience, that’s pretty string evidence I’m wrong.

I’d be happy to talk to your friend about it, please send me his info. Thanks Boyd.

Zuk,

Thanks for the insight. I don’t even like OC when I’m in plainclothes as a cop, even though I’m allowed to do it. I’m sure there are times when OC is appropriate, like the instances you mentioned, but around large groups of different kinds of people I just see it as increasing the likelihood that you’ll attract unwanted attention. Which defeats the purpose of carrying, in my opinion.

And definitely agree, “Don’t Be a Dick” is a great rule when carrying a gun. And that goes for everyone, cops included.