Guest Post by Duane Norman
In Ohio, protesters gathered outside the home of former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner, who was released from jail Friday after serving just half of his six-month sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.
He’ll be on probation at his parents’ home near Dayton and some of his neighbors aren’t happy about it, reports CBS News correspondent Carter Evans.
“He’s just not welcome,” Molly Hardin said.
Source: Protests follow brock Turner home to Ohio | CBS News
It should be apparent to everyone at this point that Brock Turner got off way too easy. A 19 year old attending Stanford University at the time of the incident, this guy was convicted of raping a 22 year old woman behind a dumpster. Yet, he only got six months in prison, and was recently released after three months on “good behavior”. Go ahead and read the reports – the punishment clearly did not fit the crime, and it is reasonable to question whether or not the judge was paid off to lay down such a lenient sentence. People everywhere should be very pissed off at this gross miscarriage of justice, especially when that same judge has almost certainly handed down harsher sentences for far lesser crimes.
Now that we’ve gotten the obvious out of the way, we can move on.
If you choose to protest outside the Turner’s home, what in your right mind makes you think it is a good idea to carry your AR-15 or other semi-auto rifle to the protest? The tactical advantage of a long gun over a handgun almost never makes up for what you lose by openly displaying it; the shit would probably need to hit the fan for open carry to become a tactically good idea. There is only one reason to open carry your rifle in that situation, and that is to focus on “exercising your rights”. And all you are doing is detracting from your protest of Brock Turner, by being selfish and making it about your own right to open carry your firearm.
See my previous content; these statements are coming from one of the most pro-gun guys out there, who understands the reasons why people want to own AR-15s and other semi-auto rifles, and why they want the right to open carry. There are plenty of good reasons to open carry, including but not limited to: at or near a hunt or shooting range, or openly carrying a handgun while working in some security-related capacity. Slinging your rifle around your back to go to the grocery store or a protest of Brock Turner are NOT good reasons. Think of the Westboro Baptist idiots protesting the funerals of the Orlando nightclub shooting victims. Just because you have the right to do something, doesn’t mean that you should.
What you open carry morons are doing is making the case for restricting the rights of law abiding gun owners everywhere much stronger. We already have to fight tooth and nail against the gun control lies of Michael Bloomberg, Shannon Watts, Ladd Everitt, and all of those who mindlessly follow them. People who already don’t like the second amendment at all are using images of open carry dumbasses everywhere, including grocery stores, as justification to further restrict gun rights everywhere.
It is important that I note that while I don’t think protesting outside of Brock Turner’s home is going to do any good, if the protesters feel it is the best form of protest, that is their prerogative. More effective protests would be directed towards recalling Judge Aaron Persky, or contacting your local judge or representative and demanding they make sure convicted rapists are sentenced accordingly. But, if you want to protest outside this asshole’s home, who am I to say no?
Just do us all a favor and leave your rifle at home. You are making the protest about yourself, not Brock Turner, by open carrying there. And you’re attracting attention from all the wrong places in the process. Not just from gun control groups, but from the police themselves. Do you really want that kind of negative attention drawn to yourself and your cause? Especially when you’re out there protesting someone/something entirely unrelated?
In Texas the police ask the open carry to show their CCP. Also they request to see if the chamber has a round. If the gun has a round in the chamber they confiscate the gun.
Is a CCP required to open carry in Texas?
Under what circumstances are chambered rounds illegal in Texas and how do they handle revolvers?
You don’t need a license for open carry long gun. You can have hand guns with bullets in chamber but only if you have CCP.
An LTC is not required for a rifle only a handgun.
I don’t know where you got your information, but you couldn’t be more wrong if you were an MDA member.
There is no law whatsoever against carrying a long arm in Texas. Loaded or not. Of course you may not enter a school, courthouse, jail, a place that sells alcohol or private property if prohibited by the owner. But in public it’s completely legal to carry a loaded long gun without a permit.
You only need an LTC (License To Carry) to carry a handgun openly or concealed and the same off limits places apply.
Texas gun laws confound me. IIRC, only lately did the State of Texas allow open carry for handguns (but only by permit?). What’s the logic of allowing open carry of long guns but not handguns? Or do you need a permit to open carry a long gun as well?
Here in Virginia, you can do both without permit. Only concealed handguns need a CWP (Concealed Weapon Permit). Very easy to get one, at least in my county; however, some jurisdictions in Virginia have different requirements (some want fingerprints, in person application vs. via mail, etc.).
Handgun prohibition was instituted after the war of Northern aggression. The logic being that a handgun was easily concealed and only a scoundrel concealed his weapon.
Actually not true. Austin tried to enforce this local ordinance against loaded firearms while open carrying, and they are being sued by the State Attorney General, and at least one citizen over it. It is actually against the law (and even the state legislators admitted as much on the Legislative floor during debates), to demand a CCP unless you suspect that person of a crime FIRST.
Carry the fucking things on the downlow. Any shit that goes down, someone doing open carry will be the first to get shot. And quit wearing the gun hats and shirts. Same reason. You want to look like someone who doesn’t know which end of a gun the bullet comes out of. Anything goes bad pull out your piece and shoot them in the face. Make it a surprise. Plus you scare the shit out of the anti gun sheep. You play right into the gun grabbers agenda. They love seeing you carrying AR’s around. Your doing more at helping the anti gun crowd than Bloomberg. Wake up.
Gary, as the author, I couldn’t agree more. You effectively summed up my entire article in one small paragraph. Well done.
Judging from the recent Dallas shooting, the cops actually were trained enough to not shoot the law abiding citizens. So there is a false statements by antigun folks, that say “well police wont know who the bad guy is”. That is pretty easy to determine when that law abiding guy is obeying the orders of cops in such a situation, and are not pointing their guns at everyone. SCOTUS has said that concealed carry can be banned because it is “that of criminals”, while open carry is historically the “lawful means of carrying” in Heller 2010.
Why protest outside the guys home? Seems like the judge is where the problem lies. If I was going to jail and could get a light sentence and an early release I wouldn’t turn it down. Blaming the rapist for getting a light sentence and early release is a bit stupid.
TJF, I wrote that exact bit above:
It is important that I note that while I don’t think protesting outside of Brock Turner’s home is going to do any good, if the protesters feel it is the best form of protest, that is their prerogative. More effective protests would be directed towards recalling Judge Aaron Persky, or contacting your local judge or representative and demanding they make sure convicted rapists are sentenced accordingly.
This is my main problem with open carry protests. They do far more harm than good. And why would you want to? If something goes down, you are the first one shot, either by the perp or by the cops when they show up 10 minutes after the deed is done(if you survived said deed, that is). Someone looking to do mischief is just going to shoot you first and take your gun. Concealed is the way to go. Keep a long gun in your vehicle if you want, but walking around in public like that is stupid. I carry a G43 IWB, with a mag carrier on my weak side, with pearce +1 mag extensions on both mags. Even in FL summer attire, you can’t see it unless you really look closely. Plus, I have 2 small children and typically need both of my hands anyway. I also have no desire to lug around an 8 pound rifle all the time. Same thing with open carrying a pistol. The last thing I want to do is advertise to everyone around me that I am armed. z
This kind of shit also plays right into the hands of gun grabbers, as has been stated above.
Something to think about:
A right you don’t exercise because you are afraid to exercise it is a right you don’t have.
That said, a bit of discretion, consideration and sense of propriety are an unspoken obligation of that right and should be exercised at the same time you exercise the right.
There is the concept of proportionality. Were there a known rapist on the loose and a screaming woman being attacked then grabbing your rifle and neutralizing the rapist makes sense. Wandering around with rifle to signal that you are eager to shoot someone committing a rape makes no sense. It is provocative and threatening.
A number of people here complain of the ‘militarization’ of local police forces and I would agree with them where the police, without any legitimate reason, are all too willing to saunter about brandishing assault rifles and SWAT gear. It is well to remember that it is far more likely to be the uniformed cop and his side arm that dispatches an ‘active shooter’ or maniac than the SWAT team riding to the scene in an armored vehicle.
The only reason to go to the trouble (and shoulder the responsibility) of being armed while in public is that one may be in a perilous situation, beyond any reasonable expectation of civic protection. For the vast majority of Americans, we are rarely in perilous situations, beyond reasonable expectation of civic protection. We may be unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time for a black swan event, but these times are exceedingly uncommon.
The caveat here is to acknowledge that many urban neighorhoods (and a very few rural area) are essentially feral, where carrying and being prepared to use a weapon is just common sense. Better to move from or avoid these areas, I think.
If one is beyond civic protection, then having a weapon at hand is vital, and it should be close at hand, ready to bring to bear. A comfortable concealed pistol is the very best choice, and a displayed pistol or long gun is only going to bring on unwanted attention in a situation already defined as perilous.
Open carry in a safe place is childish, and more dangerous in a perilous place. Keep it out of sight, or take yourself someplace else. You REALLY do not want to shoot anyone, anytime, and should do all you can to avoid ever being faced with the prospect.
Hey dumb Bo ,I’m always armed in public.If you had to go into the cities of this once great nation you would be armed in public.In the cities you will have problems .
All the mentally ill , all the criminals , all the crack heads and the occasional wondering pit bull tends to be a bit unnerving.
I receive some of my remuneration from a range and two observations I’ve made:
1) after watching cinema & television protagonists & antagonists wielding weapons, a significant number of new owners buy a piece, usually a short arm & a box of ammo, then go to the range once, fire all but one clip’s worth and “feel” that’s all that’s necessary to be able to defend themselves; it’s not by a long shot
2) the most reckless demographic who visit the range and who I must watch like a hawk are two or more twenty-something guys who seem to think that what Hollywood produces (maybe video games too?) is real
Draw your own conclusions.
As a side note, look at all of the toxic masculinity participating in rape culture. (/sarc, ya idjit.)
I have to agree that the open-carry fanatics are being childish and foolish, and are doing more to endanger our 2nd Amendment rights than to support them.
That said, I gotta love men who demonstrate in support of rape victims, and who openly profess disgust at the light sentence meted out to Brock Turner.
Thank you to all the fine, masculine men who have stepped forward to support rape victims and condemn sexual predators.
Open carry has been the law in Kentucky ever since we became a state. No permit, carry what you want. We have had open carry for 200 years longer than we have had concealed carry. The reasoning behind that was only a man of evil intentions has need to hide his weapons. The so called “tactical” advantage for concealed carry is nothing but a made up excuse. There is zero evidence supporting these claims.