Gun owners show off their rights in Leesburg

So much for the claims of "intimidating" people, that are so often heard coming from the other side of the issue.


Those of you that have a problem with the people doing this, could you explain in detail what specific problem you see with it? (please check "could happen" at the door)

I am so fucking sick of it.....fostered and nurtured by an idiot son.

Their presence in any environment evokes anxiety and insecurity. Regardless if they are used or not they promote the notion that the world is a dangerous place. This sense of fear causes social interactions to be read in a particular context, a distrustful one.

Thats a pretty absolute statement...


The presence of guns in my home evokes anxiety and insecurity on the part of no one in my home.

You might want to qualify that statement.

Only if your a REPUBLICAN gun grabber,like Sara Brady.


I guess they did not read your other postings about how PRO-gun the Democratic ran congress and senate really is!!

...were always pro-gun.

Patrick Leahy has been a huge NRA supporter for years. Bob Casey and Ted Strickland are gun guys. I can't imagine someone trying to take a gun out of Lyndon Johnson's hands. He used to take Kennedy's guys down to the ranch and hunt birds from the back of his convertible.

This is another reason Obama is dead on arrival. He's kept his mouth shut about guns so far but as soon as he starts blathering on about elitist left wing this and that, Wayne and the boys will be right on top of it.

Once again, it's not the United States of northern California and Massachusetts. It's the United States of America!

Gotta love 'em!



Hey ... didn't he get shot?

at Austin (TX) Community College. He gave it up upon passage of the Omnibus gun-control act in 1968(?). Not the first time guns have been in my classroom.

I disagree when you say Obama is dead on arrival. He has conceded that 2A is an individal right, and he has spoken out on guns before (as has Hillary) in the present campaign. What we should do is come up with a way to persuade Obama to sit down with progressive pro-2A Democrats and listen to their concerns. I think he could very well change his mind further. If he does that, then I'm not worried about the dehydrated Frenchman named Wayne __________.

"I disagree when you say Obama is dead on arrival. He has conceded that 2A is an individal right, and he has spoken out on guns before (as has Hillary) in the present campaign. What we should do is come up with a way to persuade Obama to sit down with progressive pro-2A Democrats and listen to their concerns. I think he could very well change his mind further. If he does that, then I'm not worried about the dehydrated Frenchman named Wayne __________."

I agree.

And as I have said all along, I truly hope Heller insulates him as much as possible from the issue.

My worry is that he wont do or say enough publicly, and that it will be used against him.

because you believe the social environment is threatening. It becomes self-fulfilling. Someone walks across your backyard looking for their lost cat and your instinct tells you they're a dangerous intruder. The presence of the gun in your both represents and magnifies this way of thinking.

...and you know it.

Why do you think all the concealed carry laws require classroom instruction? I went through that course in Texas. They talk about never, ever drawing that weapon until all possible attempts at conflict resolution have been exhausted. WHY? Because once you draw, it's very likely you'll use it.

Even in the FBI, you're taught to never point that weapon at someone you're not justified in and prepared to kill. No matter what.

So much of this is about training.

never ever to put anything smaller than my elbow in my ear.

Sure is a good thing that Q-tips don't fire bullets, I guess.

"You have a gun because you believe the social environment is threatening. It becomes self-fulfilling. Someone walks across your backyard looking for their lost cat and your instinct tells you they're a dangerous intruder. The presence of the gun in your both represents and magnifies this way of thinking."

Actually no. I have guns for a variety of reasons, none of them is a reason you listed.

Heres a brief list of reasons why I own guns.

Heres some context - we live out in the middle of nowhere, roughly 30 minutes from fire/police help. We have pomeranians, which as anyone that raises them knows, are like little people. Escapees from a kansas penal institution have been known to travel across our property, Hasn't happened to us yet, but did to the previous homeowner.

I own guns because:

First and foremost, no coyote is going to be allowed to eat my babies. They're precious to myself and mrs beevul, and we'd just die if we lost one. (we have lost cats and 2 other dogs already to the damn things.

Second, I enjoy marksmanship, and the engineering of a fine piece of precision equipment. I'm a machinist by trade, and such things interest me.


Third, I have a 17 year old daughter and mrs beevul here, and I'll be damned if they are going to be sitting here for 30 minutes unarmed with nothing more than pomeranians and a scaredy-cat lab-mix to keep someone from the previously mentioned penal institution at bay, in the unlikely event they do show up, just the same as I'll be damned if I'll be without a fire extinguisher for 30 minutes in the unlikely event of a fire, or without a generator in the unlikely event of the power being out for any length of time like it was for a week, some year and a half ago after an ice storm.

"Someone walks across your backyard looking for their lost cat and your instinct tells you they're a dangerous intruder."

Being that I live out in the middle of nowhere and the nearest neighbor is almost a mile away, and based on the previous homeowners history, if someone comes walking across my back yard, theres a pretty strong chance that us being alarmed is justified. Nobody is going to come walking through to find a lost cat, I guarantee you.

The OP described a situation where people are sitting around a table in a restaurant wearing guns while they ate a meal. That's very different from what you're describing. I presume you don't feel the need to pack a weapon when you go shopping or visit friends. Some people seem to suggest that such behaviour would be perfectly reasonable. I would argue such behaviour promotes a sense of public fear that has a cost to people psychologically beyond any danger from the weapons actually being used.

No, I don't feel the need to pack a weapon other than when I have coyotes to deal with. I do support those people that choose to though, not because I understand their rationale, but because I don't think I can put myself in their place and judge whether their reasoning is valid, and also because I don't think its my place to, any more than its their place to do the same with me regarding why I have pomeranians, both being lawful.



Thats just the thing though. Theres behavior, and theres behavior. And I think thats where the disconnect lies between people that have no problem with this, and people that object. I don't personally classify openly carrying a gun as a behavior as such. What one does with the gun one is carrying is what I'd call behavior. I know that doesn't meet the strict definition of the word, but there it is.
I don't personally consider carrying a gun a "behavior" anymore than I do wearing a belt. If someone were to pull the gun out, brandish it, or shoot someone, I'd call that behavior the same as I would
if someone took off their belt and hit someone with it.

I can't see wearing a belt as a behavior whether it has a gun attached to it or not.

So long as the people that are carrying these firearms openly do not engage in any bad behavior with them, I can not in my mind rightfully object.

I appreciate your tone BTW, your civility and especially the lack of "shiny metal penis" innuendo. Its both appreciated and refreshing.

I can assure you that you are HIGHLY misguided....

No one, has ever been shot, in my home, or backyard, or in my presence....and I have dozen of guns... many are so called " evil assault rifles" you know, the kind that makes Dianne Feinstein have an orgasm, and democrats to incur massive losses at election time


I must be doing something wrong?!?!?! All these guns, and NO ONE gets hurt??

I'd help him/her find the cat.

It is/can be a hassle to wear, handle, store, keep safe, etc. a firearm. Those who do so (besides for hunting or range use), especially those who carry concealed, must figure the aggravation is worth it - the fear of one or one's family being a victim is a strong motivator.

I believe that IF more people carried - and carried openly as in this example, if guns became more mainstream in the possession of "good guys", that there would be less fear and anxiety attached to guns, and they would be more accepted, and not a cause for mistrust.

I live where open carry is legal, damn few people do it. Ranchers often carry revolvers around here, it is glaringly obvious who they are so they really don't incite the emotion you are speaking of in most people. When some 20 something Dog the bounty hunter wannabe does it, the feeling is apparent. Anyone who is carrying for self defense should carry concealed if it is an option in their state for this very reason.

...but I always believed that those who don't need to wear a gun for their work, but are still so obscessed with wearing guns in public, are making up for the, ahem, inadequate "gun" God gave them.

This is my rifle, this is my gun....

Just sayin'.

Running and hiding...

That's what my H&K P2000 is for. (and actually, I did wear one for work too - a gun that is, the penis is always there)

And now I wonder if your confusion between guns and a man's penis is why you are a frustrated lady!

...the blood pressure medicine, my wife asks if mine is still there.

Reminds me of the Southpark scene where Mrs. Hankey says "...I know somethin' else that don't work anymore..."

:rofl:

The desire for an equitable defense against armed thuggery is dictated by penis size? Somehow, I rather doubt a large penis is of much use against someone intending to do harm.

"Like any other symbol, one can project many different images onto (guns), and these images can be reflections of unconscios issues as well as conscious ones. Someone who fears guns, for example, could have healthy reasons for wanting to avoid guns, or their fears cold be a deeper phobic reaction to conflicts about sexuality and repressed anger." -- James A Swan, Ph.D., In Defense of Hunting, HarperCollins, 1995.

BTW, since you're in the mood for getting it backwards, what about the millions of women who own guns, especially those who wear them openly?

BTW, since you're in the mood for getting it backwards, what about the millions of women who own guns, especially those who wear them openly?

The term "self-loathing" comes to mind in the latter case, for sure ...

(edit: the latter case being the only one that was actually on the table)

why is "self-loathing" the term that comes to mind for you in regards to women openly carrying a firearm?

Not trying to be a troll or anything, I'm curious.

who are gun enthusiasts are among the most competent, self-assured people I know. These kind of folks (women or men) I feel the most comfortable around.

"show off their rights"? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

Sounds to me like they were showing off their gunz. In fact, that's exactly what they were doing.

So they were exercising their rights. Big whup. So would I be if I took off my shirt and walked up and down the block beside the elementary school on the next block. (Women are allowed to go out in public without top coverings where I am; equal rights, you know?) I'd still be an asshole.

If I were Fred Phelps and picketed the funerals of gay men -- "showing off my rights", right?

It really is possible to be doing something one has the right to do and be making an asshole of one's self at the same time.

As these assholes demonstrate.

The men, who are regular citizens, not police officers, were openly carrying their firearms, mainly to exercise their right to do so in the state of Virginia.

Yeah, and when I jump off a bridge, I'm not doing it to commit suicide, I'm doing it to exercise my right to jump off a bridge.


html fixed

Do you think their showing off is more apt to better secure their rights because they are "exercising them", or more apt to inspire a move to ban open carry?


Edit: asked location, but nevermind, it's Virginia

In your opinion, is there any way one might exercise the right in question and not be an asshole?

Is there some way one might exercise the right to demonstrate against GLBT people at a GLBT person's funeral and not be an asshole?

Can't think of one. How 'bout you?

G? L? B? or maybe the person was T? How about Q?

Yep, open carry of a firearm is just as bad as picketing against gays and lesbians at a gay man's funeral.

You're unreal.

Yep, open carry of a firearm is just as bad as picketing against gays and lesbians at a gay man's funeral.

Do you think so?? I guess you think someone agrees with you, since you're saying "yep" to somebody. I suspect you're going to get some bashing for that nonetheless.

about five people eating dinner while wearing a firearm on their belt. You got so worked up over it, that the only thing you could equate it to was a man picketing with anti-gay rights material at a gay mans funeral.

To me that says you feel that wearing a firearm is as bad or worse than picketing against homosexuals at a homosexuals funeral. that's pretty out there.

If I got worked up every time an asshole came to my attention ... I'd never get any work done at all.

I'd say that your post shows you being rude, presumptuous and really really dumb, but you'd probably pretend to think I'd got worked up about it ...


To me that says you feel that wearing a firearm is as bad or worse than picketing against homosexuals at a homosexuals funeral.

I got no control over your thought processes, chum. You and me and the world at large might be better off if I did, but I don't.

So they were exercising their rights. Big whup. So would I be if I took off my shirt and walked up and down the block beside the elementary school on the next block. (Women are allowed to go out in public without top coverings where I am; equal rights, you know?) I'd still be an asshole.

Pics or it didn't happen!!!!

:) :) :) :)

'Fraid you'll have to figure the search terms out for yourself though!

It was quite a fad among the local street hookers for a while ...


edit


Hmm, I wonder whether "Ontario women show off their rights" would do it ...

http://images.google.com/images?q=Ontario+women+show+off+their+rights&as_st=y&ndsp=21&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&start=0&sa=N

:)

I'll bet you can think of something to put with ontario women that would do it. I had already. ;)

Will a print report do?

http://www.niagarathisweek.com/news/article/112115

If you'd asked me, I would not have said it's been 12 years since the decision.

I'm trading in all my guns for boobs.

Last week, Levine had a discussion with some Leesburg Police officers who were misinformed on the law. When he asked them what they would do if they saw him carrying his weapon openly, they told him they would want to check his ID and permit status.

Levine explained to carry a gun in the open in Virginia, you don't need a permit and there is no requirement to show identification to police.

That incident prompted Leesburg Chief of Police Joseph Price to contact Levine through e-mail with a response.

"The officers' information to you was incorrect," Price wrote. "We had already scheduled refresher training on this topic. Thank you for bringing it to my attention."

Too many people think gun owners are "someone else" and not the average person sitting next to them.