2nd Amendment Hysteria

[Rotobeast]

(10-10-2015, 10:13 AM)xxlt Wrote: I knew laws varied from state to state, but thought as a rule buying a gun was about as tough as buying a kite or a lamp. So, that leaves me still wondering why people would ***** hysterically about non-existent big government intrusion into their lives and trampling all over the only right they give two shits about when in reality guns flow like water in the streams from sea to shining sea.

And, now I also wonder about the tension between open carry and concealed carry. I have sympathy with Rotobeast's contempt for open carry guys, but that is because they seem to be the sorts of lunatics who belong to "militias" but ones that are far from well regulated. Seems like they are usually a bunch of overweight dudes with some version of the 1,000 yard stare wearing army surplus gear and hanging out in public all geared out and getting a chubby because they make people nervous.

Yeah, I get not being a fan of those guys...but there is a part of me that knows a lot of guys who aren't total weirdos who have concealed carry permits and who I sort of wish would just carry open. My thought was always that if you don't need a permit to open carry and people just get used to seeing their normally programmed neighbor with his gun on his hip instead of squirreled away in a bag or shoved half up his arse they might realize not all "gun nuts" are actually "nuts" and some of the people who fetishize guns might not have as much reason to if they just saw them more commonly.

The older I get the more I realize that was probably a naive hope, but it still somehow seems weird to me that you can walk down any street in America with a gun on your person in plain view and there is no law against it and damn near nobody but the lunatic fringe will do it. But you have to get a permit to conceal the gun on your person and the same people who love their guns and hate having their freedoms viz a vie guns restricted will jump through the hoops to get the concealed carry permit. Why don't they just say, "Screw you, big government," and carry open as is their right? There has always seemed something very strange in that whole dynamic to me. Thoughts?

I think open carry causes too much fear in the public.
Increased stress creates unnecessary situations.
Besides, as you said, most of the cats are just attention whores.