I've recently been made aware that a bunch of folks from a local group plan to open carry into restaurants on July 1st, when House Bill 89 goes into effect. This is a stupid and ultimately destructive idea.

Let's get one thing straight, folks: open carry spooks the sheep.

It may be common in rural areas, but that’s not the way it is in suburbia. People aren’t used to seeing guns, and many associate them with crime and mayhem. I know it stems from ignorance, but if it’s going to change, it’s going to take awhile.

If someone’s uncomfortable about guns, being stuck in line next to a guy carrying one isn’t going to change that. It’s just going to make them suspicious and nervous. People in that state are unpredictable, especially in groups.

Don’t give me arguments about “educating people.” It’s ego, and that's all it is. Somebody's got something to prove, and whatever excuses they choose to make, it all comes down to alpha-male chest pounding. If you want to be the center of attention, run for office or get a record deal. If a firearm is a means to boost your self esteem, you need therapy, not a gun.

Sure, I’d love it if things were different. Sometimes it’s not practical or comfortable to wear a covering garment, and it would be convenient if I didn’t have to worry about concealment. But I'm not in Montana, and the soccer mom at table four isn't going to be very happy being seated next to me with her kids when she sees a gun on my hip.

Over the last year or so, I’ve been hearing more and more stories from both sides of the fence about this issue.

They all follow the same pattern:

• Person carries a weapon openly in a place that’s either wildly inappropriate, or they do so in a place historically known for being hostile towards civilian carry
• Person feigns surprise when they’re approached by management and/or asked to leave
• Person argues or throws a hissy fit, ensuring that they attract the attention of everyone in earshot (none of whom are charmed or impressed)
• Person goes to his friends or the internet and complains about being singled out. Rather than telling him he’s an idiot, they congratulate him, and basking in this dubious validation, he ends up perpetuating the cycle.

I suppose this is the point when you’re thinking, “Wait a minute! You’re the guy who rants all the time about the importance of the 2nd Amendment!” That’s true, but there are right and wrong ways to go about things, and the wrong way will cause problems for us all.

Scaring people isn’t helping. In fact, it’s going to make things worse. I know the Georgia Carry crowd (*) loves doing this; they post about it all the time on their forum. What they don’t realize is that they weren’t the only people who worked to get HB 89 passed, and that by their actions, we could all see this progress rendered moot by this time last year.

The Georgia Restaurant Association fought hard to keep guns out of their establishments, and if they’re going to change their minds, it’s going to be from a lack of incident. Twenty people walking in with visible firearms during dinner hour on July 1st is going to send their blood pressure skyrocketing.

Guess what happens next? Restaurants will start posting signs stating that guns are banned from the premises. If people choose to flaunt their policies, or if there are confrontations, they may start writing the assembly or the governor to get a law passed making “no guns” signs legally binding, as they are in many states.

After that, other businesses will follow suit, and you’ll be legally prohibited from carrying in all sorts of places. Wal Mart springs to mind, as do many liberal-owned businesses, especially banks.

All of which unmakes the progress HB 89 started. A great deal of damage can be done by a few people who want some attention and think that having a gun makes them a knight in shining armor.

Yeah, thanks guys.

//

(*) One member's signature reads:

Doing my part to piss off soccer moms and sabotage the cause - one positive, ego-feeding OC experience at a time!!!

//

05/27/08:

Well, it looks like I touched a nerve.

I published last night's post at 9:28PM. Between 9:44 and 9:51, my server received 112 SYN requests from the same IP address (74.124.195.125). At 100 requests, it did as I'd instructed it to do, and it shut down access from that address under the assumption it was subject to a DoS attack.

That might not sound like much, but I only get ~94,000 hits a month, including bots and spiders, so 112 in six minutes, from the same address, is cause for alarm. Thank goodness for mod_dosevasive.

As it turns out, that IP address resolves to Georgia Packing. Apparently, someone was watching my site, because at 9:40 (twelve minutes after I'd posted), Georgia Packing had a thread up linking to the post. Ironically, the thread on GPDO accuses me of "stalking" their forum.

I slept through most of the drama, fortunately. I received an email from an acquaintance who's on the boards this morning. So far, they've called me an ass, accused me of being a racist (?) and complained about the block from my server. After what happened the last time I dealt with them, I think I'm going to make that referral ban permanent.

The member whose sig line I quoted had this to say:

Screw him. I never had an opinion one way or another, but after reading his drivel he and Alice [Johnson, I presume] can pound sand together. (…) GCO was the driving force behind the changes made this year [no mention of the NRA, who, as angry as I was with them, turned things around at the 11th hour], and his comments linking GCO and GPDO as being the same amount to the same twisting of facts as done by the media.

Somebody needs a hug.  He even amended my name into his signature line:

Doing my part to piss off soccer moms (and Lonely Machines) and sabotage the cause - one positive, ego-feeding OC experience at a time!!!

Oh, and this guy is William Weeks, Public Relations Coordinator for Georgia Carry.

Though GCO (Georgia Carry) and GPDO (the forum) are not technically the same organizations, the president of GCO is a moderator for GPDO, and the owner of GPDO is the secretary of GCO. GPDO is essentially the voice for GCO. (The owner of GPDO was also an administrator for packing.org, and the less we say about its sad demise, the better.)

Trust me, things said on the forum will come back to haunt the parent organization.  This is likely why the NRA doesn't have forums.

Read over the "Hydrashok Ballistics Testing at Work" thread. The author describes making improvised silencers. Why the moderators haven't been smart enough to delete that one is beyond me, but they don't seem to take any sort of action to keep discussions in line. The guy also claims to have carried a gun into his probation office. Why was he on probation? By his own admission, stalking and harassment.

That's certainly not the company I choose to keep.

They seem to have their panties in a knot that I won't allow them to comment here. Perhaps if I thought that civilized discourse was a possibility with them, I'd consider it, but experience with them, both online and in the real world, has proven otherwise. After all, they are the reason I had to disable comments sitewide in the first place.