SAN ANTONIO - Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a gun-toting Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, is to headline a gun-rights rally Saturday on the state-owned Alamo grounds, where demonstrations historically have been banned — until Patterson’s office took over the shrine. The rally, billed as “Come and Take It San Antonio!” will be held on the 4.2-acre Alamo complex, which has been under the custodianship of the Texas General Land Office since 2011. Patterson, a gun-rights advocate who wrote the state’s concealed weapons law that took effect in 1996, is to be the keynote speaker.
There are few things more pointlessly offensive and alarming that gun nuts openly carrying AR-15s in public because…well, because they can. The people prone to this sort of immaturity tend to be those looking to provoke a response. They want to be in your face, they crave attention, and if it takes scaring innocent civilians to demonstrate that they value their 2nd Amendment “rights,” so be it. In fact, they value their “rights” so much that some carry a camera so they can post the video of their “oppression” on YouTube when police or members of the public attempt to hold them accountable. They want you to know that their right to bear arms trumps any and all other consideration, public safety chief among them.
Today the Alamo will be the site of a protest by those upset by what they feel are the state of Texas’ efforts to deny them their “right” to carrying any sort of firearm their little hearts desire wherever and whenever they might desire to do so. To their way of thinking, NO ONE should be able to deny them their inalienable, immutable, and undeniable right to bear arms.
Guns über Alles.
An event flier circulated on the Internet accuses Police Chief William McManus and the Police Department of “harassing” gun owners after three men with guns at a local Starbucks were charged Aug. 24 with disorderly conduct….
According to police reports, three men cited at the coffee emporium wore camouflage and had semi-automatic rifles. The manager and people leaving the store “expressed concern,” as the men had the rifles “on their laps and in hand.”
The rifles had rounds in the magazine, “and had open slides that just needed to be closed to make each weapon ready to fire,” the reports said.
The Texas Penal Code makes it illegal to display “a firearm or other deadly weapon in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm.”
McManus has defended the officers who ticketed the men, whose visit to Starbucks was partly recorded in a video posted on YouTube. The chief didn’t rule out the possibility of arrests being made Saturday.
I’ll freely admit to not being the most objective person when it comes to gun control. I’m a gun-grabbing Liberal and proud of it. I WANT to take your guns, because there’s no reason that 30+ Americans should die EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. from gun violence. If England and Australia can make their make population safer by essentially banning guns, I see no sensible argument for why we can’t (and shouldn’t) do the same thing in America.
That said, I’m also realistic enough to recognize that what I believe in and want is never going to happen- not in this lifetime nor in the next. Reality aside, there’s not a sound or reasonable argument to be made for assholes (How else could they reasonably be described?) to be carrying AR-15s in public places. Gun nuts do not have an inalienable right to place the public in peril because they’re compensating for their…um, shortcomings.
Texas law limits carrying of concealed handguns to licensed owners, but allows open carrying of rifles when not done in a threatening manner.
Despite what gun nuts believe to be true, they don’t have the absolute, inviolate right to carrying any and all manner of firepower in whatever way they see fit wherever they might choose. There’s simply no way to argue that three men sitting in a coffee shop with riflea aren’t A) threatening, B) dangerous, C) a threat to public safety, or D) all of the above. This might come as a surprise to gun nuts, but it’s possible to exercise your right to bear arms without revealing yourself to be a self-absorbed, attention-craving asshole. If you can’t understand that sitting in a coffee shop with a round IN THE CHAMBER OF YOUR RIFLE places everyone in your vicinity in peril, you’re in serious need of professional help, and I haven’t the words to describe the extent of your irresponsibility.
The 2nd Amendment was not written to allow Right-wing zealots to openly carry anything and everything anywhere. It was intended to allow for self-defense against external threats and/or a tyrannical government. I’m here to tell you that The Black Guy in the White House © is not the leader of a tyrannical government, nor is he a threat to your safety and well-being. Not liking a duly elected President and Congress hardly meets the definition of “tyrannical government.” It’s called “democracy.” If those of us on the Left managed to survive eight years of Captain Codpiece ©, y’all can stop your whining while Barack Obama is President.
Then there’s the matter of responsibility. Gun owners who insist on carrying rifles in public need to be responsible enough to understand the consequences of their actions, and they need to understand how their actions may be viewed by others. Responsible gun owners don’t walk into a grocery store or a mall with an AR-15 slung over their shoulder. Assholes do that sort thing, and they don’t care about anything except their precious “rights.” Then someone gets killed when a rifle accidentally discharges, but that’s just the cost of freedom, right?
I suppose this is what happens you love guns more than life itself.
