If more states allow anyone to openly carry a gun
like I think TN is doing, I hope enough of us would see someone carrying a gun as an anti social self centered person and would get the hell away from them.
If enough people would shun gun carriers it may have the effect of giving the public the message that we don't want guns to become a normal everyday thing and that we see don't accept gun violence as the price of freedom.
flamin lib
(14,559 posts)upaloopa
(11,417 posts)and a gun carrier comes up behind me.
I would walk away telling him I don't want to be shot and leave the basket where it is.
KeepItReal
(7,769 posts)If they are not one the next thought is a fearful, unsocialized soul who should just stay at home behind his ADT system and his arsenal.
billh58
(6,642 posts)easy enough to spot and avoid, but concealed carriers who are idiots are more problematic. In many "shall issue" jurisdictions almost anyone who hasn't had a parking ticket can get a CCW in short order, and this includes drunks, abusive sociopaths, bullies, and other anti-social misfits.
The gun culture mindset that a lethal weapon is an "equalizer" and a personal problem solver too often results in a permanent solution to a temporary problem. While CCW holders claim to be more upstanding and law-abiding than most Americans, those claims do not take into account someone's personal character. Being an anti-social asshole, a bully, and a paranoid coward should be a valid consideration when it comes to someone being given the power to take a life based on feeling threatened.
Police officers and other professionals who carry weapons in public as a part of their duties are given psychological evaluations and extensive training before being allowed to carry a weapon in public. Why not apply the same standards to anyone who wishes to carry a weapon in the public venue for no apparent reason, but supposedly for possible self-defense "just in case I'm threatened?" That amount of paranoia would seem to be a cause for concern right from the outset.