Open Carry: It’s Time To Stop the Friendly Fire

[PAMedic=F|A=]

https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/ope...friendly-fire/

We gun owners have a problem. Michael Bloomberg has split our ranks with the topic of open carry. He and the mainstream media are fully in control of the issue and they are using it to pit gun owners against each other.

I have yet to read a single media report that isn’t rife with flat-out lies with respect to open carry. Here in Wisconsin a local news station, WTMJ-TV, reported the exact OPPOSITE of what really happened when a gun owner went for a walk in Germantown with a shotgun slung over his back. WTMJ’s headline was, “Germantown Police flooded with calls from frantic residents when man carries gun down busy street.” The average citizen sees that on the news and it generates a mental image of people ducking behind cars as the guy took his walk. This is totally false.

To uncover the truth, I made open records requests and listened to the calls. Germantown Police got four calls over the course of an hour and three of those calls were to the non-emergency number. If you were frantic, would you call the non-emergency number? The one woman who called 911 seemed worried but not “frantic.” The truth…completely different from what WTMJ reported. A man walked down a busy street and back. His walk took an hour. Of the thousands of people who saw him, three people called police at the non-emergency number. A single person called 911. The Germantown Police weren’t “flooded” with calls. No one was “frantic.” The police probably get more calls when a mother duck tries to lead her ducklings across Mequon Road. If WTMJ wasn’t so anti-gun, the headline could have said, “Man carries shotgun along a busy street in Germantown. Thousands see him, virtually no one concerned.”

The WTMJ headline was literally the opposite of what really happened. But unfortunately, an entire viewing audience in southeast Wisconsin, even people who call themselves pro-gun, saw the news report and believed it. They believed it because we are supposed to trust the news media to tell the truth. As a result of this story, many pro-gun folks were fooled, and there came a negative image of open carry.

Conservatives know better than to trust the mainstream media on most issues. It’s unfortunate that on the open carry issue people who should know better than to trust the media believe what they read and see in media reports. They take the bait and speak out against open carry.

What Happened At Chipotle?

Those now-infamous pictures of guys posing with long-guns in Chipotle are a prime example of how the anti-gun forces control this discussion. Open Carry Texas had specific pre-arranged permission from that store to have a group meal after an outdoor open carry rally. No one in that restaurant was scared of this group. At the time of the event—and when the photo was taken—there were two police officers in that Chipotle eating just 4 feet away from the two guys when they “posed for a picture” near the beverage dispenser. The media would have you believe Open Carry Texas ambushed that restaurant, showing up unannounced to make a political statement. This is totally false. The group’s leaders called weeks ahead of time, asked for permission to come in as a group, and told the manager everyone would be carrying guns. It was not a problem. Of course Bloomberg’s cyberstalkers were able to grab pictures from the internet with NO context and create a false narrative. So how do we combat Bloomberg and the people who do his bidding? The answer isn’t to retreat and get guns back in the closet or get open carriers to the back of the bus.

Pro-gun folks need to stand together, stop the “friendly fire” at open carry activists, and get the truth out. Do you believe the media reports on gun issues? Then why do you believe the media reports on open carry events? Stop allowing Bloomberg to dictate a false narrative.

It’s a massive trap and a huge tactical mistake to throw open carriers under the bus. Doing so allows Bloomberg to divide and conquer, but it also allows the media to proliferate a stigma on guns. That’s just as dangerous.

Open carry doesn’t scare anyone other than the viciously vocal 15 percent of the population that is hardcore anti-gun. And those anti-gunners are afraid of open carry because of the good it does for the gun community.

For 50 years the anti-gun crowd has had its way in schools and in media, perpetuating the myth that guns—all guns—are evil. You can’t even chew a pop-tart into the shape of a gun, or have a picture of a gun on a shirt without being suspended from school. That proves that it’s all about indoctrination, NOT safety.

Anti-gunners fear open carry because kids, moms, dads, and non-gun owners see guns being carried by “good guys” and they see that nothing bad happens. That image and that narrative scares the hell out of Bloomberg and his minions. Open carry is the anti’s biggest fear because they know it destroys 50 years of anti-gun propaganda. For 50 years the anti-gunners have been driving the notion that guns are inherently evil. Open carry disproves that in an instant. Open carry destroys all that indoctrination.

Bloomberg doesn’t hate open carry because it scares people. Bloomberg hates open carry because it doesn’t scare people. Bloomberg is absolutely apoplectic to see carrying a firearm being normalized by open carriers.

What Happened With Target?

Think about it. If open carry was scaring people in Target stores, Bloomberg wouldn’t have had to get his cyberstalkers involved. If open carry was scaring people in those stores, local managers would have been calling district managers and saying, “Hey boss, we have a problem.” Those calls would have gone up the corporate chain internally, quickly and quietly, and Target executives would have made a policy change.

That didn’t happen because there was no issue. Bloomberg had to manufacture an issue where none existed. He enlisted thousands of cyber-stalkers to rummage through social media, find pictures of “guys with guns” in businesses and then fill the inboxes of corporate executives 10 states away. He was able to rely on anti-gun assumptions, created and promoted by the media, to create a false reality.

Bloomberg knew he could fool corporate executives and bully or scare them into the response we’ve seen, but I don’t think Bloomberg expected to split the gun crowd down the middle. He now has gun owners attacking each other on the topic of open carry. When gun owners in the other 49 states see only news reports with no factual information of what really happened and, after hearing those reports, lash out at open carriers, Bloomberg wins twice.

It’s scary stuff. Gun owners are bashing each other because Bloomberg tells them to. I’ve been working with the heads of other state-based gun groups around the country trying to stop the friendly fire and focus on the real threat. (Bloomberg, not open carry, is the real threat.)

I’ve found that about 25 percent of the state-based groups fully support all forms of safe, legal carry. More importantly they are willing to say so publicly. Another 25 percent want to support all forms of carry but are scared to death of being attacked by other pro-gun groups. As a result, they remain silent. The final half of the state-based groups are running scared, either believing the false reality Bloomberg and his media machine have created, or too afraid of losing to fight back. So they are actively and vocally trying to get on the good side of what they see as the mainstream by bashing open carry. Unfortunately, there are even a couple groups who hold the core belief that guns shouldn’t be seen. How sad is it that even some pro-gun folks have developed a baseline prejudice to a gun being seen in public?

If open carry is maligned all guns ownership is maligned. Up until Bloomberg and his minions took control of the debate, we were winning. We were proving that guns aren’t inherently evil by showing the world that good guys carry guns and when they do, nothing bad happens.

Gun owners should not advocate one kind of carry over another. We should advocate for people to carry in the legal manner of their own choosing. But we all need to remember the huge impact open carry was having on the hearts and minds of the non-gun owners out there. Before Bloomberg organized his minions against it, open carry was showing the good side of gun ownership. Then some gun owners fell into Bloomberg’s trap and began attacking open carriers.

The crux of the issue is this: we need to honor and embrace all safe, legal carry and stop fighting amongst ourselves. We need to REVIVE the legacy of what guns (even long guns) mean to this country. They aren’t evil; they aren’t a social taboo. Guns serve as color guards in parades and ceremonies. We fire off guns at the funerals of our nation’s bravest soldiers. The gun IS freedom. Guns in the hands of ordinary citizens freed us from tyranny hundreds of years ago. Guns protect us. We need to promote the notion that the 2nd Amendment isn’t about hunting, and the carrying of a gun isn’t just about self-defense.

We as gun owners do not want other people restricting the type and style of gun we carry. So then why should we as gun owners want to restrict the way in which our fellow gun owners can legally carry a gun? We should not be fighting each other. We should be fighting Bloomberg and the people he has sent to attack our freedoms.

[Editor’s note: Nik Clark is the President and Chairman of Wisconsin Carry, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and reclamation of the basic human rights critical to a free society. Learn more about Nik and Wisconsin Carry at www.wisconsincarry.org.]

[PAMedic=F|A=]

A great article from United States Concealed Carry Association.

[marinville]

Good article, but good luck getting widespread support for that thoughtful and coherent argument around here. I think I see the Chipolte picture coming up over the horizon.

[scruff]

Open carry of long guns in private businesses has been a huge PR disaster. You can come up with all the thoughtful and coherent arguments you want, but those arguments aren't going to change that fact. The Chipotle and Target photos are like gold to the Moms; they can't buy that kind of success, even with Bloomberg's millions, and we're handing it to them for free. We can discuss how far is too far, but open carry of long guns in private businesses has been proven to be too far.

[PSUWaz00]

I've got no problem with OC as long as it's done in such a way that does not put OC or guns as a whole in a negative light. There's a fine line between exercising your right and being obnoxious while doing so. People like OC TX, I don't think, realize that they are winning the battles but losing the war. These activists need to realize it's not us or the MDA's of the world that they need to convince or sway, it's Mr. and Mrs. Joeblow.

Even as a CCW, my first reaction to seeing someone with an AK or AR at the low ready in a public store would be looking for exits and cover and/or concealment. I can't imagine what a soccer mom with 2 kids walking into Target would think. Scaring the general public to prove a point can be and often is counter productive.

All groups of activists need to do is publicize their event and try to coordinate efforts. It makes it a lot less intimidating to the average joe if the OCing of long guns can be see as part of a larger message/protest/exercising of rights, and not just 1 or 2 people cruising downtown with loaded rifles.

[JenniferG]

I'm sorry but those dumb asses at Chipolte don't represent the people that open carry properly, they look like morons.

http://concealedcarryforum.com/forum...TOPIC_ID=40173

nuff said.

[nfafan]

Open carry of long guns in private businesses has been a huge PR disaster. You can come up with all the thoughtful and coherent arguments you want, but those arguments aren't going to change that fact. The Chipotle and Target photos are like gold to the Moms; they can't buy that kind of success, even with Bloomberg's millions, and we're handing it to them for free. We can discuss how far is too far, but open carry of long guns in private businesses has been proven to be too far.

True that bigtime.

[Gun]

Open carry of long guns in private businesses has been a huge PR disaster. You can come up with all the thoughtful and coherent arguments you want, but those arguments aren't going to change that fact. The Chipotle and Target photos are like gold to the Moms; they can't buy that kind of success, even with Bloomberg's millions, and we're handing it to them for free. We can discuss how far is too far, but open carry of long guns in private businesses has been proven to be too far.

Besides that, Moms don't read usconcealedcarry or frequent concealedcarryforum. They have to get the kids to soccer practice.

[OwnTheRide]

Unfortunately, you won't convince the anti-OCers of anything. It's particularly unfortunate that they don't realize just how close they are to dropping the "-OCers" part of that moniker. Aiding and abetting the enemy.

[nater99]

Oc is great. OCing as a group into a business, especially with rifles, just to make a statement is not so great. The business exists to turn a profit, not to give anyone a place to make a statement about their views. You want to open carry a rifle down the street to make a point, go for it, bit if I owned a business and your walked in that way I'd throw you out