Did OC long-gunners go to far at Chipotle?

[BigStick]

What they did would most certainly be illegal here in Washington State.

I'm not sure I agree with your interpretation. If they had been carrying them around holding them as such, probably, but just posing for a picture isn't the same. Open cary of a slung rifle is legal.

But what their actions were like, I do not know.

 

[U201494]

Open cary of a slung rifle is legal.

.....and idiotic, akin to something a high jaggoff would do.

 

[AMProducts]

I don't think the too far/not far enough binary is really one that fits here. Do I think there's a need for 2A activism that should be public facing? hell yes I do. Do I think the people doing it should walk around local restaraunts with long guns just for the sake of it? No, not really.

Gun ownership is one of those fundamental "big tent" issues... everyone from primitive anarchist hippies to corporate lobbyists can be gun people (and everyone in between), what outreach means is the few segments of the population that are underrepresented (namely females) will not respond well to sweaty geeks walking around with guns. In fact, even I don't respond well to people walking around with guns just for the sake of it. Chipotle is not hunting camp, it's not offroading camp. There's a time and a place for everything, what outreach generally means is being able to get a message across, if that message is "we're sweaty geeks walking around with rifles" count on that getting shut down sooner rather than later.

Now, if you're about 6-3 and 400lbs, you can totally fill out a 4xl T-shirt, print that up with a logo that says "I don't like crime" and hand out fliers about how anti-gun laws are pro-rape and you might be on to something.

The fact of the matter is the gun-ban lobby changed it's name quite some time ago to the "gun control" lobby, this set them on a course to be taken seriously as every "reasonable proposal" they sent down was about "control" not about "banning". It seems reasonable that pro-2A groups could easily call themselves "crime control" or "anti-rape" as firearms in the hands of a willing citizenry are the most profound examples of vigilance against crime (rape also being a crime) that we can come up with.

As with almost everything out there today, we need to consider the messages we send, these messages can be the direct message we are trying to send, however how we send it, and the connotations others take away from that can be as unintentional as they are harmful.

 

[Riot]

No surprise if you read my comments in the other thread on this - but yes they went too far, way too far without thinking of the most likely consequences.

Legal does not equal correct or appropriate all the time.

In SC it's legal to beat your wife on the court steps on Sundays...so I'd tend to agree with the above.

 

[JackFrost]

Flippin neck beards, I really hate it when couch ninjas venture into society and make fools of themselves and make the gun community as a whole look awful! STAY HOME!!!!!