Gun-Control Group Encourages Citizens to Call Police on Open, Concealed Carriers — Going Too Far?

2nd Amendment – R2KBA Authors Current Events Police State S.H. Blannelberry This Week
A screenshot of the post from CSGV's Facebook Page.

A screenshot of the post from CSGV’s Facebook Page.

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has a very simple message for citizens who see a gun owner exercising his Constitutional right to keep and bear arms in public: If you doubt their intent, call the police.

“If you see someone carrying a firearm in public—openly or concealed—and have ANY doubts about their intent, call 911 immediately and ask police to come to the scene,” says the CSGV on its Facebook page. “Never put your safety, or the safety of your loved ones, at the mercy of weak gun laws that arm individuals in public with little or no criminal and/or mental health screening.”

However, gun rights groups say that this call to action on social media is putting law-abiding gun owners in harms way. The Ohio-based Buckeye Firearms Association likened it to “swatting,” the action or practice of making a hoax call to the emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address.

In other words, calling the cops on a Second Amendment advocate is tantamount to filing a false report.

“This practice is exactly what they [Coalition to Stop Gun Violence] are doing,” said Erich Pratt, spokesman for Virginia-based Gun Owners of America, in an interview with Fox News. “It’s one thing if someone is using a gun in an illegal or unlawful manner. No one is questioning that. But this clearly sounds like swatting.”

“They are inciting their radical base to turn their own neighbors in,” he continued, adding that “Anti-gun advocates are clearly frustrated. They want guns banned. But they have been thwarted in the past, so they are looking for alternative means.”

Well, I reached out to Ladd Everitt, director of communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, to find out more about what CSGV is encouraging the public to do when they spot gun owners. Below is our Q&A:

S.H. Blannelberry: CSGV is urging folks to call 911 on gun-toters if they have doubts about their intentions, you posted on FB: “ANYTIME you see an armed individual in public and have doubts about their intentions…” I think the obvious question is what is a reasonable rubric for doubting one’s intentions? What specific warning signs should one look for?

Ladd Everitt: Could be any number of things. Verbally aggressive behavior, threatening body language, etc. We all try to be good citizens and call 911 when we think our families and/or communities might be threatened. We look for signs all the time that might indicate such a threat. This is no different.

Ladd Everitt from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.  (Photo: MSNBC)

Ladd Everitt from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. (Photo: MSNBC)

S.H. Blannelberry: How does this differ, if at all, from urging people to call police on people who look dangerous or suspicious?

Ladd Everitt: “Looks” aren’t weapons. Guns are. Looks aren’t going to kill people around them in a matter of seconds. We live in a country where mass shootings are a constant feature of our lives. If corrupt politicians beholden to the NRA won’t protect our loved ones, we will take steps ourselves.

S.H. Blannelberry: What do you find “insane” about today’s open and concealed carry laws?

Ladd Everitt: The fact that they allow individuals to carry guns in public with little or no screening and training. Several states now are allowing individuals to carry concealed handguns in public with no permit, no background check and no training. Many more states allow individuals to carry guns that way openly. In “Shall Issue” states there is some level of screening at least for concealed carriers, but it is suspect at best. For example, George Zimmerman is still legally carrying a gun in public to this day in something like 30 states (Florida + reciprocity states).

S.H. Blannelberry: What do you say to gun advocates who feel as though questioning from law enforcement on why they’re exercising their 2A rights is unfair and discriminatory?

Ladd Everitt: I’d tell them you are responsible for the laws you have advocated for. You have demanded all the rights in the world with none of the incumbent responsibilities. We will not allow our loved ones to be put in harm’s way by those laws, which surround us with armed individuals who might be law-abiding, but just as easily could have lifelong histories of violence. Finally, there is [no] Second Amendment right whatsoever to carry a gun in public in this country. James Madison did not draft the Second Amendment so a violent individual like George Zimmerman play judge, jury and executioner in his community.

S.H. Blannelberry: Generally speaking, if a man showed up at a local supermarket carrying an AR-15 or AK-47, what would you advise a citizen to do?

Ladd Everitt: In that case, I would definitely suggest calling 911. Anyone who would bring a battlefield rifle into a grocery store is clearly lacking in good sense, and almost certainly promoting insurrectionist ideology (the idea that individuals have a right to kill government officials when they personally sense our government is behaving in a “tyrannical” manner). They present an unnecessary risk to everyone around them and the presence of police in such a situation is critical.

***

Obviously Ladd and I have some deep philosophical disagreements about gun ownership. For example, I do think the Second Amendment protects one’s right to carry a firearm in public, as it is the right to keep and bear (carry) arms. Based on the fact that all 50 states have legalized some form of concealed carry, I think most courts and judges would agree with my interpretation. But that’s a conversation for a different day.

To the matter at hand, I don’t like the idea of creating an army of worrywarts who report every gun owner they spot.  And I don’t think that gun owners should be harassed or hounded by police for carrying in public. By the same token, I respect the right of a citizen to sound the 911 alarm if they feel as though an armed individual is a danger to himself or others.

So, for me what this whole conversation comes down to is what is “reasonable” behavior under a given set of circumstances. For example, you see a father with a 1911 pistol on his hip, taking his children and a dog for a walk down the street, would you report him to authorities?  Don’t think so.  You see a fatigued-clad loner with a long gun running toward a school, yeah, it’s probably time to call 911.  Bottom line: it depends on the circumstances.

Hopefully, CSGV’s call to action doesn’t upset the balance of what is considered reasonable behavior in the framework of community policing. I hope it simply serves as a reminder to report suspicious and potentially dangerous people and not simply armed, law-abiding citizens. I also hope it doesn’t make non-gun owners eager to call 911 on every gun owner they see. But I fear it might.

What are your thoughts on CSGV and their public service announcement?

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  • gary June 23, 2017, 11:04 am

    what is the matter? Nothing NEW to talk about?? I for one am getting sick and tired of reading old ARTICLES over and over, you are starting to sound like the Anti-Gun group and their tired claims .. The politico and rehashed lies.. while some times it is okay this getting to be the norm, not the occasional filler!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Come on Gentlemen and Ladies do your jobs and find the news Lord know there is enough of it out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • James Summers May 7, 2017, 11:57 am

    Why are you showing and rehashing news from years ago.
    Not enough to get a new perspective and some new ideas.
    Or just a lack or something to do or prefer to bring back ancient news stories ??

  • Andrew N. February 5, 2017, 11:57 pm

    I love all the reference to the “evil one” George Zimmerman. He shot someone who was on top of him, pounding Zimmerman’s head on the ground. Sounds like self-defense to me. It must have been very conclusive as a HAND-PICKED to convict jury also found him not guilty of anything but self-defense.

  • Jerry Hardy December 16, 2016, 2:03 pm

    Remember that every 911 call is traceable back to the instigator. Once that is determined and it is a confirmed ridiculous call, then police should immediately take proper legal action for a fictitious 911 call. After that the person falsely accused should file suit for malicious intent, libel and anything else a good attorney can come up with. Also enjoining in the suit the organizations suggesting this form of action

  • Mike DeRusha May 20, 2016, 7:57 am

    The problem is the growing number of people who fear everything.
    How many of these coward-calls are made because the person with the gun is a black guy in the wrong neighborhood?
    Minding your own damn business is the best way to keep yourself safe. Not making false 911 calls on your neighbors.

  • Dennis siegler September 17, 2015, 10:37 pm

    If they’d call 911 on the people that are exercising their constitutional right to bare arms, then we should call 911 whenever we see an armed law enforcement officer with his sidearm visible. Who’s to say that they are in fact a REAL L.E.O.? Let the responding officer make that determination. Impersonating police officers happen all the time. Maybe it’s time to take away the cops guns, and let them rely on the armed public to keep them safe.

  • loupgarous September 12, 2015, 6:58 pm

    Where I live (Mississippi) is an “open-carry, shall issue” state. Its gun violence rate isn’t notably higher than in neighboring New Orleans, which bans concealed-carry except in a vanishingly small number of cases where the New Orleans Police Department decides the local tolerated criminal class (politicians, mainly) are trustworthy of carrying weapons concealed.

    One point not covered in the otherwise excellent article – most concealed weapon permit statutes require that the weapon for which the permit is issued truly BE concealed from public view, which means the gun-grabber from The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence would have to actually frisk his or her victim before “swatting” him or her to the local police. That, or assume that a large smartphone or tablet carried in a shirt pocket under a jacket, or in a shoulder bag under a jacket (as many women do) is actually a concealed firearm. Either action in the absence of public view of an actual firearm is criminal activity under most states’ laws governing false reporting of a crime (and the more I hear about New Jersey’s perversion of the law to harass gun owners, the less likely I am to ever visit New Jersey again).

    The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence is recruiting members into a conspiracy to violate laws against false reporting of a crime. That’s the only reasonable way to interpret their action. The first person “swatted” by a member of this group (assuming the “swatting” doesn’t occur in New York or New Jersey, where local law enforcement are apt to join in on the conspiracy and over-react to the report lethally) or his surviving family members ought to take very aggressive advantage of the criminal and civil prosecution available to them of The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, its corporate officials, and any of its members actively involved in “swatting” innocent citizens.

    • Grumpus June 15, 2016, 5:05 am

      Well said sir. Pay it forward.

  • Michael Volpe September 10, 2015, 10:33 pm

    First off, this is going to lead to a very ugly confrontation and some very innocent people are going to get hurt or killed.
    Second, I hope 911 dispatch protocol is to get reliable information on the caller as LE needs to charge these zealots with false reporting.
    “,(T)he right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

  • Kalashnikov Dude September 8, 2015, 11:21 am

    Look, here in AZ we have perhaps a different view as to what our 2nd Amendment means. It’s kind of old fashioned in that we think it means what it says. Here’s the important part, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” There are no more clear words in the English language. Here in AZ our lives have been in an upheaval since 2010 when my elected sheriff and my legislature decided that something needed to be done about an out of control illegal immigration problem which has been spiking crime, including murder, against the good citizens of our state. So that’s when the Obama administration stepped in and through court proceedings and activist judges, it was made clear to Arizonans in no uncertain terms that federal laws, guidelines, agendas, and personal animosity toward political enemies trumps all that is good and decent. Among these federal laws is……..our 2nd Amendment! It will be a cold day in hell before I allow this lesson to go ignored when it comes to my God given, constitutionally affirmed right to keep and bear arms. I can have arms. There’s no limitation there. If our military considers an object to be “arms”, that means I can “keep” them. And further, I also have the right to bear said “arms”. It doesn’t say where, how, or when, or whether I do this openly or concealed. Delineated withing the structure of the highest law of our land is all of this, and it’s done so in the plain, clear, and precise language our founding fathers saw fit to express these mandates. This is not a mandate for citizens. It is a mandate for governments which is intended to keep them in check. It’s a mandate I am fully willing to fight for. But I have no money or patience for lawyers and judges who see fit to legislate their personal feelings as code. So my options being what they are, leave me to dealing with the matter on the spot with the force required to retain my rights and dignity as a law abiding United States citizen. My suggestion to the feds, state, and local governments and their armed representatives is to seriously bone up on these laws. Because ignorance will be no excuse when they encounter me and try to disarm me or molest me in any way regard my 2nd Amendment rights or any others from this day forward. Think I’m bluffing? Try me……..

    • Tony P. September 9, 2015, 5:32 pm

      Your point about standing-up for your Constitutional Rights is valid. And resistance to the libtards should be exercised by lobbying, legislation, voting, and peaceful demonstration. But if you honestly believe that you are are formidable enough to stand against a police and/or military force with even your AK47, you are absolutely fool-hardy! While open-carry has it’s proper time and place, it certainly puts the carrier in a potentially risky situation in most urban/city environments. The best policy for carrying in urban/city areas is to adequately conceal and holster your weapon. And most of all train yourself in mind-set, threat assessment, defensive tactics, and legal engagement for using lethal force. Unfortunately, hot-headed folks who are just itching to have an encounter with a LEO for doing his/her job, even if that officer is mistaken at worst in the execution of said duty, will be the cause for even more demonstrative anti-gun rhetoric. Use your head! Leave your assault riffle either at home, or in the car-trunk at least. Get yourself a reliable side-arm and some quality concealment garments. Or if you insist on open-carry get a level 2 or 3 security holster. And carry yourself like a man/woman who bears the title of “American” with wisdom, discretion, and dignity. A simple rule of thumb would be, “to act your age, not your shoe size”!
      FIDELIS AD MORTEM!

  • Ken September 8, 2015, 8:25 am

    I went riding on my Harley in PA yesterday; an absolutely lovely day. As soon as I crossed the border from NY I stopped, took off my helmet and my heavy, hot shirt and continued on my way. Stopped for some lemonade and ice cream and no one even looked twice at the .357 on my hip. Had a pleasant conversation with a local cop about guns in general, the open carry law, Harley’s and a couple of other things then we both went about our business.

    My preference is to carry concealed which I have done for 50 years now however, if we don’t exercise our rights, we lose them. And I don’t care how many times I get stopped, I’m still going to do it. And, I have never been pulled over because of open carry. And even if I do get pulled over by a not very nice cop I’m still going to be respectful, firm but still respectful.

    Read the PA law; there is included in the law instructions to police to remember that open carry is legal and to treat citizens exercising that right with respect and courtesy. I love PA. Most of PA is like most of NY, rural and friendly, full of law abiding, God fearing folks. Just a final observation, yesterday, Labor Day, when I pulled over to get rid of helmet and shirt, just up the hill a little ways I heard some hymns drifting down the hill. Poor Pete, it must terrify you to think of us evil country folk clinging to our God and our guns.

  • steve c September 8, 2015, 7:30 am

    When I see an Obama, Hillary, or Bernie bumper sticker, I’m concerned that the operator of the vehicle is drunk or high. Past experience tells me it’s so. As I don’t have the ability to tell for sure on my own, it’s best to call the authorities and have them deal with it. If there’s a child in the car, there’s also the possibility of abuse, and should be reported as well.

  • Mark September 8, 2015, 7:23 am

    Hey, that’s fine. If they want to call the police, then go ahead. But police are a limited resource and they will be calling them out there for no reason. Sooner or later the police are just going to get pissed. So if they really want to piss off the men and women who risk their lives everyday to protect our domestic tranquility, and waist their time on these stupid calls, go ahead, because the police will show up see that there isn’t a problem, and then call those people stupid. You know what they call someone who’s pro gun control? A victim.

  • Donald September 8, 2015, 5:38 am

    Because we and law enforcement knows they know carry is LEGAL ! Anyone caught calling in to report a open carry complaint should be arrested for a false report !! Taking time away from a police patrol, tying up a unit for a false call is a criminal act !! Anyone found to be a Leftist Democratic should be arrested as well !! decent law abiding citizens have taken way too much from these radical shit stirring idiots !!

  • Bob September 8, 2015, 4:49 am

    I am an expert shot, rifle and pistol. Have been my whole life. I also am incapable of physically defending myself against attack due to my age, incurable cancer from exposure to agent orange, and COPD. My only option is to arm myself. I gave my country my life- and now you want to strip me of my only means of defense? You’ve already killed me once, but that’s not good enough- you want to kill me again?

    • steve c September 8, 2015, 7:32 am

      “Yes. We do.”
      ~ Barackkk H. Obama

      /sarc_off
      Thank you for your service, sir!!
      Steve

    • Mark Dorsey May 13, 2016, 2:59 pm

      God bless you,thank you for your service sir.

    • H February 1, 2017, 10:17 pm

      God bless your sir and I thank you for your sacrifice and service for this country! The leftist snowflake crybaby liberals know nothing of sacrifice or service for anything, but they think they are owed everything and everyone should bow down to them.

    • H February 1, 2017, 10:17 pm

      God bless your sir and I thank you for your sacrifice and service for this country! The leftist snowflake crybaby liberals know nothing of sacrifice or service for anything, but they think they are owed everything and everyone should bow down to them.

  • silvestris September 7, 2015, 7:29 pm

    Carry concealed, even if your state permits open carry. There is no need for the libtard or the wolf to know that the sheepdog is there to protect or destroy them, as the case may be, until the wolf chooses to attack.

  • Mark September 7, 2015, 5:48 pm

    Just like schizophrenics want you to hear the voices in their heads, the gun-phobics want you to validate their phobia.

  • SkipNClair September 7, 2015, 5:04 pm

    In the past, I have tried my best to not lose my patience with these libtards and traitors that will do everything and anything to take away not only peoples God given rights, but the rights guaranteed equally by the constitution of this once truly great republic. However today with this bozo and the likes of him, I am going to unleash a barrage of thoughts I have been holding back for I thought they were just selfish, inconsiderate, liberal socialist liberates, with the brain capacity of a walnut. People that would want to take away everyones rights for something they believe in are ignorant, selfish, inconsiderate, and have absolutely no regard for their fellow man, the men that died fighting to give us these same freedoms that God gives us all, and those that have given more then they can ever wish dream or have the courage to do, and that is die yes give up your life so that others can keep these rights. I consider you people traitors to not only God the almighty, but to your fellow man , and this nation, those that have died protecting our rights and to the future people of this nation. Your type have caused this nation to go from being one hell of a great nation, a beacon of light to the world, to a flickering spark. Your kind with your attitudes are the reason we went from a great republic to a stinking rotten no good for nothing democracy. Your kind have no idea what freedoms are you are blind through your ignorance to anything that is given by God and the constitution and will not be happy until we are awash in the scum of socialism. I think we should start fighting back as you are the traitors and should be put to death. We should round you up and give you a trial for treason, find you guilty of either on your own or in groups of trying to destroy dismantle this great nation and its constitution and God given rights. After finding you guilty of crimes against the state and people we should take you out and execute you on the spot. Have any of you ever stood in the middle of a national cemetery and observed the sacrafice so these rights will always be for all? I don’t like what your saying but you have the right to freedom of speech , but you do not have the right to do anything other then speak, as for your actions go beyond that first amendment. You may not like what I am saying now but I have the right to say it, my actions are justified unlike yours, for I am claiming your a traitor and should be dealt with accordingly. If you don’t like guns if you don’t want them around you fine, that is your choice but when you try to force others into your beliefs and threaten them you have overstepped your ground and rights. You should all have lived through Stalin, Pol Pot, and a few others that made sure guns were taken away before they could kill millions. You should all be in harms way and have people like me armed ready and willing to protect you like we would protect ourselves and our loved ones, and we say sorry can’tt help you, you don’t believe in what I am doing, but hey heres a quarter call a cop. I hate things that people do, but I try to change them with words and ideas not force and would never think of changing them to my way or will, by taking away their rights, for I fully understand I and mob rule does not have the right to do that, especially if the right comes from God. Your traitors, your weak, your cowards, your a menace to the nation, the constitution, and mankind, if you don’t like what God gave us, if you don’t like the sacrifice others gave so we could have and keep it, if you don’t like the bill of rights tough move, commit suicide for all I care, for I find you useless. Guns and courage and sacrifice are what made this nation and those are the things that will help us keep it so long as losers like you have not your way. If I offended anyone but the weak liberal libtards I offer my apologies. One more thing you disgusting scum next time you see a man with his limbs missing ask yourself if he may have been one of millions that lost them for you and the rights of God and the Constitution, I doubt you will even have thoughts in that direction for your to damn ignorant and selfish.

    • Scott September 7, 2015, 7:40 pm

      My imaginary being is more powerful than yours.

      • steve c September 8, 2015, 7:33 am

        You are a special kind of stupid, Bobo.

  • BRASS September 7, 2015, 4:07 pm

    While I support open carry, I do not recommend it in many cases. A proper task analysis of the 5 Ws should tell us that open carry is not the most effective carry method in the majority of cases in urban or suburban envieonments. Rural is another ball of wax.
    If one uses appropriate and well developed concealed carry gear, firearms and techniques, it won’t matter because no one will know you’re carrying, which of course is the point.

    • loupgarous September 12, 2015, 7:17 pm

      “Appropriate and well-developed concealed carry gear, firearms” might protect a CCWer for a while, but the only way to carry a large-frame pistol or revolver concealed in a warm climate (such as the Gulf Coast) is to emulate Don Johnson’s character “Crockett” on the original TV version of Miami Vice and wear a jacket that advertises its wearer is carrying SOMETHING concealed. Cop shows set in warm climates around characters who carry large weapons concealed – from the original “Magnum: P.I.” onward – aren’t just police procedurals, they’re science fiction, and bad sci-fi at that. Where, precisely, was Thomas Magnum carrying that .45 automatic? Non-obscene replies only, please…

      • Willie-O September 22, 2017, 6:58 am

        I’ve carried for 30 years and do so daily – professionally and personally. My (primary) gun of choice is a .45acp and a one that I carry most often is the Glock 21 and I utilize an IW (leather) holster. I can wear shorts and a t-shirt and NO ONE is the wiser, which is exactly the way I want it. I’m sorry, but “can” doesn’t mean “should”. Open-carry for civilians is simply a bad idea for a couple of reasons :
        1) It is a tactical error – you have given up the element of surprise.
        2) It makes anti-gun people uncomfortable. Now I don’t give a good damn about their feelings, BUT all it does is antagonize the jack-asses and I don’t want to help create another anti-gun activist. We will never change their position.

  • Nick S September 7, 2015, 2:58 pm

    I have little sympathy or concern for open carriers. Sure, they might have a “right” to carry, but that does not mean it makes it a good idea. With uniformed cops becoming targets, to me it only makes sense to conceal carry. If open carry were legal in my state, I would not dream of doing so. Might puff up some egos to open carry, but in my mind it makes you a target in just about every sense of that word.

    • loupgarous September 12, 2015, 7:10 pm

      Nick, open carry’s legal here in Mississippi and it’s legal in most counties in Colorado – and I’ve carried openly in Colorado and never been bothered where it was legal. Not many people here in Mississippi do it, but NO reports exist of anyone shot or harassed by local law enforcement for doing so. The officer involved in such an action would find himself or herself actively looking for work elsewhere the week afterward.

      I’ll just quote Samuel Adams in closing here:
      “If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”
      Samuel Adams didn’t just make good beer, he knew that when you start conceding ANY right to those who presume to control us, you’re laying the foundation for tyranny to rear its head in this nation again. Go to Britain, and live with the four-fold increased incidence of violent crimes gun control has yielded there. Shun us here in the United States, because if the occasion arose, I’d shun YOU.

  • pete September 7, 2015, 1:31 pm

    Open carry idiots are ruining it for everyone, fanning the flames of anti-gun sentiment. Stupid idea that creeps most people out. Unsafe, unsound, and unfortunately legal to do in many places. Stop doing it please!

    • rouge1 September 7, 2015, 5:28 pm

      Pete it might be the nasty politicians we keep electing from the demacrat and republican monolopies. People exercising their rights are ruining it for everybody are you serious? You sound like the idiot who said people who make pistols that shoot rifle rounds are ruining it for everybody because the nasty atf will ban ammo because its now a pistol round. Instead of supporting your fellow citizens you support unconstitutional government activity.

    • Rob September 7, 2015, 9:35 pm

      So Pete, when you live in, let’s say Phoenix and its 110, where do you conceal carry ?

    • Mahatma Muhjesbude September 8, 2015, 9:13 am

      Pete, did your really say something so abjectly igno-imbecilic like “unfortunately Legal”? Well, hey, don’t worry, dude! They’ll be a lot of forthcoming ‘Illegal’ stuff they’ll be putting on people with your depraved attitude. There’s a huge below radar Fascist movement targeting all potential mental cases like you to prohibit them from having firearms, which are still for the most part “Unfortujnately Legal” for you to own.

    • loupgarous September 12, 2015, 7:03 pm

      Pete: “If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” – Samuel Adams.

      And it’s as true now as then. Go find some gun-grabber and get a room where you can mutually perform obscene adoration of each other, you conceding every right the other person demands you concede to him or her.

  • december September 7, 2015, 12:35 pm

    Looking back, Zimmerman was acquitted and on the grounds that it was self-defense. The stand your ground law was hardly brought up and not what the jury came to the conclusion of. This is something that gets me about certain members of the community, no matter what the evidence (and the jury got to see a lot more than they did), they persist in a belief to the contrary.
    Pretty much the conclusion was that Travon jumped Zimmerman. Since no conviction, no felony, thus still able to retain the right to carry.

    If I am shopping and see someone with a pistol carried in a good holster on the hip in say Walmart, I notice but it does not particularly bother me, since it looks like they are using good sense. Now someone who wanders through the airport with an AR15 might be legal to do so but exercised very poor judgement. I wonder how much his heart rate would have gone up if someone coming the other way looked middle eastern and carrying an AK47? Improper judgement like that is what really gets a lot of ambivalent people on the wrong side of the equation. Be like me wandering into Wally World with a SBR Thompson with a full drum on it. Legal yes, good idea no.

  • John Books September 7, 2015, 11:57 am

    This smacks of harassment to those who wish to carry. If enough people call 911 on a person open carrying it is believed they will stop carrying and begin the decline in gun ownership. I guess if I see a personal body guard and I don’t like the way he looks at me I should call 911 and report a person with a gun acting suspiciously?

  • Jim September 7, 2015, 11:50 am

    The old saying goes “When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns “

  • Chris September 7, 2015, 11:19 am

    When Ladd Everitt gets called down to hell his brain should be preserved for research, his mental condition is very unique in a very bad way, perhaps we can use him to help those who suffer from similar mental illness.

  • AmericanVet September 7, 2015, 10:59 am

    Using their same logic, anytime you see a Middle Easterner you should call the Police on them. Liberal bed wetters live in a constant state of fear of anything they cannot control.

  • Jim Hasak September 7, 2015, 10:47 am

    Here in Arizona, if you called the police to report an individual exercising his 2A rights, you just might be arrested yourself.

    • Mahatma Muhjesbude September 8, 2015, 9:04 am

      Same here in my state. Because police here don’t for the most part do illegal random ‘stop and frisks’ on just a profile or because they ‘suspect’ someone has a gun. You have to be doing something ‘WRONG WITH the gun in order to be confronted by the police. As it should be. Not as agenda based political power groups and municipalities want it with their anti-Constittuional slip and slide around it little state and city laws for the ridiculous lie of ‘Public Safety’, which is just like that whack wench in KY trying to impose her theocratic morals on the rest of us.. In Kalifornia and other despotic regime states they sometimes use the unlawful excuse that they were detaining him and’checking’ because they ‘thought’ he might be a felon carrying a gun? which is also illegal to do in a ‘Constitutional’ state.

      It’s not really the entire fault of the police, either. Remember, they are just extentions of the municipalities and their mandates
      There were many good cops who actually resisted their local governments anti-Constitutional behavior but got punished for their good deeds.

      But If someone ever calls on me because they ‘think’ I’m dangerous because of the way i look or my facial expressions when irritated that someone is scoping me out a little too ‘ardently’, When the cops come I’ll be demanding the name of the ‘caller’ and insist on filing a complaint for intentionally harmful harrassment by unnecessarily exposing me to a potential accidental inadvertent injury by a less than capable cop.

      If the cop refuses, which is his discretionary right, I’ll make sure i get that refusal on video, and then my lawyer, who is on retainer and well prepared for this type of shit, will light up their County attorney’s case load with a couple of seriously intimidating lawsuits. Including the police and the caller as defendants.

      If everybody who got tyheir gun rights violated on this basic level did that these people would quickly stop their illegal bullshit.

      The problem is we sit here and talk about it instead of doing something about it. And when all is said and done, they’ll be more said, than done.

      The best way to preserve the Constitutional mandate of “Shall Not Be Infringed” is to counter attack all their illegal disarmament agenda laws WITH OUR OWN CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION LAWS making it illegal for them to violate the 2nd and 4th Amendments. We should start by creating a coalition ourselves to begin the complete repeal of all gun control laws, Otherwise we’ll never, ever have the complete freedom of the right to bear because the totalitarian fascists will simply continue to make more laws to facilitate the eventual all out confiscation, while we continue to piss, moan, and pick our asses.

  • Aaron September 3, 2015, 7:04 pm

    The entire point of liberalism is to abuse the state’s monopoly on violence against their political enemies.

    A liberal told a police officer, uniformed!!!, he wasn’t allowed to carry a gun in a convenience store due to the no guns sticker out front. He told us this during a citizens engagement session. He wore his badge, uniform and gun but a liberal still got in his face and told him he didn’t have the right to assemble while armed.

    Waco is a more extreme, but honest, example of liberals’ belief system. They’d murder children to get what they want.

    • Winston September 7, 2015, 5:13 pm

      There is no going back peacefully as advocates of the warfare- welfare hegemonic State are not giving up their gains.

  • M. Ross September 3, 2015, 9:34 am

    I’d like to ask this guy a question. What happens when you’re out with your family and you see someone who is suspicious or appears to be dangerous and you call 911 to report them. Where open carry is legal, the 911 dispatcher is going to ask you what they’re doing. If you lie, you’re swatting… If you tell them “He/She is grocery shopping with their family” they’re going to call when someone is actually doing wrong. Eventually the “call 911 on ANY ONE you see carrying openly” rhetoric will actually reduce the probability there will be a police response, further endangering your life. And another question, say that individual starts shooting or pulls a gun and starts threatening… You’re in danger, you call 911 and it takes the cops 10 minutes to get there; but before the police gets there, a law abiding gun owner stops what could have been a massacre. Explain to me what you would feel about our open carry and 2A rights if a situation like that saved you because of a guy like me who is sane and open carries???

    • Mike September 8, 2015, 2:44 pm

      Way too much common sense M. Ross, you have to “think” past your nose to figure all that out, not happening with these fools.

  • Duck September 2, 2015, 10:40 pm

    49 states. NJ has a few platitudes on the matter buried in law books somewhere, but something that’s only legal on paper is just window dressing. Find someone who actually has one (aside from former LEO or the occasional bonded security types).

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