Okay, I’ll admit, I don’t credit the Open Carry Texas folks with an abundance of common sense. I mean, openly toting firearms in a store called ‘Target’ seems pretty stupid on a fundamental level. Sure, it could be interpreted as an ironic statement on the way the Second Goddamn Amendment is interpreted by some folks these days. Except the OCT folks are as lacking in irony as they are in common sense.
If openly walking around with a firearm in a big box store is stupid (it is really stupid), then approximately how stupid would it be to do the same thing in Dealey Plaza in Dallas? Here’s the answer: incredibly fucking stupid. We’re talking about Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy had a big chunk of his head explosively removed by a high-powered rifle.
Open Carry Texas promoting the Second Amendment in Dealey Plaza
Here’s one of the problems: these guys are fucking idjits. In Texas, they have the legal right to carry rifles and shotguns in public. I may not like it, but they absolutely have that right, just as they have the right to be fucking idjits. But here’s a true thing: being a fucking idjit in support of a cause isn’t the best way to promote that cause. People aren’t seeing these fucking idjits and thinking ‘Hey, cool, guns in Dealey Plaza, I want to get in on that.’ They’re thinking ‘Who are these fucking idjits toting guns in Dealey Plaza?’
Here’s another problem: The already blemished record of Texas in regard to powerful weaponry and U.S. presidents that are unpopular with conservatives is made even worse by Open Carry idjits. Like this one:
Where is an assasin [sic] when you need one? Oh, I don’t know…maybe in Texas. When people say shit like this, even in jest, it actually has the effect of increasing the climate of hate. A small effect, sure — but you put enough small effects together and you get a big effect. It increases the climate of hate and fear, and lowers the threshold for acting on that fear and hate.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that in 1963, a couple of hours before his motorcade took him to Dealey Plaza, President Kennedy told his wife, “We’re heading into nut country today.” He said that after seeing this poster:
I’ve said this before: I’m pretty much a free speech absolutist. I may find this sort of shit hateful and offensive, but I support the right of hateful people to express their hate in this manner. I may abhor the law that allows Texans to carry their long weapons in public, but it’s the law. Even in Dealey Plaza.
But it’s important that we don’t ignore the toxic effect of this stuff. Especially when we start seeing this sort of shit:
Does that look at all familiar? Now keep that poster in mind while considering the jackass in the following video — the jackass who says crap like this:
“[Y]ou worry about foreigners coming over the border, we got a foreigner as president! We got a foreigner that was born in Kenya, that has an illegal birth certificate, as president — and you guys are worried about foreigners coming over the border!”
Where is an assassin when you need one? You’re growing them in Texas. And in Arizona, and Nevada, and New Hampshire, and yeah, we’re growing them right here in Iowa. We’re growing them everywhere these fucking idjits gather to talk about ‘Second Amendment remedies’ for dealing with politicians and policies they dislike.
The odds are none of these hateful fucking idjits in Open Carry Texas will ever shoot anybody. But they’re making it easier for other fucking idjits to do it.
gregfallis.com 
I’d love to be able to refer to this as an “ongoing debate”, but it is anything but a debate. These open-carry advocates are so set in their ways that anyone who has the gall to ask them a question, or address a concern, is met with name-calling to the extent they are “anti-American Nazi-loving Communists”. They aren’t concerned what people think of them, nor are they interested in explaining themselves or their movement. Simply stated, they are trying to force their will upon the will of other Americans, and there simply isn’t any viable alternative in their eyes.
I’m not sure where this hair-brained idea came from that our government is going to take everyone’s weapons away from them, but it seems to be a rallying point for the open-carry bunch. Now think about that for a moment, Greg. If just in the State of Texas, can you imagine the manpower needed to search each and every person, each and every vehicle and each and every building in the entire State of Texas to seize each and every weapon? And then have to do the same thing repeatedly just in case someone managed to hide one or two? Come on!
I’ve been dubbed “the opposition” to open-carry for quite some time, right along with an assortment of other less-than-flattering names. The truth is that I’m not against the Second Amendment, nor am I again the open carrying of weapons. If you think strapping on a sidearm, or waltzing around carrying a long rifle makes you a man, have at it. What I object to (as do an awful lot of other Texans) is openly carrying weapons deemed by many to be a threat against the safety and well-being of Americans. And to this end I have just one question for the open-carry advocates:
Why in the hell do you think it appropriate to openly carry in public high-powered, rapid-firing, military-style, assault-type weaponry capable of discharging large volumes of ammunition as fast as a shooter can pull the trigger?
Now, Greg, get me an answer to this and we’ll be on our way to havinng a more meaningful discussion about this open-carry business.
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I’m a liberal who actually likes guns. They’re fun to shoot. I think they should be a LOT more difficult to purchase, and I think there are a LOT of people who shouldn’t be allowed to one them. Part of the problem is the fetishization of firearms for many of these folks, but the deeper issue is that so many Open Carry folks are operating out of fear. And fear and firearms are a toxic mixture — and it’s only made worse by adding in some hatred.
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I agree. What sets these people out from the crowd (over and above the fact they are heavily harmed) is they keep talking about all the things “they” are going to do when “they” take over. If this is some kind of a fear campaign, it’s working because a lot of people are taking notice of it. Particularly so is this idea that American can only be saved if these people are allowed to openly carry these dangerous, threatening weapons. In the words of someone I know far more liberal in the use of the English language than me, BULLSHIT!
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I had never seen the Kennedy Wanted Poster. I guess the so-called Christian Right’s war on spelling is not a new thing.
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It seems the sword is mightier than an editor’s red pencil.
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