Thursday, March 11, 2010

BBC Looks at Open Carry in Wisconsin

Frequent commenter and rights defender, Nik Clark, is now internationally infamous (it’s BETTER than famous). 

Wisconsin Open Carry. Groups like this have been springing up all over the States in the last year and they’ve been making an impact in the last week or so, getting Starbucks in California to agree people should be allowed into their coffee shops carrying guns. The groups are made up of people who want to make a point about the Second Amendment right in the Constitution to bear arms, by bearing them openly. Some want to make a point and test whether or not private firms like shops and restaurants recognise that right.

The movement is slightly different in the state of Wisconsin where concealed guns are banned. Nick says wearing a gun in a visible holster is the only way he can carry a weapon legally and he wants others to be aware of their rights: he doesn’t want to confront but to convert.

“You have a right to self defence and open carry is a great deterrent. It’s about personal protection,” he says.

He’s a beefy guy, with bulging muscles, so I ask: Isn’t he rather intimidating when he’s armed as well?

“I’ve been open carrying for about a year and most people don’t notice, or some might make a comment. It’s a demonstration I am a law-abiding citizen, you have nothing to hide. Criminals never open carry.”

He says that his group respects property rights and if a shop doesn’t want their custom and they are asked to leave they are happy to do so: they don’t want to patronise that business. But he says most big companies know the law and have a policy that allows them to shop armed.

Kim says for her it is all about self protection: “I can guarantee if I am going to my car late at night and someone sees me carrying a gun they won’t make me a victim.”

But Nick says he is also making a point: “I want people to see me and have a level of comfort, to know that if they are out walking their dog it is OK to carry a gun, if they are walking to their car after work it is legal to carry a firearm.”

(8) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1715 hrs
Firearms + Foreign Affairs + Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. Since this was about Wisconsin, I thought it was about an attempt to allow people to carry open alcoholic drinks on the street or in cars while driving. Imagine my chagrin to have guessed wrong.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 11, 2010 at 1916 hrs


  2. Unless you’re interested in ‘shooting yourself in the foot,’ don’t walk your doggie down the sidewalk past a school building while open-carrying. I heard some dipstick went and made that a felony.

    I always thought the Constitution trumped all the local yokel laws, but when liberals are lurking about anything could happen to you.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 11, 2010 at 2337 hrs


  3. I always thought the Constitution trumped all the local yokel laws, but when liberals are lurking about anything could happen to you.

    So which of the thousands of unconstitutional laws have republican administrations repealed?  Which have they strengthened?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 11, 2010 at 2344 hrs


  4. Open carry is growing at a rapid pace all across the state.  People are, rightly, coming to realize that they are their own best first responders.  The police are good and do their best but they are usually not around when lives are on the line.  I also have been carrying everywhere I go, where it is lawful, for almost a year now. Not one person has “freaked out” as Jeff Wagner keeps saying will happen on his radio show.  I estimate less than 20% of people even notice the gun.  The ones that do aren’t alarmed as I am acting “normal” and in a non threatening manner.  They see me doing the same things they are doing, putting groceries in my cart, eating breakfast or dinner with my wife or enjoying a house decaf at our new favorite coffee shop.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 12, 2010 at 0947 hrs


  5. “I can guarantee if I am going to my car late at night and someone sees me carrying a gun they won’t make me a victim.”

    Right, beacause what kind of criminal would be interested in stealing a firearm?  What would he even do with it?  Like there’s some secondary black market for stolen guns.

    Seriously, she might as well be walking around with a hundred dollar bill hanging out of her back pocket.  Smart cookie, that one.  The false sense of security is one of the things that bother me a little bit about about open or concealed carry.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 12, 2010 at 1259 hrs


  6. Well Jason, if someone tries to steal her sidearm they likely will be assuming room temperature.  An attempt to disarm a law abiding citizen would be considered a lethal attack and the use of lethal force to defend yourself would be lawful.  Can you provide some documentation for how many sidearms are stolen from the side of open carriers in the past few years.  Of course you can’t, you just made that up.  One of your little internal fears that has zero credibly in the real world.  And ya, she is a smart cookie!

    “false sense of security” where did you dream that up?  Ask a cop or soldier if his openly carried sidearm gives them a “false sense of security”.  The sidearm on my hip is very reliable, very accurate and it does indeed make me safer.  No sense about it, just fact.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 12, 2010 at 1646 hrs


  7. If she’s scared enough to need to carry a gun then she’s vulnerable.  The gun doesn’t change that. 

    I really don’t care in general.  Conceal your gun, walk around with your gun on your hip, wave your gun in the air like you just don’t care.  I think the whole thing is a silly suburbanite fantasy.  But I’ve witnessed and experienced enough street crime to know that it doesn’t play out like one of these tough guy self-defense fantasies.  I think you and Kim are both fooling yourselves, but it’s probably harmless.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 12, 2010 at 1711 hrs


  8. So which of the thousands of unconstitutional laws have republican administrations repealed?  Which have they strengthened?

    So which of the thousands of unconstitutional laws have democrat administrations repealed? Which have they strengthened, or proposed in the last year?

    Jay, give it up… “Well, they did wrong so can we….. WHAAAAAA!!!!!” Both sides are wrong…. Your partisan b.s. doesn’t help the situation.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 13, 2010 at 0908 hrs


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