Oh, man. The bullshit piled up so fast in Vietnam you needed wings to stay above it.
Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now
One also needs wings to stay above the bullshit that piles up with gun-nuttery. The stuff they say and do gets nuttier and nuttier.
Recently, a gun nut 'open carry activist' named Chris Hill educated the masses on how to discern a good guy from a bad guy with a gun:
"The easiest way to find out if it's a bad guy is which direction it's pointed," said Hall. "If it's pointed at you, they're a bad guy. If it's not pointed at you, don't worry about it."
A police chief in Houston took exception to this.
The heresy of common sense breaks out over the orange roil of freedom smoke.
"That person's never been a police officer and never been shot at," said Houston Police Officer's Union President Ray Hunt. "That's what I would have to say to that person."
I believe that describes a LOT of these 'gun educators' - those peole who always seem to think nobody knows anything about guns and that if people knew more, somehow this would dispel these myths about guns being dangerous.
The official, Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland, continues, saying he is actually OPPOSED to open carry.
Open carry opens a new concern for police officers: Who is the bad guy and who is the good guy when everyone is openly carrying guns?
"Well I'm opposed to open carry," said Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland. "As a police chief trying to keep two and a half million people safe, I'm just opposed to inserting more guns into a situation that I feel like could cause more harm."
What???
This man is a heretic!
More guns are a problem???
WTF would a police chief know about it?
OK, just exploiting the snark that is ripe in all this.
But, seriously, A TEXAS police chief at that.
I don't want to jump to conclusions but that just has the ring of common sense rising above the din particularly in a state known for extreme gun nuttery.
The linked article seems, to me, to finish with a flavor of pooh-poohing the Chief's concerns:
The Houston Police Union president admits officers were also concerned about the CHL law when it first passed – that there might be more shootings, leading to more problems.
But that didn't happen.
The Chief acknowledges this but gets the final word in that it will make police jobs more difficult.
And how could it not?
I, personally, am not 'against guns' per se; I grew up with them, I like shooting: I just don't care enough about them to actually own one.
The issue is the utter nuttery that has just exploded in the last few years with guns clearly elevated to a religion of sorts, Our Lady of the Second Amendment, or something. like that. I call it the Myth of the Gun, the notion that your gun is going to do thus and so to protect you is little better than magical thinking and leads to people being all sorts of careless with guns resulting in what we read about every day.
Hence my use of the term heretic above: the police chief is suggesting that more guns is a problem, not a solution. Clearly flies in the face of all we are told anymore.
And, actually, he's not alone: Raw Story
A recent survey showed 75 percent of Texas police chiefs opposed open carry, and 90 percent of them said openly carried handguns should require a license.
From the link in the blockquote:
given that law enforcement continues to be central to the debate, we wanted to learn more about the survey. And James McLaughlin, executive director of the police chiefs association, on Friday passed along more detail on the six-question survey.
The group recently sent the survey to 800-plus police chiefs – covering municipalities, college campuses, independent school districts and others. Though Acevedo said around 285 responded, a hard copy of the survey results shows a response from 192 chiefs.
Here are the major data points from the survey, which can be seen after the jump:
– Nearly 75 percent opposed open carry in Texas.
– 90 percent said that if open carry passes, a license should be required.
– 94 percent said an openly carried handgun should have to be holstered.
– 71 percent said that holsters should have retention ratings, which help secure the gun.
Hmmmm.......serious heresy.
And, lastly, I will coin the term "gunma' to mean "the karma you get from abusing your Second Amendment Rights resulting in your loss of them".
Remember this Kory Watkins guy, Gun Addict issues rambling video threat to execute lawmakers for treason, because 2nd Amendment?
Watkins would not be permitted to legally carry an unconcealed handgun if legislators require a permit, because he has multiple misdemeanor arrests and pleaded guilty in 2000 to stealing subwoofer speakers and dozens of CDs when he was 17.
Ha. Ha.
Gunma.