Oklahoma State Sen. Ralph Shortey
One has to wonder. Was it the wild turkey or Oklahoma State Sen. Ralph Shortey that was being threatened? Who had the right to "Stand your ground"? Was the turkey protecting its home turf? Or was this habitat invader merely defending himself against an unprovoked attack?
Whatever the case, the turkey lost out, according to the Republican legislator, who said he clubbed it to death. But if state law had been what Shortey thinks is sensible, he would have been able, without a permit, to openly carry a pistol and blow the turkey away. Next time, he said, the situation might be worse. At a committee hearing late last month on House Bill 2522, which would allow the open carrying of firearms without a permit:
"I was in oil and gas," Shortey said. "I was out on a lease at one time and I got attacked by a turkey. Wait until you get attacked by a turkey. You will know the fear that a turkey can invoke in a person. And so I beat it with a club. That was all I could do.
"I wish that I had a gun with me," he said. "And I started carrying a gun in my truck after that without a license because I didn't want to get attacked by a mountain lion. Turkeys are bad enough."
The last confirmed sighting of a mountain lion in Oklahoma
was 1984 when Shortey was two years old.
Nonetheless, a senate committee has voted 7-2 to pass the open-carry law. Which, if it passes the legislature, would make Shortey's current outlawry legal.
Oklahomans with a permit have been able to carry concealed firearms since 1996. But a previous attempt at an open-carry law was vetoed in 2010. Besides Oklahoma, only five states do not allow for the open carrying of firearms. Twenty-nine have no restrictions on open carry, and 14 allow it but require permits. Shortey thinks he shouldn't have to have a permit or pay for one.
Sgt. Pete Simpson, a spokesman for the police department in Portland, Ore., said residents there are also allowed to carry a handgun openly, but that it's not something people tend to do.
"It can create 911 calls that maybe aren't necessary and take police resources to go check out somebody that is legally carrying," he said. "As a police agency we can't ignore somebody calling saying there's someone with a gun. We can't assume that they're legal."
A spokesman for the Oklahoma presidential campaign of Ron Paul, Shortey isn't new to the realm of the bizarre. He
introduced legislation to keep aborted human fetuses out of food. He also
introduced Senate Bill 1569, which would require presidential candidates to prove they are U.S. citizens.
He also introduced a law that would allow the victim of the unlawful act to decide how much force is necessary to stop the act at the time it occurs, not law enforcement who arrive on the scene later. His proposal was sparked when pharmacist Jerome Ersland was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting a robber armed with a knife in 2009. A videotape showed him shoot the robber in the head, then chase a second robber from the pharmacy. He returned, took another gun from a drawer and put five more bullets into the wounded robber as he lay on the floor. That is the sort of thing Shortey thinks should be legal in Oklahoma.
Proof, as if more were needed, that not all the turkeys are wild.
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Dave in Northridge has a diary on the subject here.
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Correction: There have been 11 sightings of mountain lions in Oklahoma since 2004.
