Imagine you're sitting in a west-side eatery and a half-dozen guys come in sporting iron on their hips. By this I mean they are carrying guns holstered at their sides. They mill about and talk a little too loud, wanting to be noticed. Do you make eye contact? Do you wonder what these guys want and if you are in danger? Now go read staff writer Joe Tarr's report "Locked and Loaded," our cover story for this week.
Tarr delves into just what these guys want when he interviews Auric Gold (why do I hear the theme from Goldfinger in my head when I hear that name?), a carrying member of the Second Amendment support committee. It is the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that is cited as the enabling legislation that allows those half-dozen guys to disturb your lunch with their public display of armament.
It is presumed to be a given that the next, Republican-controlled, state legislature will enact some sort of concealed-carry law and the Republican governor will not veto it. Tarr, like the rest of us, wondered what those open-carry guys wanted and he gets his answer, at least the answer proffered by Gold. And, you know, Gold sounds reasonable. Let's hope he and others who feel they are protecting the Tree of Liberty stay that way.
Ironically, should they get their wish and the state adopts a concealed-carry provision, these patriots will no longer have a reason to carry weapons openly. Then, you might think, the only ones doing it will be the truly paranoid or otherwise mentally unstable. One thing for sure - let a few folks go nutso or a couple of gunfights erupt in a bar and you will see a rapid change in the public attitude toward weapons, concealed or open, and soon after laws would be changed.
