Guy in Fort Collins Open Carries rifle at Walmart.

[HBARleatherneck]

9news link to the story.
http://www.9news.com/news/article/31...ern-at-Walmart

[Dave_L]

He should have called the police ahead of time. It just makes it better for everyone when trying a publicity stunt.

[Wulf202]

If anyone knows this guy ill give him a Ccw class for free. So that when he's 21 this isn't necessary

[jtav]

I know it's legal and all but really don't think this helps the cause.

[Dingo]

He's not the first to try it in recent months. Personally, I don't think there's anything courageous about it - the guy's naive and ignorant at best, and an attention-craving douchebag at worst. We want non-gun people to respect our rights to own and bear arms, and yet it's ok to deliberately antagonize the situation, despite knowing their reservations? That's the entire point of concealed carry - the ability to be armed discreetly. If it was a rural community where more people openly carried, nobody would think anything of it. But going into a mixed-reception area like a college town Walmart, and ramming the gun thing down everybody's throats... I'm leaning toward him just being a douchebag. I can respect somebody else's beliefs that they don't want to own a gun, and are nervous about/around them, as long as they're not infringing on my rights therein. And vice versa - while I'm armed 100% of the time, I don't shove it in everybody's face. While we may have a right to open carry, it doesn't mean it's always a good idea. While not quite as openly offensive, this reminds me of a person claiming they're exercising their right to free speech and peaceful assembly by picketing military funerals...

[Special Ed]

^^This

[Tinelement]

Well said dingo!

[BuffCyclist]

Okay, two lines of thought here:

First, this guy is 19yo and the other thread about the first guy doing this (and calling cops to inform them first) was 22yo. I think if they were older, in their 40s, it might make a bigger difference in getting their message across. Especially since a majority of the massacres (in fact, nearly all that I can remember) are done at the hands of teens to 25yo's. So naturally, the demographic is young kids carrying rifles into places and shooting. Did these guys NOT think that they'd alarm people?

On the other hand, imagine how the public and government would react if we got just 50%, heck even just 25%, of gun owners to start carrying RIFLES openly. Sure, National Gun Appreciation day seems to have made a public point and was a nice gathering with speakers, but I'm sure not everyone could be there for work or other reasons. But if, say, for the month of February, we got thousands of gun owners to carry their rifles everywhere with them, it would cause widespread panic. People would turn every corner and see a rifle, then call the cops to report it. The cops would be inundated with calls and surely would be required to issue a public statement that what these gun owners are doing is perfectly legal. This also might make politicians realize that we, as gun owners, are NOT willing to back down on our God given rights to defend ourselves, and what our natural born rights as United States of America citizens are given by the Bill of Rights.

The first thread on this subject, I had mixed feelings, saying that I wouldn't do it myself. But if I knew there were hundreds of thousands of other gun owners carrying their rifles openly, I'd be very willing to do it.

Let's do it like the LGBT's did, openly shove it in your face until you're willing to accept it as normal, and don't back down until EVERY tv show has a gun in it! Cause, you know, all tv shows now have at least one gay person in them...

[newracer]

I would be all for that as long as we can get the hot women to carry rifles like they do in Israel. They are not scary.

[CrufflerSteve]

The open carry people are gun rights activists. I sort of support them but wouldn't do it. It can lead to hostile encounters with LEO's and arrest. I respect what they do but I'm not so sure of it as a good tactic.

I tend to agree with Fred here that we're fracturing into two countries with two opposing world views. http://www.fredoneverything.net/Severus.shtml

The open carry people push the button of the other country. That's both good and bad.