Tea Party Begets Heat Party

Sorry, but I don’t think you have your facts straight.
The question of open carry (or concealed carry) depends on the laws of the state. I live in Arizona which is an open carry state plus my wife and I have a concealed weapon permits. Even so, there are signs on government offices, such as the post office, which says guns aren’t allowed, and it’s optional for other places of business, or private homes. AFAIK, that’s that law as was spelled out to me when we took a two-day training session at GunSight to get our concealed weapon permits.
However, there are also social issues, and while it’s totally legal to open carry, most people don’t do so in public as in general, it’s not considered polite. I’ve lived in the small town of Congress for almost 10 years and have only seen one open carry in pubic, but whenever I go out in the open desert I often see open carry.
My point is, that on one hand, although it’s the law, where I live people generally don’t open carry in publid as it upsets others. On other hand, I hardly think it’s polite for those who are gun shy to demand that others abide by their emotional state when their wishes are out of sync with the law.
Further, open carry around here isn’t just for fun. Rabbits, coyotes, javelina and rattlesnakes abound. IMO the worst are javelina. Most of the time they’re not a problem but we’ve seen as many as a dozen in our back yard as we live on the edge of the open desert and when times get tough they come around homes for food and water.

But, the image clearly shows some kind of trigger safety lock. Clearly if Elicia attacked him as kids are known to do, his response would be delayed by having to free the trigger.

Dave,
I think we're talking about the same thing — which is people flaunting the presence of their weapon in "open carry" states. We’re not talking about a legal issue. These folks have a “not nice” social-political agenda.

He’s one of those obnoxious people whose anthem is: You can’t tell me what to do. How delightful that someone of such a mature and serene nature is allowed to walk around with a gun on his hip.

“Rabbits, coyotes, javelina and rattlesnakes abound.”
Oh, give me a break. What about the fearsome Saguaro?

You need a gun to defend yourself against the occasional rabbit you encounter??

The most dangerous predator is Homo sapiens. Take a look at the pictures that represent violence on Bag: go to Oakland March 4th, or to Afghanistan…no imagination is really necessary.

And should I leave room for bullets in that mocha java?

If by “These folks” you mean both side, I agree. While some people may think of open carrying as “flaunting” (an emotional word), how does that morph into them saying no guns at all? And vice verse as well: how does legal open carrying morph into not taking other people’s emotions into consideration.
IMO both of these come from a more fundamental process of a black:white, bipolar view of the universe which can deal with some situations but can’t deal with others.

Nope,don’t need a gun against a rabbit. We defend our vegetable garden with a fence.
On the other hand, shortly after moving to where we live in AZ, my wife heard a strange noise in the carport. As I came around the corner I was avalanched by more than a dozen javelena. Some big ones with tusks, some small. Maybe you think of javelina as pigs, but they are not. Have a look at http://www.javelina.com to see the difference. And especially have a look at http://www.javelinahunter.com/javelina_attacks.htm
We live in Congress, AZ, at a little over 3,000 feet so there haven’t been any mountain lions. But if you go up the hill to Yarnell at 5,000 feet on US89, they’re there. For info on that see http://www.azlionhunts.com/
Last, many if not most people in Congress are armed because we’re off in a corner of Yavapai County. If you have fire/medical problems, you get a quick response from the local volunteer FD and has a heliport that can airlift you to a hospital. But if somebody’s breaking into your house you have to call the Country Sheriff in Prescott about 60 miles away, it takes an hour for any help to reach you. Wickenburg is only 10 miles away and has police, it’s in Maricopa County.
Get the picture? There’s no single solution to the question of guns as there are different situations.

See my reply to g, up above.
Actually there’s a story about the “fearsome Saguaro.” Some guy, not knowing much about them, tried to use one for target practice and was quite successful until it fell over and killed him. Saguaro can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds as they suck up water when it rains and can live for years without any. The say there are a few living today from when Thomas Jefferson was elected President in 1801.

I’m a little confused by the targeting (pun intended) of Starbucks for this whole theatre. I thought the patrons of Starbucks were all latte-slurping liberal elites and the employees were all overpaid union-member whiny college kids (future latte-slurping liberals with tats and piercings). That’s been the conservative’s stereotype of Starbucks for years and years. Why would the tea ba– er, partiers even want to be seen there?

Regarding cougars: I have camped and hiked in backcountry cougar country (in California, maybe they’re different there?) for half my life and have never seen a cougar. Not saying attacks don’t happen, but the chance is very slight, doubly so in settled areas. Hunting them down, of course, is another matter. Do you really need a gun to defend yourself from them while shopping?
The one time I’ve seen weapons in the backcountry, they were in the hands of some disreputable characters. They fished, pistols bravely clipped to their belt in case of — what? We were unarmed and never faced danger a pistol would defend us against. Every evening they would fire their guns, once directly over our camp. They were reported and I was pleased to see them escorted out, handcuffed, by the sheriff upon their return to civilization. Fools and their dangerous toys.
Regarding the sheriff’s response time: how often do people break and enter in your community? What’s the violent crime rate?

so did you shoot the javelinas with your gun?
Actually, I live in a rural area, too, where we frequently have coyotes, rabbits, and rattlesnakes, although no javelinas, I admit, but there are bobcats. Every year or so there’s a rumor about a mountain lion killing someone’s dog, but so far no evidence has been found.
A local artist used a sculptor’s hammer on an aggressive coyote once – it was the tool that he had at hand, and it seemed to do the job. The ones I see usually slink away when they see people or large dogs.
I’m not quite sure what good a gun would be for a rattlesnake. I’ve encountered 3 so far in the 13 years I’ve lived where I live, and mostly they just want to run away from you.
Do you shoot the animals on sight, or just when you feel threatened by them?

doug, As I said, we don’t get mountain lions in Congress, but are quite a few at higher elevations. A few years ago I did some computer work for a couple where the woman runs the B&B and the man is a guide. Had a nice display in their house.
So far we don’t have breaking and entering like they do in Phoenix where it’s called home invasion but that’s because were aren’t on the route the border crosses go north further to the eaat in places like Show Low. But how many times has your house caught fire and yet most people I know carry fire insurance insurance.

g, We’ve only had two rattlesnakes in our yard in 9 years because we keep things cleaned up as they can’t conceal themselves However a friend of ours gets at least one a year as she has lots of plants. Another consideration is pets, especially dogs, and there are places in nearby Wickenburg which hold dog training sessions to teach them to stay clear of snakes. Then there’s another guy who lives in an even more remote place and says he gets maybe 6-12 a year, takes the skins and uses pieces to cover baseballs which sell for, I believe, $50 each as the home time in Phoenix is the Diamondbacks.
As for taking down rattlesnakes with a gun, that’s how we got started. My wife is morbidly afraid of any kind of snake and when one decided our yard was a good place to hang out she asked around to find out how to deal with it. The people she talked with said you kill them if they’re in your yard, but leave them if they’re out in the open desert (it’s definitely bad manners to send them away to the neighbors yard). The two options for killing them is a shovel or a gun. As she was also morbidly afraid of guns, she chose that as her weapon as she didn’t have to get so close. No so difficult with a .22 loaded with snake shot which is kind of like buckshot but smaller.
The only trouble is she couldn’t hit anything as she tried to shoot with her eyes closed. By chance, we saw a bunch of rubber snakes at a yard sale, bought them and used them for hide-and-seek training sessions. We went out in the desert, I hid the snakes, and she went looking for them. We only have a six-shot revolver but she blasted each one with all six shots just to make sure. Phobia was mostly gone. Believe it or not, she got so good with that six-shooter that she used it to qualify for a concealed weapon permit. She could dump out the empties and reload faster than some of the newbies who were qualifying with brand new .38 or .45 semi-auto pistols.
While some people kill rattlesnakes on sight no matter where they are, others are like us: our yard is not the place for them and when we’ve seen them, we’ve killed them. But the open desert is their place and we’ve never been in a position where we couldn’t back off and so we’ve left them.

While stand-alone Starbucks in city areas do seem to be mostly latte-slurping liberal elites, my wife and I did a 5 1/2 month journey last summer reporting on how people in small towns are doing during these hard times. Really small towns don’t have Starbucks, but lots of almost small towns have them in super markets, not stand-alone. We often stopped there — as well as McDonald’s — so we could connect to the internet. All kinds of people in those Starbucks.
From the photo, it’s hard to tell which part of Seattle the Starbucks is in. But it looks like they’re mostly in the downtown area according to Google. In any case, it’s up to Starbucks — and other places — if they want to allow guns or not (as long as it’s legal). And it’s up to people without guns if they want to go there. We’re free to chose what we want to do, but we aren’t free to chose what other people should do. Isn’t that how different kinds of people get along?

I kind of agree that it’s a bit immature to walk around with a gun showing on your hip to no purpose. But I think it’s immature for people to try and tell somebody what they shouldn’t do when the other person is within the law. IMO this lack of being able to resolve social differences socially is where things goes off the road into litigation.
I’m hot on this topic as it’s come to a(nother) head where I live with the local school board asking the court to essentially deprive four members of the community of their civil rights under the 1st Amendment. You can see a report here: http://www.congress-arizona.com/b2evolution/index.php?blog=7
I’ve been to the school board meetings and while the Board has been within their legal rights, the way they treat the public is something else. The last time things blew up, I talked with the Attorney General’s office in Phoenix and they agreed that it was much more of a social issue than a legal issue but there was no way to deal with the social.

JEEEEZ, Dave, you didn’t have to actually answer the rhetorical question. Haven’t you ever heard of snark?

Dave, these leftists aren’t persuaded by any reasonable statements. They have one world-view and one ‘progressive’ desire: to CHANGE all of us to their SUPERIOR WORLD VIEW or we’ll face their COGNITIVE DISSONANCE FOREVER! I’ve about given up on the lot of ‘em. What it will take is a fall from our high level of ‘refinement’ to a more sustainable model. Once they have to get out and do for themselves, they might collectively grow a pair. Or not.
(I lived in Show Low for lots of years; right behind our acreage was a small hill we called “Rattlesnake Hill”, with at least a dozen dens. They, as is their wont, did overpopulate and migrate to other areas. A couple times I had to shoot first. My dad saved a woman’s life; she had been struck by one in her garden, and she called for help. We were her closest neighbors, a half-mile away, but 12 miles from town.)

Serr8d, I agree that people who’re stuck in one world view aren’t persuaded by reasonable statements. Kind of like lemmings, they only realize the mistake they’ve made when it’s too late.
So, yes, no sense in trying to open the door to new ideas when its nailed shut, but it does attract reasonable people who are looking for a way to move forward. If I didn’t believe in that possibility I wouldn’t be writing what you’re reading.
As for Rattlesnake Hill, nothing like that here, but if you do get hit and can make it to the Fire Station they say it’s a $4,000 helicopter ride to the hospital. Best to be prepared I think.

Hilarious. Keep shooting those rubber snakes.

I don’t get the gun thing, I really don’t. I’ve noticed that most people who are obsessed with the right to have their gun with them like all the time are generally people who live in well-to-do neighborhoods where the crime rate is quite low. They rarely come from communities where gun violence is a common thing, excepting hunting of course. They have no experience of what it’s like living where the police really aren’t there to help, and what it can be like when everybody does have a gun. Here’s a hint: it doesn’t make anybody any safer.

 I’ve noticed that most people who are obsessed with the right to have their gun with them like all the time are generally people who live in well-to-do neighborhoods where the crime rate is quite low. 
Now, if you could figure out the connection … We Can’t Wait.

Gun owners are not criminals. They do what they are supposed to do. They are blessed. See if you can figure out why there is less crime where there are more gun owners…