Thursday, December 24, 2009

freedom

Open carry is permitted where I live. Sometimes, after I finish up at the range, I wear my holstered .45 to various places on the way home (the convenience store, the gun store, the grocery store...). Sometimes people give me strange looks. If they do, I simply smile, hoping that in so doing I am normalizing the experience for them.

I am thankful to be able to freely exercise this amazing right. There was a time not so long ago that I would have been afraid to see a man or a woman open carrying. But something happens when you understand guns - how they operate, how to safely handle them, what they can do. Now, if I see a fellow gun owner exercising his or her rights, I smile and let them know I am glad they are around.

2 comments:

JRB said...

Sounds interesting.

What do you think about the gun industry playing up the idea that Obama will take away this right in order to increase sales?

annie oakley said...

I think that it is less a conspiracy of the gun manufacturers and their marketing arms than a natural phenomenon arising out of a fear on the right that Obama plans to increase gun regulations. And I see no evidence of that so far. I think that is because there are other issues he thinks are far more important to expend political capital on. And he knows this would be a losing battle.

So, while I am sure fear of regulation has fed the firearm buying frenzy, I doubt the manufacturers have had to spend dollar one to get that message out.