The Absurdity of Being Out-Gunned by Criminals

 

When I retired from the military, my primary goal in life was to ride off into the sunset in an 18-wheeler and, as the saying goes, “study war no more.” It was a sentiment perhaps best encapsulated in a painting by the brilliant artist, Patrick Reynolds, wherein an angelic figure is seen with his sword on the ground as he kneels to tenderly embrace a small lamb.

Alas, the last few years in Memphis have illustrated, as surely as any deployment to some carnage-infested corner of the Middle East, that life does not always imitate art. Indeed, the value of human life here is on par with that of any number of miserable hellholes where people yell that God is great just before blowing themselves and others to pieces.

Consider that Memphis has seen more than 30 highway shootings in 2019 alone, as hot-headed jackasses shoot at motorists who have the misfortune of sharing a stretch of interstate with these raging imbeciles who scream down the highway at well over 100 mph while swerving through traffic, endangering themselves and everyone else. Add to that the daily shootings and killings that bestrew the Memphis landscape, crossing all socio-economic lines and districts, claiming the lives of the affluent and the downtrodden, public officials and innocent children alike, and you have third world anarchy, mayhem, and death.

Reluctantly, I’ve had to reacquaint myself with old skill sets I honed years ago and hoped to never need again. However, I see no reason, no rationale, and no possible justification for rendering myself and my family vulnerable and outgunned by predators who prowl about Memphis savagely robbing, carjacking, beating, raping, and murdering innocent people and their families on a daily basis. A concealed-carry permit holder, I am again armed and deadly proficient should the need arise to defend my family and our home.

It becomes difficult to politely quantify and explain the depth of my resentment — having spent 20 years defending hearth, home, and family — at seeing it all jeopardized by the half-witted jerks who make up so much of the local news here. But, as Ben Shapiro routinely observes, facts don’t care about my feelings or my resentments, and the fact is that Memphis is a happy hunting ground for predators.

All of which begs the questions, A) why anyone would wish to be defenseless in the face of barbaric fools, and B) what is going through the minds at the top levels of Walmart, Kroger and other businesses who tinker with the right of law-abiding customers to defend themselves? To be sure, as Alexander Coolidge of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes, they are, “stopping short of banning the open carry of firearms…” but rather, “Kroger is respectfully asking that customers no longer openly carry firearms into our stores, other than authorized law enforcement officers.”

Now, language matters and one notes that Kroger is careful not to prohibit concealed carried firearms by those legally permitted to carry them. For its part, Walmart has similarly asked those legally allowed to openly carry not to do so in their stores, and will cease selling ammunition both for handguns and “military-style” weapons (now if they’ll just stop selling car tires to sober people, perhaps there will be fewer drunk-driving fatalities). It is correctly accepted that owners of private businesses may decide whether they wish to ban all legally permitted citizens from carrying their firearms in said businesses, and some do exactly that (as do many government offices and schools). These places are referred to euphemistically as “gun-free zones.” Given recent history, they are in reality shooting galleries for murderers.

Do these business leaders actually think that a person insane enough to be hellbent on mass murder will read their precious little signs and say, “Gee golly whiz, I better not go in here and shoot a bunch of people because guns aren’t allowed and I’ll be breaking the law. I best mosey on over to the gun and knife show and try my luck there.” Surely these business leaders realize that only the law-abiding will consent to their prohibitions in the first place, thus ensuring more, not less vulnerability to violent attacks.

When he’s not dropping F-bombs to demonstrate he’s all grown up now, presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke has taken to dropping political bombs against law-abiding gun owners. Asked to address fears that as President, he would confiscate the ephemerally termed firearms known as “assault weapons,” he answered, “I want to be really clear that that’s exactly what we are going to do.” The former Texas Congressman added, “Americans who own AR-15s, AK-47s, will have to sell them to the government.” So, the same government that was in charge of Jeffrey Epstein’s safety would guarantee yours as well. Isn’t that swell?

It is on the subject of “assault weapons” that we enter a rhetorical minefield, laden with misinformation and willful misrepresentation by those who really ought to know better. First, the term “assault weapon” is a redundancy. If it doesn’t “ assault” (i.e., wound or kill), it isn’t really a weapon now, is it? But the term has become synonymous with any firearm that has the physical appearance of a military weapon, even if it doesn’t share the functionality. An M-16 is a military rifle, and though it looks like an AR-15, the two do not function in the same way. An M-16 can function in semi-automatic mode (meaning that one pull of the trigger produces only one round leaving the weapon) or in full-automatic mode (meaning that one pull of the trigger will produce a spray of bullets leaving the weapon until either the trigger is released or the supply of ammo runs out). An AR-15 cannot operate in fully automatic mode.

In other words, the rate of fire of an M-16 on full-auto, if you pull the trigger once and do not release it, is nearly 800 bullets per minute. The rate of fire of an AR-15, if you pull the trigger once and do not release it, is one bullet per minute, or per hour, per week, or per lifetime, forever a-men, until the trigger is released and pulled again. Then, — wait for it — another single, solitary round pops out. That’s because an AR-15 does not have a full-auto option. In short, an AR-15 will fire exactly as fast, or as slow, as the person pulling the trigger wants it to fire, just like a double-action revolver (think John Wayne) or a hunting rifle that isn’t a bolt-action rifle. The fact that it has the cosmetic appearance of a military weapon doesn’t increase its lethality any more than a hunting knife becomes more lethal (or an “assault knife”) if you attach it to a bayonet grip.

The appeal of the AR-15 to a military veteran like me, and to many others, is that its sights and its method of assembly and disassembly are already familiar to us. The ammunition it fires is actually smaller than that of many conventional hunting rifles, but its feel and handling fit like a glove to one trained in military weapons, even though it doesn’t have the same capability as a military weapon.

As David French recently explained:

Few things concentrate the mind more than the terrifying knowledge that a person might want to harm or kill someone you love. It transforms the way you interact with the world. It makes you aware of your acute vulnerability and the practical limitations of police protection.

So, how do I meet that threat? Unless you’re a highly trained professional who possesses supreme confidence in your self-defense skills, you meet it at the very least with an equivalent weapon, and preferably with superior firepower. In a nutshell that’s why my first line of defense in my home is an AR-15. One of the most ridiculous lines in yesterday’s New York Post editorial endorsing an assault-weapons ban was the assertion that semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15 are “regularly used only in mass shootings.” False, false, false. I use one to protect my family.

Here, Mr. French puts his finger on the central question of the entire debate — namely, whether one has the inherent right to self-defense. A lawyer friend of mine recently posted on social media a multi-part exposition on the right to have “assault weapons.” He began by erecting a straw-man argument against those who insist that the Second Amendment allows one to possess any weapon one chooses without any restriction. He went on to disprove this, which is as rare as it is preposterous. My friend went on at length about the meaning of the “well regulated militia” portion of the Second Amendment and continued on an extravagant tour of legal theory and precedent to establish that, yes, restrictions can exist on the right to bear arms even as they exist on the right to freedom of speech, etc.

But make no mistake. When the cloud of dust from this huge debate settles — regardless of how many legalistic obfuscations can dance on the nib of a jurist’s pen — the indisputable fact remains that the individual’s inalienable right to life and liberty, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, is utterly worthless absent that individual possessing the means to defend them. And the left knows it.

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  1. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Dave Carter:

    Do these business leaders actually think that a person insane enough to be hellbent on mass murder will read their precious little signs and say, “Gee golly whiz, I better not go in here and shoot a bunch of people because guns aren’t allowed and I’ll be breaking the law. I best mosey on over to the gun and knife show and try my luck there.” Surely these business leaders realize that only the law-abiding will consent to their prohibitions in the first place, thus ensuring more, not less vulnerability to violent attacks.

     

    These “gun free zone” signs are to help people feel better – facts and logic are irrelevant. Since the vast majority of the stores customers are law and rule abiding people, it doesn’t even occur to them that there might be people around who will not abide by the sign. And even among people who own firearms, a relatively small percentage carry a firearm as a routine matter, so seeing a person with a firearm openly carried in normal domestic life is unusual  and their mind immediately assumes the weapon carrying person intends bad actions. Understanding that the normal presence of weapons makes a place less vulnerable to violent attacks requires multi-step logic that is harder to do than knee-jerk “gun is bad” reaction. Too many movie and television scenes in which the audience immediately knows that if a character is carrying a weapon, the character is about to do something violent. 

    • #1
  2. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Dave Carter: So, the same government that was in charge of Jeffrey Epstein’s safety would guarantee yours as well. Isn’t that swell?

    Yes. And the same government that had officers assigned to protect the students at Parkland High School, which officers either hid or ran away when the students most needed protection. 

    • #2
  3. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Dave Carter:

    The appeal of the AR-15 to a military veteran like me, and to many others, is that its sights and its method of assembly and disassembly are already familiar to us. The ammunition it fires is actually smaller than that of many conventional hunting rifles, but its feel and handling fit like a glove to one trained in military weapons, even though it doesn’t have the same capability as a military weapon.

     

    I am just beginning to learn about the handling and use of firearms, but I understand the smaller size of the ammunition used in an AR-15 rifle is one of the reasons people like the AR-15 for home defense – lower likelihood of penetrating interior walls to cause collateral harm to others in the house.

    • #3
  4. Slow on the uptake Coolidge
    Slow on the uptake
    @Chuckles

    Partly because I have friends there, your comments about Memphis are quite disturbing.  What about you?

    Have you considered relocating?

    • #4
  5. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Nailed it with these pics . . .

     

    • #5
  6. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    Dave Carter:

    The appeal of the AR-15 to a military veteran like me, and to many others, is that its sights and its method of assembly and disassembly are already familiar to us. The ammunition it fires is actually smaller than that of many conventional hunting rifles, but its feel and handling fit like a glove to one trained in military weapons, even though it doesn’t have the same capability as a military weapon.

     

    I am just beginning to learn about the handling and use of firearms, but I understand the smaller size of the ammunition used in an AR-15 rifle is one of the reasons people like the AR-15 for home defense – lower likelihood of penetrating interior walls to cause collateral harm to others in the house.

    Critics talk about the “incredible firepower” of the ammunition used in an AR-15 or similar weapon.

    The cartridge is small.  Most states won’t allow it to be used for hunting deer.  The left would have you think every bullet fired from an AR-15 was a nuclear weapon . . .

     

    • #6
  7. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    I’m so sorry, Dave. You had such special plans and hopes for retirement. Do you see other ways to deal with the situation besides carrying?

    • #7
  8. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Those who carry weapons for self-defense also defend others, allowing those others to travel more freely and accomplish more.

    I have cited before a friend of ours, a mother of four young children. She is quite capable with a firearm, but chooses not to carry because it is impossible to be 100% certain at every second that one of the children might not gain access to a carried firearm.

    But, she can confidently go about her activities with those children in public with little fear of crime because she is confident that among the public are “good guys with guns” who, this being Texas, will step up to defend a woman and her children. 

    Men who carry weapons for defense and know how to use them permit others, like this young mother and her children, to live more life. 

    • #8
  9. Dave Carter Podcaster
    Dave Carter
    @DaveCarter

    Slow on the uptake (View Comment):

    Partly because I have friends there, your comments about Memphis are quite disturbing. What about you?

    Have you considered relocating?

    In due course I’ll do exactly that. My wife is from here, and so we remain for family reasons. But when the time is right, we will make a bee-line for the Highway out of here. 

    • #9
  10. Dave Carter Podcaster
    Dave Carter
    @DaveCarter

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    I’m so sorry, Dave. You had such special plans and hopes for retirement. Do you see other ways to deal with the situation besides carrying?

    Honestly, Susan, there’s no other way around here short of moving, which we will do at some point.  You are taking a huge chance by the simple act of leaving the house here,..but even staying home doesn’t guarantee that there won’t be a break-in. 

     

    My wife is from here and even she is floored by the rapid descent into madness here. She picked up a firearm for the first time around six months ago. She is now very proficient, and we both go to an indoor range at least weekly and practice. She also has a concealed carry permit, as does my mother in-law. It’s just too dangerous not to carry here. 

    • #10
  11. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    They want us disarmed to rule us. Period. 

     

    • #11
  12. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    I’m so sorry, Dave. You had such special plans and hopes for retirement. Do you see other ways to deal with the situation besides carrying?

    @susanquinn, you know how much I love you.  But: No, no, no and no.

    Carrying has nothing to do with his situation.  Okay, in his situation, he’d be insane not to carry.  But in Mongo’s world, the expectation that Dave would carry should be the same as that when Dave was long-haul trucking, he’d wear his seat belt.  It doesn’t matter what the environment is, one should be ready for anything.

    @kevincreighton had a great post not too long ago in which he discussed adding a cut-down trauma kit w/ tourniquet to his every day carry belt.  That’s brilliant.  I keep mine (and some other stuff) in the trunk of my car.  That works for me.  I may not, in my dotage, be able to do a 4.4 second forty yard-er to my car now but I can still move out when needs must (note how cleverly I insinuated the idea that I ever could sprint that fast.  Negatory morning glory).

    So the environment may necessitate the need to carry, but the big, wide world indicates the prudence of it.

    Dave Carter is a prudent guy.

    That said, I can envision him, back in his long haul days, laagered up for the night and seeing some “ghost riding the whip” videos, and deciding that he could do that on the rig.  In a speedo banana-hammock.  And flip-flops. And a light coat of vegetable oil…

    • #12
  13. Quietpi Member
    Quietpi
    @Quietpi

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):
    @kevincreighton had a great post not too long ago in which he discussed adding a cut-down trauma kit w/ tourniquet to his every day carry belt.

    As you were,@bossmongo, it was too long ago.  I remember it, but vaguely.  So… @kevincreighton, how about an update?

    • #13
  14. Ralphie Inactive
    Ralphie
    @Ralphie

    You never see a headline stating how many people who own guns didn’t shoot someone on any given day. I would hazard a guess that the percentage of law abiding citizens that shoot another human during their lifetime is very very tiny, like .00001% or smaller. (not counting being in the military, and I bet a lot of them never kill anyone)

    • #14
  15. Dave Carter Podcaster
    Dave Carter
    @DaveCarter

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    I’m so sorry, Dave. You had such special plans and hopes for retirement. Do you see other ways to deal with the situation besides carrying?

    @susanquinn, you know how much I love you. But: No, no, no and no.

    Carrying has nothing to do with his situation. Okay, in his situation, he’d be insane not to carry. But in Mongo’s world, the expectation that Dave would carry should be the same as that when Dave was long-haul trucking, he’d wear his seat belt. It doesn’t matter what the environment is, one should be ready for anything.

    @kevincreighton had a great post not too long ago in which he discussed adding a cut-down trauma kit w/ tourniquet to his every day carry belt. That’s brilliant. I keep mine (and some other stuff) in the trunk of my car. That works for me. I may not, in my dotage, be able to do a 4.4 second forty yard-er to my car now but I can still move out when needs must (note how cleverly I insinuated the idea that I ever could sprint that fast. Negatory morning glory).

    So the environment may necessitate the need to carry, but the big, wide world indicates the prudence of it.

    Dave Carter is a prudent guy.

    That said, I can envision him, back in his long haul days, laagered up for the night and seeing some “ghost riding the whip” videos, and deciding that he could do that on the rig. In a speedo banana-hammock. And flip-flops. And a light coat of vegetable oil…

    Boss, for someone in their dotage you certainly sprint better than a 4.4 second 40-yard mentally.  I had to re-read your comments a few times to make sure I got every thing.  Even after that, I wasn’t so sure.  So I held the screen up to a mirror to see if there were any satanic messages – like the youth pastors back in the day used to tell us about playing rock and roll records backwards.  That’s when I realized that you actually said:

    “Lio elbategev fo taoc lhgil a dna. Spolf-pilf dna. Kcommah-ananab a ni.” 

    Which is Latin for, “Seize the glue and commence to sniffing.” Then I went to sleep.  

    Of course you are spot-on with respect to me having to be insane not to carry around Ft. Stupid here.  But I’ll be hanged if I know what the deuce those videos are about, or a freakin’ speedo banana-hammock. I hate flip flops, and I have no comment on the vegetable oil.  Other than that, I naturally agree with everything you said.  I need more coffee now. 

    • #15
  16. Slow on the uptake Coolidge
    Slow on the uptake
    @Chuckles

    Quietpi (View Comment):

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):
    @kevincreighton had a great post not too long ago in which he discussed adding a cut-down trauma kit w/ tourniquet to his every day carry belt.

    As you were,@bossmongo, it was too long ago. I remember it, but vaguely. So… @kevincreighton, how about an update?

    Had one in each vehicle and with me ever since. 

    • #16
  17. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    Dave Carter (View Comment):
    …or a freakin’ speedo banana-hammock.

    • #17
  18. Dave Carter Podcaster
    Dave Carter
    @DaveCarter

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):

    Dave Carter (View Comment):
    …or a freakin’ speedo banana-hammock.

    Gee thanks. 

    • #18
  19. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    Dave Carter (View Comment):
    Gee thanks. 

    That’s me; I’m a giver.

    • #19
  20. Kevin Creighton Contributor
    Kevin Creighton
    @KevinCreighton

    Quietpi (View Comment):

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):
    @kevincreighton had a great post not too long ago in which he discussed adding a cut-down trauma kit w/ tourniquet to his every day carry belt.

    As you were,@bossmongo, it was too long ago. I remember it, but vaguely. So… @kevincreighton, how about an update?

    I carry two pieces of med gear with me everywhere I go. The first is a bandanna. No one freaks out about it, and it’s come in REALLY handy in the Florida heat. It’s also good for packing wounds or as a bandage in an emergency or any number of things. 

    The other piece of trauma gear I carry with me everywhere is a small coin purse which has a cravat bandage, two small packages of Celox clotting agent, a short strip of duct tape and a pair of nitrile gloves. The kit is based on this video from the late, great Paul Gomez, who shows how the bandage, along with a caliper clip and the ring from your keys, can be turned into a pretty decent improvised tourniquet. I don’t carry a pneumothorax needle with me because I have no training in that procedure, and so I don’t carry one.

    In addition to this, the plastic from the bandage, when combined with the duct tape, makes a decent improvised chest seal, and the duct tape can also be used to secure bandages or whatever. The bandanna and coin purse usually reside in each of my back pockets, and it looks like I’m carrying a coin purse and a bandanna back there. 

    Because I am. 

    If I’m wearing something that allows me to conceal around my waist, I carry an SOFT-T tourniquet in a Blue Force Gear MP7 Ten Speed pouch. It’s about the same size and shape as a spare mag, and it allows me to carry a tourniquet with me when I’m carrying a gun. 

    As a side note, if you want to carry a tourniquet, carry either a CAT-T or an SOFT-T. The others (RATS, SWAT-T, etc) are not effective. Also, if you shop on Amazon, be VERY careful of where you’re buying your tourniquets from, as there are a lot of fakes out there. 

    Lastly, I have a man-purse that goes in the car with me wherever I go (look for more about it later this month on the Ammoman.com blog) which has a pair of trauma shears, an additional tourniquet and also a PHLster Pocket Emergency Wallet which has more clotting agent and bandages and another pair of gloves.

    • #20
  21. Kevin Creighton Contributor
    Kevin Creighton
    @KevinCreighton

    Also, I’m not suggesting you do this, as it may contravene local and state law if you do, but all of this stuff has been known to accompany me in “non-permissive” environments, including places which have metal detectors and bag searches.

    The large case in the lower left, FYI, as an Abdo safe from EAA, and is quite often mistaken for a large cell phone case, and the knife on the right is a TDI Shark Bite non-metallic knife which doesn’t set off metal detectors, but still packs quite a punch.

    • #21
  22. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):
    @susanquinn, you know how much I love you.

    Yeah, well, easy come, easy go.

    Seriously, I know you’re right. I just hate to learn that people have to completely change their lives to accommodate horrible people. I’ll be reading the CC info tomorrow, probably go to a class this month. I’m not thrilled about it, but I will. Thanks for setting me straight, @bossmongo.

    • #22
  23. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    • #23
  24. Dave Carter Podcaster
    Dave Carter
    @DaveCarter

    Percival (View Comment):

    I just want to say,…that photo rocks!!!  My first duty assignment was with the Flying Tigers, who flew the A-10, complete with the teeth on the aircraft.  I can’t “like” this photo enough! 

    • #24
  25. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Dave Carter (View Comment):
    I just want to say,…that photo rocks!!! My first duty assignment was with the Flying Tigers, who flew the A-10, complete with the teeth on the aircraft. I can’t “like” this photo enough! 

    Of all the planes I’ve written code for, this one has to be my favorite.

    • #25
  26. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    On A-10s, in the first Gulf War(before we embarked on Forever Wars), I got into a bit of a donnybrook.  Called in for air support , our air guy got an A-10 on the line.  I’m sure I’ve told this story before on Rico, but I love it, so here we go again:

    Me:  Ragman, this is Red 6, need fire on the culvert 300 meters to our front.

    Ragman: Roger that, Red 6.  That’s danger close to your position, I’m gonna need some initials on this call.

    Me: I send: Whiskey Bravo Whiskey [WBW, that’s me, William Brendan Welsh].

    Ragman: Roger that, stand by.

    When that GAU-8 gatling gun went off, it was a thing of beauty.

    Only airframe I love more is the AC-130.

    • #26
  27. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    Dave Carter:

    Do these business leaders actually think that a person insane enough to be hellbent on mass murder will read their precious little signs and say, “Gee golly whiz, I better not go in here and shoot a bunch of people because guns aren’t allowed and I’ll be breaking the law. I best mosey on over to the gun and knife show and try my luck there.” Surely these business leaders realize that only the law-abiding will consent to their prohibitions in the first place, thus ensuring more, not less vulnerability to violent attacks.

     

    These “gun free zone” signs are to help people feel better – facts and logic are irrelevant. Since the vast majority of the stores customers are law and rule abiding people, it doesn’t even occur to them that there might be people around who will not abide by the sign. And even among people who own firearms, a relatively small percentage carry a firearm as a routine matter, so seeing a person with a firearm openly carried in normal domestic life is unusual and their mind immediately assumes the weapon carrying person intends bad actions. Understanding that the normal presence of weapons makes a place less vulnerable to violent attacks requires multi-step logic that is harder to do than knee-jerk “gun is bad” reaction. Too many movie and television scenes in which the audience immediately knows that if a character is carrying a weapon, the character is about to do something violent.

    That most people get their gun knowledge from movies and their perception of gun use from breathless newscasts goes a long way to explaining how people can be so ignorant – well that and a complete lack of personal experience. 

    Our forebears knew perfectly well that there were no magic beans that would grow a massive beanstalk overnight. 

    Two hundred years worth of science and education later we believe in magic guns that will kill everyone in sight. 

    • #27
  28. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    But, she can confidently go about her activities with those children in public with little fear of crime because she is confident that among the public are “good guys with guns” who, this being Texas, will step up to defend a woman and her children.

    Men who carry weapons for defense and know how to use them permit others, like this young mother and her children, to live more life.

    Nonsense. It is the State that will protect us by restricting gun rights (take that, criminals!), sending officers to the scene of her murder, and eventually scheduling the guy who murdered her for early release (assuming they ever catch him). 

    • #28
  29. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Percival (View Comment):

    The ultimate in open carry . . .

    • #29
  30. Spin Inactive
    Spin
    @Spin

    With respect to Walmart, Kroger and other companies, I’d like to suggest that their reasoning is a bit more pragmatic than ideological.  

    I’ve learned that the bigger a company is, the more likely it is run by three groups:  lawyers, accountants, and regulatory auditors.  Decisions are made largely based on whether it will damage us legally or put us at odds with some accounting process, or whether it comports with some auditors interpretation of some regulation.

    Large businesses think of themselves like big ocean going ships.  They are self-sustaining to some degree, have a lot of momentum, and are hard to steer.

    When a company like Walmart looks at this situation they think “Well, what is most likely to get us in to trouble?  If we sell the stuff that was used to kill someone, we might be sued.  If we don’t put a warning label on the store (which is what that gun-free zone sign is, really), then if someone comes in here, we might be sued.  But if we say “Please don’t bring weapons in here and we don’t sell the stuff here then we won’t be sued.”  

    It is all risk avoidance.  That’s what I think.

    • #30
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