White Supremacists Are Exploiting Our Lax Gun Laws to Intimidate Marginalized Communities

[billh58]

Last weekend in Charlottesville, the dangers of our nation’s lax gun laws – specifically open carry – were on display yet again. We saw how the most hateful among us can take advantage of our weak gun laws to use guns to intimidate and silence free speech and marginalized communities. Open carry laws, combined with racism and anti-Semitism, are a toxic and terrifying mix.

After the crowds dispersed, we heard from public officials like Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe and public safety secretary Brian Moran, both of whom noted that the presence of protesters openly carrying firearms made the job of law enforcement even more difficult at a time when the stakes were already high.

The presence of armed extremists at protests and rallies – including the white supremacists in Charlottesville – highlights a loophole in the laws of most states. This loophole allows people to openly carry guns in public without a background check, permitting or training. In nearly every state, including Virginia, open carry is typically legal by default; there is no law forbidding it, but also no law permitting it.

Now is the time to editorialize against the open carry loophole. Time and again, Americans openly carrying guns have posed a threat to public safety. Last summer in Dallas, when five police officers were shot and killed, police said that they couldn’t tell which gunman was firing at them because protesters were openly carrying firearms. The Dallas Police Chief David Brown said: “The presumption is that a good guy with a gun is the best way to solve some of these [shootings], but we don’t know who the good guy is versus the bad guy.”

- More -

https://everytown.org/press/white-supremacists-are-exploiting-our-lax-gun-laws-to-intimidate-marginalized-communities/

It is way past time to put the brakes on public carry of deadly firearms -- especially by NRA-backed terrorist groups like the White Supremacists, and KKK. These un-American traitors are Trump's minions, and are his version of storm troopers.

Support a gun control organization of your choice today and help to cleanse our country of the plague of armed idiots and criminals.

[Hoyt]

1. Amen. You think we will hear the NRA -- or even Gungeoneers -- speak out against this?

[Paladin]

5. If it's a trump critique, it's nothing but crickets from the Gun Enthusiasts. (nt)

[ProgressiveValue]

6. That picture is stunning.

The jackass on the left with three extra magazines on him says it all. He probably has one in his rifle for a total of 120 rounds of ammo. Exactly WTF did he think was going to happen? A firefight in Afghanistan? Even if his "reasoning" for brining a rifle was to defend himself from being attacked, all that extra ammo sure looks like he has fantasies of standing there and Ramboing an entire crowd.

Then of course is the fact that to an untrained eye they look like national guard. No wonder the police were tiptoeing around. They would have had to call the real national guard if shooting started.

[Hoyt]

7. Exactly. At a minimum, guns at "events" like this should be prohibited. That is absolutely insane.

I'm sure obtuse gunners will object, probably telling us how no one was shot. Well obtuse gunners, the INTIMIDATION factor is darn near as bad as shooting someone. This is the crud gunners have spawned.

[Paladin]

8. A firefight in Afghanistan? Not bloody likely.

I doubt that most of these open carry jackasses have anything in the way of military experience. What that picture shows is a whole lot of desperate compensation going on...for a whole lot of shortcomings.

[defacto7]

2. Guns diminish thinking and reason.

People in our country are brought up with the idea that carrying a gun makes one impermeable. If you think your untouchable or at the top of the food chain because of this killing tool, you no longer have to think, reason or figure out how to preserve life; it's all about ending one's adversary. There's no need for communication, no need for valour, it's instant end of argument and ending the argument in this way is devolutionary. We sink further into stupidity.

This is as much a problem with police as anyone. They don't have to figure out how to survive or preserve or how to play the chess board under pressure. All they have to do is comand, shoot then eat lunch.

Sometimes I'm convinced that America's relationship to weapons is the reason our country is failing as a civilized society and that ignorance is expanding.

[Hoyt]

4. Good point.

[mountain grammy]

3. So, wonder what would have happened if protestors showed up armed

at Ferguson, Standing Rock, the March on Washington, and others? I've been to countless protests. No one showed up armed except the police, and they were ARMED!