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Gun Control & RKBA

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SecularMotion

(7,981 posts)
Thu Aug 17, 2017, 04:32 PM Aug 2017

Ban the Open Carry of Firearms [View all]

When militia members and white supremacists descended on Charlottesville, Va., last Saturday with Nazi flags and racist placards, many of them also carried firearms openly, including semiautomatic weapons. They came to intimidate and terrify protesters and the police. If you read reports of the physical attacks they abetted, apparently their plan worked.

They might try to rationalize their conduct as protected by the First and Second Amendments, but let’s not be fooled. Those who came to Charlottesville openly carrying firearms were neither conveying a nonviolent political message, nor engaged in self-defense nor protecting hearth and home.

Plain and simple, public terror is not protected under the Constitution. That has been the case throughout history. And now is the time to look to that history and prohibit open carry, before the next Charlottesville.

Historically, lawmakers have deemed open carry a threat to public safety. Under English common law, a group of armed protesters constituted a riot, and some American colonies prohibited public carry specifically because it caused public terror. During Reconstruction, the military governments overseeing much of the South responded to racially motivated terror (including the murder of dozens of freedmen and Republicans at the 1866 Louisiana Constitutional Convention) by prohibiting public carry either generally or at political gatherings and polling places. Later, in 1886, a Supreme Court decision, Presser v. Illinois, upheld a law forbidding groups of men to “parade with arms in cities and towns unless authorized.” For states, such a law was “necessary to the public peace, safety and good order.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/opinion/open-carry-charlottesville.html
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Ban the Open Carry of Firearms [View all] SecularMotion Aug 2017 OP
But what about Antonin Scalia and his "discovery" of what he called "original intent"? guillaumeb Aug 2017 #1
Scalia said you can ban open carry hack89 Aug 2017 #8
Ban them all. bullimiami Aug 2017 #2
We've Been Told sarisataka Aug 2017 #4
More blowback from your side's culture war krispos42 Aug 2017 #3
"Gun Control" is the most effective form of firearm proliferation known to this country. n/t Decoy of Fenris Aug 2017 #5
Agreed discntnt_irny_srcsm Aug 2017 #6
historical diffs between open & concealed carry jimmy the one Aug 2017 #7
I'm not being snarky Lokilooney Aug 2017 #9
heartbroken jimmy the one Aug 2017 #10
Translation Lokilooney Aug 2017 #12
You have no idea how much this pains me.. tortoise1956 Oct 2017 #33
Technically OC should discourage harassment and intimidation. ileus Aug 2017 #11
It wasn't just white supremacists and nazis who were armed at Charlottesville. EL34x4 Aug 2017 #13
Sounds like something Trump would say SecularMotion Aug 2017 #14
And if he said it, he would be correct. EL34x4 Aug 2017 #15
Civil Liberties Body ACLU Will No Longer Defend Gun-Carrying Protest Groups SecularMotion Aug 2017 #16
Do you support denying a Constitutional right based on being on a government list? The ACLU doesn't: friendly_iconoclast Aug 2017 #18
Their argument against using the no-fly watchlist is that the system is broken. SecularMotion Aug 2017 #20
What about states already using those lists to deny gun permits? New Jersey does: friendly_iconoclast Aug 2017 #21
I agree with the position of the ACLU SecularMotion Aug 2017 #22
I agree with it as well- also, that article is as clear as mud friendly_iconoclast Aug 2017 #23
If the ACLU had defended the 2nd amendment, the NRA would not be the political power it now is. Hangingon Aug 2017 #28
Sometimes folks that oppose carrying... discntnt_irny_srcsm Aug 2017 #17
These folks don't oppose carrying. They're proudly pro-gun and progressive. EL34x4 Aug 2017 #25
Rednecks! Obviously liberals! pablo_marmol Aug 2017 #19
I'll see your Blair Mountain and raise you a... discntnt_irny_srcsm Aug 2017 #24
! pablo_marmol Aug 2017 #27
To all my "retrumplican before country" brethren Tortue Aug 2017 #26
if you're addressing "retrumplican before country" brethren... discntnt_irny_srcsm Aug 2017 #29
I would stay away from any event where people were going to open carry Kaleva Sep 2017 #30
I have no problem with open carry. ManiacJoe Sep 2017 #31
I agree AR-15s on chest rigs are a bit more than open carry. mackdaddy Oct 2017 #32
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