Menzoberranzan,
If you think I fit in with Brady and HCI, then you are sadly mistaken. Hear me out, please... My beef is with the fact that he was being wreckless and was obviouly seeking a confrontation. The fact that he had the muzzle painted orange in order to simulate an airsoft gun, and the fact that he was on other forums asking what was the best armor piercing round doesn't fit into the "carry personal defence" picture as it does the "make the cops think it is an airsoft gun, then punch through their body armor with the AP rounds" mentality. My whole point in protesting his actions is in trying to protect the progress we made in carry legislation last session. Just because something is legal doesn't mean you need to be putting it in everyone's face. People resent that, and it tends to make them angry and even more determined to stop you. (Remember when, shortly after the election, Obama said "We won", and how arrogant people thought he was?) We have to use a little common sense... We need to be able to exercise our rights, absolutely. We are having to work our way back to where we used to be when the founding fathers put the 2nd Amendment to paper... We lost many of our rights because of what some refer to as the "frog in the kettle syndrome" - they were lost a little at a time until, one day, we said "This isn't right and we have to fix it." We are going to have to win those rights back in much the same way (save a violent overthrow of the government which I think we would all prefer to avoid.) A bit at a time, until we are back where we need to be. If someone suddenly creates a big controversy, the media will naturally come down against us, and it sets back our schedule of regaining all the rights our forefathers intended be protected.
Nothing would make me happier than for all of us to be able to carry whatever weapon we want, wherever we want. But we don't get there by putting orange muzzled Draco pistols out there slung over our BDU jackets in the parks. We have to show the sheeple that we are like them, only we believe in personal responsibility and the Constitution. We can't do that if we are running around like a bunch of commandos.
I'm sorry if you feel I'm anti-freedom because of my response to kwikrnu, but I'm pro-freedom for all and I don't like it when one person's actions jeapordize the freedoms of the rest of us. When he first posted several weeks ago about the fact that he was going to open carry an AK-47 pistol, I didn't say a word, though I felt like the open carry may not have been in his (or our) best interest. Then, I'm sitting at home when I hear Channel 4's story about a man carrying an AK-47 in Radnor Lake State Park. I knew immediately who it was, and then I had to listen to their misinformation about how it was an AK-47 with a cut-down barrel and no stock. The general public never knew that the weapon was indeed manufactured as a pistol from the start. So, now the general (misinformed) public thinks a handgun carry permit holder was carrying "one of those evil assault rifles" that had been modified, and was carrying it in a park. I could not have cared less if he had been carrying it under his BDU jacket (I have no problem with BDU's and have worn them officially and unofficialy for years) and had gone unnoticed. And for the most part, if he had been carrying any (what would be considered a more traditional) pistol or revolver
openly, just taking an actual walk in the park and had been accosted by the authorities, I would have been raising 5 kinds of H3LL in his favor... But he sought out confrontation... He was pushing to see what he could get away with, and then has gone public with it in order to stir up controversy. We are never going to win in the media if the situation is anything less than 100% black and white obvious. This was, for the uninformed, a "gray area" so the media spun it to hurt us. We don't need that kind of publicity. I believe that (barring certain types of convictions) a person should be able to own and carry (if practical) any firearm they want... Want to strap on a GE minigun ala Ventura in Predator? Go for it if you are financially and physically able... I don't care... Want to put a surplus 75MM piece in your front yard without having to de-mil it? Go for it, I don't care. But we will never get the laws there to do that with incidents like this. In fact, I'm probably more pro-gun, pro-freedom, "let the people carry what they want, wherever they want" than a lot of other instructors out there... It's just that I recognize the fact that we need to demonstrate some self control to get there to do it.
This paragraph is not aimed at you, but is an explanation of my entire set of actions before I said a word to him: I didn't make my statements to kwikrnu without having first searched the web for anything else he posted. I put some of that information over in his other thread here: . I try to learn as much as I can about someone before I flame them... I try to see what it is I might not be understanding that has caused them to think/post what they have, so that I do not take them to task for something that doesn't warrant it. To do otherwise could be a waste of my time and might make an enemy out of someone who would have otherwise been a good friend to have. When I saw what he had posted elsewhere, I came to understand him pretty well... I felt it best to speak out at that point, because many folks will not say what they feel due to our generations having been raised under the mantra "if you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all." And I commend you for speaking out against my words used against kwikrnu... At least you spoke up... But please... Get to know me on the forum before you condemn me or my company... I've got students that decided not to go back to Blackwater (now Xe) because they like my methods and classroom substance (as well as pricing) better... You might find I'm a pretty decent guy that believes more strongly in the 2nd Amendment than you might imagine...
That is the only reason I ever posted...
Mike
