Scaring the White People in California...

Here and there I've had a thing or two to say about the approach California activists have taken toward the open-carry movement, in which they seem to believe that scaring the white people will somehow cause California lawvermin to change their entire legislative history and suddenly act in gunowners' favor. Not gonna happen, I said. And the above-mentioned vermin wasted no time proving me right.

So this comes as no surprise. But the fail embodied in this article - on both sides of the argument - just burns.

The proposed law by State Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, a Democrat from Pasadena, is a response to a growing "open carry" movement. Open carry activists have held meetings at coffee shops and restaurants across California with their unloaded handguns in their holsters in accordance with current law.

And earned themselves a world of hassle from one cop after another, most of whom are not of the opinion that such unmutual behavior is legal - or should be.

But of course all the hassle that brave activists bring on themselves (and I do think they're very brave indeed - just not doing their cause any favors) is not enough for some people. Like anybody from the Brady Bunch:

"I'm very concerned about the open carry movement. It seems to be expanding," said Suzanne Verge of the Los Angeles chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Which is like a mosquito being 'very concerned' about my choice in insect repellent - she shouldn't expect me to share her concern.

But seriously, some of these people cross the "please don't be on my side" line.

"The terrorists are coming and they'd just love to see us disarmed," she [not Suzanne Verge] said.

Which is just tinfoil-hattish enough to get quoted by Southern California Public Radio, to bolster the opposite view from the one the speaker thought she was advancing.

And the cops! Oh, god - the cops...

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck supports banning the practice, which places police officers in the position of determining whether someone on the street has a gun to commit a crime or is simply exercising his or her rights.

...Which is of course exactly the reason that police also wish to ban the possession of automobiles, pipes, baseball bats, trenchcoats... Because those things 'place police officers in the position of determining...' what, exactly? Since when was that a cop's business? In my perfect world cops would not exist would involve themselves in the activities of their contemporaries only when those people were harming other people by breaking mala in se laws. But here in 1984-Land, they're somehow empowered to determine your intent in demonstrating possession of some article or other.

Gad, I'm glad I don't live in California anymore. Not that the attitudes expressed there are uncommon elsewhere.