Reason Magazine looks at the debate about Open Carry in California:
The best part of the interview is State Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, who’s sponsoring the bill to ban open carry. “You don’t need a license to carry an unloaded handgun in public, and that’s a loophole!” To him freedom = Â loophole. You can also tell that his main objection to guns is completely aesthetic, given his characterization of carry is taking California back to the past, and not wanting guns in “Main Street California”
Hat Tip to Instapundit
Sebastian,
It’s my opinion that you give Portantino way too much credit by assuming his main objection to guns is aesthetic; it is not.
He is a collectivist, and his main objection to firearms is that ordinary citizens can get them, and insist on being able to use them in defense of themselves. That task, he wants left to the ‘sworn officers’, who do such a fine job that there simply is no crime in California.
After all, see how well it’s been working in the UK.
“PSH” ?
The Packetman is absolutely right. Portantino is, for practical purposes, a wannabe Hugo Chavez, to include his weight.
Thinks he can be a US Senator sometime, and given the IQ of voters here, he might make it. Hopefully the tiff between him and the duller little man who is the Assembly Speaker will poison the well and CA Democrats will frag each other.
Pant Shitting Hysterics. I guess I need to explain that one for people who are not familiar with gun blog terminology.
“you don’t need a firearm to go get a cheeseburger” Obviously not, you fatty fat fat fat.
Everything is legal unless outlawed.
If it is not illegal then it IS legal: that’s not a loophole.
It boggles me how some don’t/won’t/can’t get it.
The law does not exist to enforce morality.
The law does not exist to shape society.
We need to close the congresshole loophole, and that applies to incumbenthole state reps too.
Misrepresentatives at every level have to go.
“you don’t need a handgun to get a cup of coffeeâ€
Neither does a cop, but you’ll never see one getting coffee unarmed.
Portantino is a porcine statist, who is deliberately ignoring the needs of private citizens, and deliberately ignoring the fact that government agents openly carry guns all the time with no fuss from the public. It’s a matter of what people are accustomed to seeing, and Portantino doesn’t want anyone getting accustomed to seeing private citizens carrying openly.
Assemblyhole Portantino has no problem with police carrying all the guns they want to carry, openly or concealed, on “Main Street California”, but with California’s de facto prohibition of concealed carry, he sees no place for private gun owners to carry their guns on that street. That’s just like it was in the former Soviet Union, but don’t call him a communist on the issue, because he would find that to be an inconvenient truth.
The taking away of our precious American freedom, for which millions of Americans have suffered and died, is an act so depraved, that it should be a capital offense under the law.
I’ve tried, but I don’t understand the open carry of an unloaded firearm. An unloaded firearm isn’t a weapon, it’s a fashion accessory. I’m not really convinced it’s better than nothing, but I’d listen to an explanation.
@MichigammeDave
No Californians would do it if CCW or LOC was legal. It’s a by-product of CA’s asinine handgun carry laws.
I take it as a form of political protest, rather than a practical means to carry a gun. In fact, tactically, I’d say it’s rather dangerous.