Wednesday, March 25, 2009

San Diego cops fear open carry activists

From the Golden State:
San Diego police fear there may be a growing number of gun activists who want to carry their weapons openly. The trend is part of a national "open carry" movement keen on exercising gun rights. KPBS Reporter Amita Sharma has more.

Last month, about 40 people gathered at Mission Beach wearing unloaded guns on holsters. Panicked beach goers called police but no one was arrested because carrying unloaded firearms is legal in California.

Paul Cooper is an attorney for the police department. He says the practice is dangerous to the public, the people carrying the weapons and to officers.

"We just don't think it's a prudent idea for anyone to walk around openly with an unloaded firearm," Cooper says. [emphasis added]...

Article here. Actually, I would agree with Mr. Cooper that it's not a "prudent idea for anyone to walk around openly with an unloaded firearm[.]" Obviously, prudence would dictate that the firearm should be loaded. Unfortunately, California's "lite" version of open carry evidently prohibits loaded open carry.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you, but unloaded with a full mag in the pocket is better than disarmed...especially in light of California's "may issue" CHP policies.

It's good to see gun owners in places like California and Illinois fighting these battles. They're on the front lines.

I consider myself an activist, but I'm just a REMF compared to them.

David said...

Agreed. Places like California make you appreciate our basic rights and freedoms even more. The decent peaceable folks in California are fighting an uphill battle for those basic human rights, however.

Stay free.

Diggers Darling said...

For an AUTHENTIC writeup on this event, take a look at my blog. The reporter who did the KPBS article purposely did a one-sided hack job and is one of the reasons that I refused to submit to an interview with her.

http://caopencarry.blogspot.com/2009/02/third-san-diego-open-carry-meet.html

CARRY ON!
-N8