Category: Guns

Armed and Safe links to an editorial on the incident and takes it to task.  I would also point out this indication that the Times-Tribune couldn’t even be bothered to crack a dictionary:

The gun-toters don’t seem to understand that not brandishing their weapons in public would not diminish their right while also not intimidating other diners.

Let’s look at the definition of brandish, shall we?  From Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: ¹bran·dish

Pronunciation: \ˈbran-dish\

Function: transitive verb

Etymology:

Middle English braundisshen, from Anglo-French brandiss-, stem of brandir, from brant, braund sword, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English brand

Date: 14th century

1 : to shake or wave (as a weapon) menacingly
2 : to exhibit in an ostentatious or aggressive manner

If someone views a firearm properly secured in a holster as “aggressive” or “menacing” that’s not my problem, it’s theirs.  The laws of this commonwealth permit the open carrying of a firearm in plain view, or concealed or in a vehicle with a license.  There are 600,000 people in this state with a License to Carry Firearms.  People in Pennsylvania are around armed citizens all the time, and they just don’t realize it.  All these gentlemen did was choose not to hide their firearms.

GunTruth has a pretty detailed piece up over at his blog about an open carry dinner in Pennsylvania that got raided by the Dickson City police.  This kind of thing happened in Virginia too when VCDL started doing this.  I don’t open carry much at all, but it is a legal practice in Pennsylvania, without a license in the rest of the state, and with a license in the City of Philadelphia.  I have met the guy who was arrested in this, and while he is someone who will stand up for his rights and the law, he’s definitely not brash, abrasive, or rude.

It’s a fact of open carrying that sometimes people will freak out and call the cops, especially in the parts of Pennsylvania that are absorbing a lot of residents from New Jersey and New York, where the practice is illegal.  I think 911 call centers and police departments need to be trained on the fact that the practice is legal, and how to deal with that kind of situation.  VCDL has done a pretty good job of getting that done in Virginia, and I think we will in Pennsylvania too.

UPDATE: I should inform everyone that you’ll see a lot of talk of registration in this thread.  Pennsylvania currently has a defacto registry, as the PA State Police has been computerizing records of sale and putting them into a big database.  The legislature made creating a registry illegal in 1996, but the State Supreme Court ruled that because the database was not comprehensive, it was not a registry.  This isn’t the first time I’ve seen cases where the registry is being treated as a registry of all firearms.  We need to make getting rid of this “registry” our number one priority in Pennsylvania once we’re rid of Fast Eddie.