How I Became The Spokesman

All of this hullabaloo about open carry came about because I expressed doubt about how much harm people who were open carrying were doing to public opinion.

The reason I had my doubts was a lack of reporting outside of gun blogs.

One would think that if the level of harm was as high as it was expressed in such places, that it would be easy to point to journalism which the mundanes read and affected their opinions.

I noticed that several (many?) gun publications oppose open carry as a matter of editorial policy and that several gun bloggers were employees of these publications.

I began to notice that many trainers and instructors who were teaching that open carry was a poor tactical decision (and it really is) were shifting from, "this is why it's not a great idea," to, "you're a fucking moron if you do."  This change in tone doesn't appear to have an explanation.

But, what the trainers and instructors say tends to be repeated and their tone became the tone of the debate.

I changed from not caring much, one way or the other, when (despite promises to the contrary) after the amending of Florida Statute 790.053 in 2011 the practice of arresting conceal carriers who'd had some sort of wardrobe malfunction continued.

Attempts to get a definition for "to briefly and openly display" that did not depend on the arresting officer's opinion have met with fierce opposition from Florida's law enforcement organizations.  Many of Florida's jurisdictions hate that there's licensed conceal carry, let alone that such a person could be allowed to accidentally expose that they were carrying.

Hardly any of the people arrested for wardrobe malfunction have ended up in jail, but here the process is the punishment.  Money spent, time lost and property not returned.

The reasonable attempt to get law enforcement to enforce the law as intended by the legislature rather than their biased opinions on the matter failed.

"Fine," I said, "you don't want to be reasonable about this; then I want open carry so you lose all discretion on the matter."

What I wasn't expecting was the bile spewed at me from what I'd thought was my own side.

I have been insulted and ridiculed.

It certainly didn't change my mind on the matter.