Suggest OddsOpen Carry: US Gun Laws Loosen Up
IStock Photo 8399561 © Royce DeGrie
The first gun ever “fired” at a US movie audience was in 1903, in a 10-minute silent film called The Great Train Robbery. In the film's final shot, a robber points his revolver directly at the audience and fires twice. Many audience members shrieked or jumped for cover.
It was a watershed moment in US history: perhaps the first well-documented instance of widespread fear of just the sight of a gun. In the 19th century, people had openly carried guns in holsters, free to be seen. In fact, the nation’s first gun law—passed in Kentucky, on February 3, 1813—prohibited concealing a gun on one’s person.
The 20th century would be different, if the popular reaction to The Great Train Robbery is any indication. Public distaste for the sight of handguns was growing—they would gradually be relegated, and legislated, into concealment.
But now the idea of openly carried guns is regaining popularity.
It is an issue that has grown along with handgun ownership. 1 in 8.33 adults owns a handgun and a long gun, and another 1 in 20 owns just a handgun. Concealed handgun laws vary by state, but are generally getting more permissive. Thirty-four states allow it. (Only Illinois, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia ban private citizens carrying guns.)
Recently passed laws have opened up the field quite a bit. After a 17-year ban was lately lifted, Virginians can again buy more than one handgun a month. Amendments to federal bills have freed up the possibility of carrying in national parks (state law permitting), and on Amtrak trains. And in Vermont and Alaska, anyone can carry a handgun virtually anywhere, no permit required—and similar laws are going up for ratification in Wyoming and Arizona.
Other states, too, allow packing heat with no permit, but their laws are more baroque. Virginians, for instance, can carry without a permit if they are
- Police officers
- Business owners, in their place of business
- Gun collectors or members of target shooting clubs (only in transit; gun must be wrapped)
- Hunters
- Attorneys and assistant attorneys
- On-duty mail carriers
- The harbormaster of the city of Hopewell
As to with a permit: Virginia also recently legalized concealed carrying in bars and clubs. (This is not yet legal in many other locales, as NFL star Plaxico Burress can attest.) Not that you couldn’t carry a gun into an alcohol-serving establishment in the Commonwealth before. You just had to carry it openly. That was (and still is) legal, provided the bar does not post a NO CARRY sign, and—more importantly—the handgun is carried unconcealed, in a holster or your hand.
Similar laws—or rather, lack of specification—make California an open carry state, but some establishments there are barring customers from coming in armed (it’s the same legal principle that allows businesses to bar the shirtless or shoeless). Peet’s Coffee & Tea and California Pizza Kitchen have banned guns on their premises, and the Brady Campaign is petitioning Starbucks to follow suit. Currently, Starbucks allows you to openly carry your gun while ordering your espresso shot.
Comments (9)
Mabey we should be able to have automatic AK47's Strapped to our back, so if any terrorists try to bomb the bus we are on, we can spray their brains all over the bus wall! HAHAHAHA penis
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report abuseWow. Ok.
report abuse1.As to more Guns equal more crime... The statistics do not prove this out. New Hampshire had 139 violent crimes per 100,000 AND IS BRISTLING WITH FIREARMS BOTH OPENLY CARRIED or concealed. The District of Colombia had 1,508 violent crimes per 100,000and and Guns are banned...Hmmm..(2006 data)
2. Citizens are licensed to USE or OPERATE vehicles, not to OWN them. Besides being a civil right; weapons are carried to prevent and deter violence.
3. As to Virginia Tech. If "LAWS" work. AKA:they deter criminals; then WHY do most of these massacres occur in "GUN FREE ZONES"??? Are you kidding me????
If you are truly intellectually honest you will post signage at your residence to the effect of "GUN FREE ZONE / NO FIREARMS HERE" But you won't. Here's why. Rosie O'Donnell. She has a deep hatred of GUNS and people who own and keep them. WHILE AT THE SAME TIME ENJOYING THE PROTECTIONS THEY AFFORD WITH HER ARMED BODYGUARDS. Elitism.Racism.
Look it up. Most gun laws started as race based (blacks?), ethnically based (Irish and Italian immigrants{New York City/Sullivan Act}) The 1968 Gun Control Act was based off of Nazi Germany's "Weapons Law of 1938". Research it. Look up the information. ::SIgh::
To anyone who is against gun ownership: Don't worry. If I should see you being robbed or assaulted, out of respect for your opinions on gun ownership I will refrain from using my gun to intervene on your behalf. Instead, while I walk away from you I will call the police and they will more than likely be very willing to help you when they arrive 10 minutes later.
report abuseAny state that restricts firearm carry is tying the hands of law abiding citizens and preventing them from defending themselves against violent criminals. Washington DC bans handguns, yet consistently makes the list for the most violent city in the country. If gun laws actually worked, wouldn't it be the safest?
report abuseFurthermore, the police are not mandated to protect you or come to your aid if you are on private property, such as a home. Not to mention you would already be victimized by the time they got there. I would never trust my safety to law enforcement. Open carry is obviously a crime deterrent as criminals go after those who are defenseless.
I applaud states which uphold our second amendment rights and hope more states defeat their unconstitutional anti-gun laws.
More weapons of any kind logically leads to diminished safety. It sounds ridiculous to say 'more nuclear weapons makes the world a safer place,' or more knives, or more plastic explosives. How could unlimited gun ownership mean, on average, a safer life? It's escalation, and it's patently ridiculous to feel secure in a country bristling with firearms.
report abuseIt's harder to get a drivers lic. than it is to get a gun...
report abuseA tougher screening system, an age limit and a serious background check should be needed to obtain firearms.
Other than that I'm all for it.
If someone breaks into your house in the middle of night, do you think they're gonna pillow fight?
Protect yourself, your loved ones and all that you have worked for.
As a Virginia resident, I think it is outrageous to loosen the gun laws. Does no one remember the massacre at Virginia Tech just a few years ago? As a historian, I know gun ownership and violence is deep in our culture, but it is time for us to outgrow this vestige of the frontier west.
report abuserepeal of one handguyn a month failed to report from senate 0- committee chair refused to hear it and sent it to subcommittee to die
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