Terror and mayhem on WA state ferry (satire headline no reason to be alarmed)

[EMNofSeattle]

One of the things that bothers me about people who hate open carry, is they often make phony arguments based off of their personal feelings about guns, that have no basis in reality.

One of these false argument is that if someone is legally open carrying police will mistake them for the shooter in a mass shooting scenario and kill them, as the recent events in Dallas prove this is not true. One open carrier was finger does a person of interest in a police tweet but despite the fact that there were between 20 and 30 open carriers at that event one was shot or mistaken for the suspect by officers at the scene

And here comes the relation to the headline, people assume that open carry causes fear amongst witnesses who see it. Again not true. At the time I am writing this post I am writing the Washington State ferry from Bremerton to Seattle (sorry other way around from Seattle to Bremerton ) and I am in the cafeteria three tables across from two men who are openly carrying handguns, neither of them are wearing uniforms or badges of ID cards of any sort that would lead one to believe they are cops or security. One is wearing a blue t shirt and shorts with half sleeve tatooes and the other is taller wearing button shirt and cargo pants. There are hundreds of people on this boat walking by them occasionally looking but conducting their business buying food and coffee and what have you, just for kicks I started streaming the state patrol dispatch on my phne and no 911 calls from the boat coming in about them.

In other words, most folks do not actually care, we can safely remove the theory that open carry causes problems, debunked

 

[Moot]

One of the things that bothers me about people who hate open carry, is they often make phony arguments based off of their personal feelings about guns, that have no basis in reality.

One of these false argument is that if someone is legally open carrying police will mistake them for the shooter in a mass shooting scenario and kill them, as the recent events in Dallas prove this is not true. One open carrier was finger does a person of interest in a police tweet but despite the fact that there were between 20 and 30 open carriers at that event one was shot or mistaken for the suspect by officers at the scene.

And here comes the relation to the headline, people assume that open carry causes fear amongst witnesses who see it. Again not true. At the time I am writing this post I am writing the Washington State ferry from Bremerton to Seattle (sorry other way around from Seattle to Bremerton ) and I am in the cafeteria three tables across from two men who are openly carrying handguns, neither of them are wearing uniforms or badges of ID cards of any sort that would lead one to believe they are cops or security. One is wearing a blue t shirt and shorts with half sleeve tatooes and the other is taller wearing button shirt and cargo pants. There are hundreds of people on this boat walking by them occasionally looking but conducting their business buying food and coffee and what have you, just for kicks I started streaming the state patrol dispatch on my phne and no 911 calls from the boat coming in about them.

In other words, most folks do not actually care, we can safely remove the theory that open carry causes problems, debunked

You might not think it's a problem...but the police think it is....

..."It is increasingly challenging when people have AR-15's (a type of rifle) slung over, and shootings occur in a crowd. And they begin running, and we don’t know if they are a shooter or not," Brown said. "We don’t know who the 'good guy' versus who the 'bad guy' is, if everybody starts shooting."

Seeing multiple people carrying rifles led police initially to believe they were under attack by multiple shooters...."

Dallas police chief expresses worry about armed civilians in Texas | Reuters​

How are the police...or anyone for that matter supposed to know if you're a good guy or a bad guy with a gun during a shoot out?

 

[TurtleDude]

You might not think it's a problem...but the police think it is....

..."It is increasingly challenging when people have AR-15's (a type of rifle) slung over, and shootings occur in a crowd. And they begin running, and we don’t know if they are a shooter or not," Brown said. "We don’t know who the 'good guy' versus who the 'bad guy' is, if everybody starts shooting."

Seeing multiple people carrying rifles led police initially to believe they were under attack by multiple shooters...."

Dallas police chief expresses worry about armed civilians in Texas | Reuters​

How are the police...or anyone for that matter supposed to know if you're a good guy or a bad guy with a gun during a shoot out?

I think that is a valid argument in those rare cases where there are open carry people in an area where someone has engaged in an active shooting spree

 

[Moot]

I think that is a valid argument in those rare cases where there are open carry people in an area where someone has engaged in an active shooting spree

I hope it stays a rare case. But once upon a time we thought mass killings were rare cases, too.

 

[TurtleDude]

I hope it stays a rare case. But once upon a time we thought mass killings were rare cases, too.

the 24/7 news cycle has accentuated the belief that such things are now common. and there is no no doubt that the constant attention has spawned some copy cats

 

[EMNofSeattle]

You might not think it's a problem...but the police think it is....

..."It is increasingly challenging when people have AR-15's (a type of rifle) slung over, and shootings occur in a crowd. And they begin running, and we don’t know if they are a shooter or not," Brown said. "We don’t know who the 'good guy' versus who the 'bad guy' is, if everybody starts shooting."

Seeing multiple people carrying rifles led police initially to believe they were under attack by multiple shooters...."

Dallas police chief expresses worry about armed civilians in Texas | Reuters​

How are the police...or anyone for that matter supposed to know if you're a good guy or a bad guy with a gun during a shoot out?

The opinion of one chief, who's job is political, I don't think the answer would be the same averages over the rank and file.

Clearly it wasn't since no innocent people were killed as a result of open carry. Only as a result of the shooter, who did not openly carry

 

[Moot]

the 24/7 news cycle has accentuated the belief that such things are now common. and there is no no doubt that the constant attention has spawned some copy cats

I agree, TD. It's hard not to draw a correlation when several of the recent mass killers have cited the Boston Bombers as inspiration after the non stop media coverage for months.

But it's not just the news cycle that distills a belief, it's also the 24/7 commentary and editorializing that goes along with it....and that seems to be what most people hear and think is the news and base their opinions on. And too, whatever makes the headlines first is what most people will believe first regardless of what new facts and evidence is discovered later. So it becomes really difficult to convince people that what they read yesterday may not be true today.

 

[blaxshep]

How are the police...or anyone for that matter supposed to know if you're a good guy or a bad guy with a gun during a shoot out?

The old - all guys with guns are the bad guys argument?

 

[blaxshep]

I hope it stays a rare case. But once upon a time we thought mass killings were rare cases, too.

Actually they still are