I'm rather surprised at the number of people who are saying that the bystander who sees an armed man at the mall should just put on his big girl panties and shut up, that nobody in the world has any reason to be bothered, frightened, worried, etc, if they see a person with a weapon, regardless of the circumstances, whether it's a crazy looking guy in rags, or a guy who is obviously on his way to deer camp.
Let's reframe that just a bit. In san francisco, it is legal to be naked in public. In any part of the city, a bus, a park, even outside of an elementary school, in any public space, people can choose to bare their skin. We're not talking about just mowing your lawn, on your own property, naked, a person can legally go anywhere, on any public land, strip down, and throw everything they have out for the public.
I can't take that. If I visited the bridge and ran into a roaming band of seventy year old men with rainbow ribbons wrapped around their wrinklies, it would cause me palpitations, maybe even cause such a blood pressure spike that I'd hit the ground. If I saw a naked woman wearing nothing but a pair of pasties with her phone number on them it would be really hard for this old prude to avoid serious discomfiture. In this one, and only one major city, people have the right to do that, and I have no right to visit a park without seeing naked ninety year old women doing cheer exercises.
https://www.kqed.org/news/11613510/the-history-of-nudity-in-san-francisco-uncovered
I apparently have no right to be free of the mechanical quake boxes that drive past my house at least four times a day, nor do I have the right to not listen to the foul screaming coming from the car in the next lane.
there are plenty of people with PTSD or phobias, or for that matter, just a strong fear or dislike of firearms who
should have a right to go to a park without seeing an armed vigilante in combat gear providing his own private security service.
No. The second amendment does not say anything about having the right to intimidate other members of the public. That 'right' does not exist. many people want to open carry for only that reason.
I have one important point to make. Brandishing a weapon occurs when a person brings undue attention to it, such as by handling it in a suggestive way. even giving someone a hard stare and touching it is technically brandishment.
While states pass laws allowing open carry, private organizations are going to increase efforts to ban them on their premises, cities will ban them in certain sections. Laws will spring up around the country banning the 'flaunting' of a weapon. A step down from brandishing it, but there will be another level added to the brandishment ordinances that involves less overt ways of showing the public that one is a badass with a gun, and implying danger without threatening danger.
For every right we have, or believe that we have as gun owners, we have a thousand times as many responsibilities.
For every right that we have or assume that we have, every member of the public has many rights that run contrary to ours, and our rights are not always more important than the other guy's rights. It's hard for people to accept that, but it's a fact. No matter what I believe, it's legal to walk naked down the street, or walk down the street carrying a battle rifle. I would, however, be a real jerk to do so under many circumstances.
