Conservative Pandering
on 11/18/2011 at 09:29 AM
"Brandishing” needs narrowly defined terms. Too often it is used against people if their weapon is ever seen. And there also needs to be a definition of “causing panic” as it applies to firearms. To prevent someone for getting arrested because some soccer mom has vapors from someone legally carrying a weapon.
I agree. My concept of brandishing is the normal one: holding a gun in your hand, using it as a threat, pointing it at people. Doesn’t matter whether you’re serious or ‘just joking’, or whether the gun is loaded or not. Yes, a tight definition is needed.
Just carrying one, or having one taken apart on the table for cleaning, is not brandishing.
Showing one to someone in public, handling it, passing it around isn’t either, but it’s rather a foolish thing to do in a mixed public. At the gun shop, the firing range, a gun show, or your own backyard is one thing. At the mall is something else again, as is doing such in a car while driving past a crowd. Maybe something that needs a name that means “being stupid but not dangerous in public with firearms” as a least-level offense, followed by “passive-aggressive behavior done to upset other people for kicks” as a mid-level one. Save actual brandishing charges for actual brandishing.Soccer mom can go take a flying fuck; calling the cops for a false brandishing complaint ought to carry a $10,000 fine.
On the fifth hand, if everyone did a 2 year hitch in the military after high school, we’d all have a lot more exposure/understanding/knowledge vis-a-vis firearms, which would help put a little common sense in people’s heads.
Illinois and Taxatwoshits Faggots.
Drew Honey, here where we have conceal carry (and a little known open carry) - the POLICE are the one’s heckling the carriers and using the brandishing bs. We have a friend (he is the guy who taught our cc class) who knows the law (he also has a knowledgeable lawyer friend) and once in a while takes a walk open carrying. Invariably the police stop him on the brandishing bs. He’s not gone to jail yet.
I wonder what people will think if they find out I carry - most especially my friends. I know my mil had a cow - when my hubby had his Tech Expo, she came down to visit and I did not realize that the Duke Energy Center, where UC was holding the Tech Expo - what in the hell was the millions UC milked the alumi and students for all those wonderful NEW buildings at UC for?!? - was a no carry zone and I had to ask her for her keys to put my gun in her glove box - boy did I get an earful. But she is the one who told me - NO POLITICS - before a family picnic and still wonders why we won’t come up there very often.
