Ms. Open Carry - Granite Grok

Ms. Open Carry

Oh No Guns....and magazines...and ammoBreitbart has a nice post up (be sure to read some comments) about Heidi Yewman, whom (I guess?) got famous for vehemently opposing Starbucks open carry gun policy.  Well she decided to follow her state’s rules, get herself a Glock,  and write about “what it’s like” to carry a gun on her hip for 30 days.

We could (should?) presume that the intention is to promulgate a chain of commentary from her predetermined bias.  Actually we know we can, because Yewman’s own words broadcast her narrow-minded opposition, which one commenter observes like this…

Yewman says she has four rules. “Carry it with me at all times. Follow the laws of my state.  Only do what is minimally required for permits, licensing, purchasing, carrying, and finally be prepared to use it for protecting myself at home or in public.”

As  Walter Hanson of Minneapolis, MN notes.

Lets not forget she said, “Follow the laws of my state” Well CT, AZ, and CO all had laws that say you can’t commit murder. So if those people followed her example there would’ve been no mass shootings which is what is now being used to try to pass all of these new restrictive gun laws.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN

I do commend her for doing what a large number of her fellow travelers never would, even if we can guess that going in she will continue to be a skeptic…“she admits it makes her jittery and her hands are shaking.”   (Jittery like on a first date, the moment before a speech in front a big crowd, or a close call in traffic?)  But short of her choosing to break the law, seeing as murder is illegal in all 50 states, other than the mental masturbation that will pass for her commentary in the upcoming weeks, nothing at all will likely happen to her.  Short of getting sideways-looks from her own tribe of bubble-dwelling-uninformed-gun-haters, or the occasional rant from same, the world will continue to turn, folks will go about their business, and no crimes will occur in her presence.

(Actually, being confronted by some clueless harpy who bathes her in prejudice, framing her as a criminal just for wearing the gun, might be the best thing that could happen to her.)

Barring that what revelation does one glean from the normality?  If you are truly open-minded, you may discover that neither the law-abiding gun owner, nor the gun itself, have a thing to do with the problem she seems to think these tools pose for society.  But can she get there from here?  I think it would help if she spent a few hours at a range each week, practicing, getting some basic training, talking to other law abiding gun-owners, and putting a few hundred holes into some targets.

Shooting sports are fun.  Familiarity and muscle memory help you learn to use the tool effectively.  A respect for the weapon, the law, and holding a high value on human life and property ensure that the gun stays in the holster until such time as it may actually be needed to defend life and property.

Will Heidi figure that out or is she too obsessed with achieving her desired outcome?  I’m going to go with the latter.

So here I sit at Starbucks, and the irony couldn’t be thicker. On March 12, 2010, I was surrounded by big hairy men with guns on their hips, yelling at me as I led a protest against Starbuck’s gun policy. Today, I’m surrounded by five-year-old boys sitting with their moms at the next table. Now I’m the one with a gun on her hip. The gun makes me more fearful than I could have imagined.

In some way, I feel a certain vindication. I was right to protest Starbucks policy. Today, they have a woman with absolutely no firearms training and a Glock on her hip sitting within arm’s reach of small children, her hands shaking and adrenaline surging.

Hey Heidi?  What are your thoughts on licensing and training for underage minors needing birth-control or plan B?  if they screw it up they might need surgery and end up under the knife of another Kermit Gosnell.   Talk about jittery?  And if inexperience is your biggest issue, and training is the answer, then why not let kids learn about guns in public school just before or after they get the condom on the banana lesson?

See, Heidi is never going to come to that conclusion.  That everyone is safer and could be that much more so if we encouraged gun-safety for everyone?  That crime is lower where open and concealed carry are permitted and that is well known.  That does not appear to be her goal, which is sad.  It is sad because while she says she is going to follow the law, and the issue is always where people do not follow the law, she will probably just waste time justifying her own anti-gun bias, and that of a few thousand women whom might otherwise benefit from self-defense training and a healthy respect for their right to bear arms that she will squash with her pithy prejudice.

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