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seamusTX wrote:Where are the off-topic police when you need them?

- Jim

Sorry, Jim. Back on topic.

Well he said a "national no-carry law".

It was in the midst of an entire quote wherein he demonstrates his ignorance of the issues. You can read the quote on my blog. It is hard to nail down exactly what his plans are since he seemed to adjust his statements on the issue according to the makeup of his audience over the past 12 years while he has been under the microscope of politics.

This will all be a moot point if BHO makes good on his promise to ban concealed carry nationally.

This whole game we have to play about where we can and can't carry, disarming in parking lots, parking in a remote lot so we can disarm in some places, re-arming when we get back to the car, etc. is ridiculous.

A few years ago an ex-mayor of Austin managed to wreck his bicycle while he was not wearing a helmet. After that point he became a zealous advocate of laws requiring people to wear helmets while riding a bicycle (which is, of course, ridiculous). Where was he before this? I mean, it went from being so unimportant that he chose not to even wear one for his own safety, to suddenly so important that we needed a law to make everyone wear one no matter what. This is par for the course for politicians. Unfortunately I think it will require some politician or other power broker to become a victim of violent crime in place prohibiting concealed carry before we will really see any movement in the law.

Purplehood wrote:Actually it has about as much standing as your assertion.

Dude, I don't know what you are arguing with. But I guess you win!

Purplehood wrote: I have to disagree on the Hospital statement.

Anecdotal reports notwithstanding, it does not bolster the counterpoint.

I say: posting 30.06 in any building requires me to leave the gun in my car which reduces safety in the following ways:
1. I risk displaying my gun while disarming in the car to a thief or other criminal, thus alerting them to the gun's presence in my vacated car
2. my gun stored in my car is always at risk of being stolen. Nobody is going to commit a crime using my car stereo or iPod stolen from my car but the gun is a whole different matter. It should remain on my person at all times.
3. I am at greater risk when going from the car into said 30.06 building than I am while driving in my car. The whole point of carrying to begin with is to defend myself when I am at greatest risk, so requiring me to disarm in the car is tantamount to requiring me to leave the gun at home

Certainly I think having the gun on my person at all times is best, even inside a hospital.

So to disagree about everyone's private property thing ... I think the private property rights I have to my own clothing and items I carry on my person has to trump the private property rights of the owner of a building or other property. It's intrusive and an invasion of privacy for you to even know whether I am carrying a gun or any other thing when I enter your property, unless I am carrying it openly.

Now, the problem of course with all of this parking lot provision talk is it still requires you to travel from your car to the no-guns premises unarmed, and it is clear that this trip from the car to the building and back are times when you are at greatest risk of property crime. The odds are I am not going to be at risk of a crime, for example, while IN a hospital. However walking from my car into the hospital building is a different story.

As for bars, you know I really don't drink but sometimes I play a gig in a bar. I don't really like being in there unarmed, mostly it's not in the bar but it's the trip from my car, with my gear in tow, to the bar and back again. Load-in is often from an alley or sometimes multiple alleys to walk to the car.

Amusement parks? Sporting events? Concerts? That walk I do from my car to the AT&T Center for a Spurs game is probably just about the highest risk of mugging that I ever endure. Forcing me to leave the gun in the car is asinine. This is why I have cheap guns, BTW. It's far and away the most valuable thing in my car! I am no big fan of going from Fiesta Texas parking lot to the park and back again at closing time unarmed. To not leave my gun in my car would require me to make the whole trip from Austin unarmed. This is ridiculous.

Quite frankly, the law as it is currently written makes no sense and does absolutely nothing to promote safety or safe gun handling and storage. I mentioned before the requirement that you disarm in the car is also forcing you to break the law by intentionally failing to conceal, and you raise the risk of a criminal getting access to a gun by leaving the gun in your car where a smash-n-grab is going to find it.

Parking provisions don't fix any of this!

So I am firmly on the side of "concealed is concealed". If my gun is concealed then it should not be prohibited anywhere.