New Scenes in America — Pretty or Pretty Awful
Funny
Cartoon - Not a Funny Topic
Paris, Texas (AP) — Gun-rights activists, some of them wearing
camouflage and military-style gear and openly toting rifles and handguns,
marched alongside the hundreds of people who flocked to downtown Dallas last
week to protest police shootings of blacks. Dallas Police Chief David Brown
estimated that 20 to 30 open-carry activists attended the rally, and some of
them wore gas masks, bulletproof vests, and fatigues. [Note: Forty-five states
have laws that allow citizens to openly carry a firearm in public places].
[My Insert Note: During debate
over the open-carry issue, some people in Texas law enforcement expressed
concerns, fearing that it would lead to panic, especially in active shooter
situations].
Then
a sniper opened fire on the police officers patrolling the peaceful march,
killing five and wounding seven others. The attack ignited panic and confusion.
Those armed ran when the shots rang out. The shear presence of so many armed
individuals at the scene of a sniper attack caused instant confusion. Who was
shooting? Were the people with weapons friend or foe?
That
is exactly the type of nightmare scenario some law enforcement officials
predicted when Texas approved the open-carry proposal. Chief Brown says: “It doesn't
make sense to us, but that's their right in Texas. For all our officers, they were suspects.” Chief Brown further
said: “I support that belief. Someone is shooting at you from a perched
position. People are running with AR-15’s, camo gear, wearing gas masks and
bulletproof vests. They are all suspects until we eliminate that.”
[My Insert Note: I totally agree and that applies until they have
been proven innocent or otherwise, and rightly so].
For example, one of those dressed that way in the crowd, Mark Hughes, was carrying an AR-style
firearm and wearing a camouflage T-shirt. In the early moments after the
attack, police released a photo of Hughes describing him as a suspect. He later
was questioned and released. Authorities soon announced that the attack had
been the work of a single gunman, named Micah
Xavier Johnson.
[My Insert Note: But that scene had all the elements of a much larger disaster
had police started shooting those protester watchers who were armed and
running. What if Hughes, a later shown to be an innocent law-abiding
gun-carrying citizen who openly carried his AR-15 watching the rally, had not
heard police commands to “get down” was mowed down himself. Image the outrage
then.
In the aftermath, President Barack Obama
praising the police and criticized the open-carry law said: “I have a really difficult time in communities where
they know guns are everywhere. And as I said before, they have a right to come
home, and now they have very little margin of error in terms of making
decisions. So if you care about the safety of our police officers, then you
can't set aside the gun issue and pretend that that's irrelevant.”
My Conclusion: That is the insanity of this whole “open carry”
madness I have written and spoken about for so long – utter madness – for surely
it is.
That
is not law and order by any stretch – it’s more like the “Wild, Wild West” or
gunslingers heading for the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, AZ back in 1881 for
“justice” their way. Dallas could have been that scene.
O.K. Corral
And,
those armed watching the rally that night (for whatever reason, who knows for
sure) – ran as the police later would say. Why? Well, I guess they feared for
their lives, too, how ironic it that? And, truthfully, it could have been very,
very worse that night beyond the police officer gunned down, too. It amazes me
how rational people can’t or more apt, won admit to that scenario – which in
Dallas was real.
Are we in really bad shape as many think and say. Um, overall, I don't think, but we are close to the edge of that ragged edge.
Thanks
for stopping by.
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