Thursday, September 26, 2013

Guns in Starbucks Again!




Austin American-Statesman
Category: Gun Laws
Level: State
This article is concerning a potential policy.

How does this affect families/individuals?
                With people parading around Austin with guns draped over their shoulders and strapped to their hips, people, especially children, will not feel safe. Trying to prove the point that, “we don’t need to fear law-abiding citizens who are armed out in the open,” with an open display of weapons is somewhat backwards. Guns are known to induce fear in people so that is going to be the obvious response when they are carried around in public.

My views:
                Honestly, I haven’t figured out exactly where I stand on the gun laws. However, I do know that I think this blatant display of “gun rights” is a bit ridiculous. They claim to be law-abiding citizens which is why people shouldn’t be worried about them carrying guns in public, yet some are getting arrested near the capital while others are going in to a nearby Starbucks and facing no penalties. Those who were arrested are facing charges of disorderly conduct. Why is it that those individuals are considered to be engaging in disorderly conduct while the ones in Starbucks are not? That Starbucks reported that they lost business due to their patrons being uncomfortable with the open display of weapons. Could those activists not be charged with, at least, disturbing the peace?
Basically I think that there are better ways of exercising gun rights. It is unnecessary to make people feel uncomfortable or threatened, that it when it is being taken too far.
With mass shootings taking place on an almost regular basis, people are going to be more sensitive to guns than usual. If we were in a time when the public felt like more of a safe place, I can see where a gun parade might not be as threatening. But because the country in general is in a heightened sense of awareness and paranoia, people are not going to take the presence of guns in their daily lives lightly.

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