AZ: Open Carry at Rest Areas Socially Accepted

On my recent vacation to Meteor Crater and environs, I stopped at the rest areas along the way to check and see if the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) had done its job.  They needed to replace old signs that illegally banned guns in the rest areas.  When other travellers were available, I had them take my picture for use in this and future articles.   After the pretty young woman holding the child took my picture, I asked if I could take hers.   She was happy to pose for me. 

Here is the picture she took of me at Painted Cliffs.  I asked her to be sure that the Glock was prominently displayed.

No one had any problem taking my picture with the openly carried pistol.  I asked men, women, white and black, and no one had a problem.   They smiled and happily helped out.  The idea that the public is terrified of openly carried weapons is a media produced mythology that has been promoted by Bloomberg and his paid groups.  If openly carried weapons do not terrify the population, then most of their emotional argument collapses.

A black man took my picture at the South Meteor Crater Rest Area.  It is one of the best that my volunteers took.  I wonder if he is a photographer.  His wife or female companion did not have a problem with it.  I checked the "rules" sign, as this is where one of the old signs was posted last year.  

A new sign was in place.  There is no ban on the exercise of the Second Amendment on this side.  Second Amendment supporters have made progress in restoring Constitutional rights that had been eroded.

I should have had the volunteer at Sentinel zoom in a little, but you can still see the Glock in the cross draw position.  

Maybe someone at ADOT read the previous article, because most of the rest areas had new signs that did not prohibit the exercise of constitutional rights.   I showed the old signs in an article about a year ago.

Cross draw carry works for travel in a car, because the seat belt does not interfere with the draw.  In the cross draw position, you can use either hand to draw the pistol.   The pistol is protected from any shenanigans on the part of a person in the passenger seat. 

The cross draw position was common in the 1850's and 1860's, according to Phil Spangenberger, in "Frontier Gunleather", an article in "Guns of the Gunfighters", published 1975.   It allowed for an easy draw while seated, and on horse back. 

I will have a report on a rest stop sign in New Mexico in a later article.

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.  Link to Gun Watch