WalMart Kindly Requests People not to Openly Carry Firearms

Image of Walmart sign

This correspondent goes into a Walmart about once a week, to monitor local ammunition prices. Long experience has demonstrated that no gun signs are often missed. Some effort is expended attempting to do better at noticing them. At the entrance of Walmart, a sign mentioning a firearm was noticed, in relatively small letters, among other information toward the top right corner of the entryway. The notice said: 

Kindly refrain from openly carrying a firearm.

This correspondent is armed nearly all the time. Whether a firearm is carried openly or concealed or firearms are carried both ways, depends on what is deemed most advantageous for the particular time and place. Open carry is especially effective as a political statement. Open carry is not as necessary or useful in Arizona since the state restored Constitutional Carry in 2010. 

This correspondent carried openly in the local Walmart in May of 2021, and met another customer there who was carrying concealed. At the time, Walmart did not ask this customer to leave the store.

Astute readers will notice the current Walmart signage is a polite request, not a demand or a command. The request only required a minor shifting of clothing to accomplish.  A polite society is a positive value. Acceding to a polite request does not mean it must be followed if it becomes burdensome or dangerous to do so.

There are only four states where open carry is generally banned by law. They are California, Florida, Illinois, and New York. One of those states is not like the others. T Florida has permitless carry, but bans most open carry of firearms

This year there will be another attempt to have the Florida legislature repeal the general ban on open carry in what has been called the "gunshine" state. Previous attempts have failed, primarily due to divisions in the Republican party. With the vast majority of states having open carry, it is hard to see the arguments in Florida against open carry as legitimate or reasonable.  Governor DeSantis says he supports open carry. Florida Carry is pushing to repeal the open carry ban. From wusf.org:

"Florida Carry is gonna continue this fight," said Friday. "We are going to get the right to open carry because currently, there is no right to carry a shotgun or rifle in the state of Florida outside of your home if you are not hunting. That is an unconstitutional deprivation of that right."

Friday makes a legitimate point. Carrying long guns concealed is much more difficult than carrying a pistol concealed. Carrying long guns concealed generally makes them much slower to bring into action.  Bans on the carry of long guns are not supported in the legal history of the United States. 

Open carry is a method of carry which has long been honored in the United States of America. It is only in recent years when it has been banned in a few places. Even in the 1950's in New York City it was not illegal to do so.

Open carry is a valid and reasonable method of carrying arms, validated by a long historical pedigree. 

 

PA: Philadelphia Robbery Victim returns, Gunfight ensues, Both wounded

A short time later, one of the three people who were robbed returned with a gun, and confronted the robber who was still there. A police spokesperson said the two began shooting at each other on the 500 block of Diamond Street.

At least 14 shots were fired in the incident. 

The robbery suspect, a 30-year-old man, was shot in the side and the leg and was taken by police to Temple University Hospital. Police said Tuesday morning he is now in stable condition.

The armed victim, a 29-year-old man, was shot twice in the chest and also taken to Temple Hospital by a private vehicle. He's in "extremely critical" condition, Pace said.

Police are holding both victims as the shooting investigation division handles the case.

The robbery and shooting were captured on surveillance cameras.

 

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GA: Atlanta Gunfight, 1 Victim Wounded

Police say the preliminary investigation indicates the victims were sitting in their vehicle eating food they had just ordered when they saw a vehicle approaching them from the opposite direction. As the vehicle approached, some individuals inside began shooting at them, according to the department.

Officers say one of the occupants in the victim’s vehicle returned fire at the suspect vehicle and left the scene before police arrived. They say the suspect vehicle also left the scene.

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New Hampshire Protects Second Amendment Rights of Employees

 

 

On January 1, 2025, New Hampshire employers will be required to respect employees' Second Amendment rights in locked vehicles in parking lots.

On May 22, 2024, the New Hampshire legislature passed House Bill 1336. The bill was signed into law on July 7, 2024, by Governor Sununu. The bill will go into effect on January 1, 2025. The bill passed with reasonable margins. 201 - 172 in the House, 14 - 10 in the Senate.  From the text of the bill:

159:27 Stored Firearms in Vehicles.

I. Any public or private employer that receives public funds from the federal or state government or any subdivision thereof, whether such funds are in the form of payment for contractual services, grants, or in any other form however denominated, and irrespective of the amount or level of such funding, or any agent of such an employer, shall not:

(a) Prohibit an employee who may legally possess a firearm from storing a firearm or ammunition in the employee's vehicle while entering or exiting the employer’s property or while the vehicle is parked on the employer’s property as long as the vehicle is locked, and the firearm or ammunition is not visible.

(b) Take any adverse action against any employee who stores a firearm or ammunition in accordance with this section.

The bill prohibits employers from requiring an employee to answer questions as to whether the employee has weapons in the employee's vehicle.  Employers are given immunity from lawsuit for any damages which result from an employee's actions involving a firearm or ammunition stored in their vehicle.

A number of states have enacted such laws in order to ensure employees are able to exercise their right to be armed en route to and from work. As Second Amendment supporters work to restore Second Amendment rights, impediments to the exercise of Second Amendment rights are being challenged across the United States.

Analysis:

The strategy to make the carry and use of firearms difficult and legally dangerous is clear. The theory is simple: if people who wish to be armed for defense of self and others are placed in legal jeopardy in enough places, they will cease to carry arms with them. People will become used to being unarmed and will become less dangerous to each other and, especially, to government agents.

The theory does not hold up in practice. When firearms are hard to acquire and/or access, homicide and suicide are not reduced. Homicide and suicide committed with firearms may be reduced, but overall homicide and suicide remain the same, within measurable limits.  This is partly because of substitution of methods, and partly because firearms are useful for both defense and offense. When firearms are not available, mere physical size, strength, skill  and agility become far more important. The counter to the case made to disarm the public was made by Cesare Beccaria in Crimes and Punishments, first published in 1764. The book had significant impact with the founders of the American state.

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

Cesare Beccaria

Disarming the public is a strategy long employed by tyrants and autocracies as a means to enhance their safety and their control over the public. One of the benefits of an armed public is an increase in individual responsibility and civic virtue. Legally armed citizens, which in the United States excludes non-criminals, (correction, criminals) children, and those mentally incompetent, have an exemplary record of following the law.

©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

FL: Robbery Attempt leads to Car and Gun fight. Suspect Shot, Killed

The neighbors said the unidentified man got in a car and tried to run over the employee.

They said that’s when the employee pulled out a gun and shot at the car.

“I heard the crash while I was in the house. My wife came and got me because she thought someone hit our car. I ran outside and saw the car crashed right there. The dude was in the car and saying, ‘Hey, somebody call the police, I‘ve been shot. Please call the police. I’ve been shot,‘” The neighbor said. “The neighbor right here called the police. When they came, he was responsive. I thought he was going to make it. Then next thing I knew, other officers pulled up and put tape around it. He didn’t make it.”

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NE: Beating by Teens Escalates to Gunfight, Woman Shot

"The individuals inside the house were being beaten with the baseball bats and punched by the whole group. Eventually, the female inside the house had a gun also, pulled it out in defense of, I believe, her husband who was being beaten and then the shots were fired at her. She was hit in the abdomen area," Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said.

Prosecutors said Nwet was born in Thailand, but has lived in Omaha for 14 years. He has a felony assault conviction from 2023 and unlawful possession of a handgun in 2021.

 

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CA: Tuolumne County, Armed Man Beats on Camper, is Shot by Occupant

December 31, 2024 – Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office officials report that on Saturday, December 28th, 2024, at about 6:25 a.m., TCSO deputiesand a California Highway Patrol Officer responded to the area of Black Road and Highway 120 in Groveland on the report of a shooting. The reporting party told dispatch a man with a gun had been beating on his camper, and he had shot the man, and the man ran away on foot.

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