{"id":36856,"date":"2013-06-21T07:04:51","date_gmt":"2013-06-21T12:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=36856"},"modified":"2013-06-21T07:04:51","modified_gmt":"2013-06-21T12:04:51","slug":"ninnies-wannabe-thugs-and-petty-tyrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=36856","title":{"rendered":"Ninnies, Wannabe Thugs And Petty Tyrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bit of legal background first: \u00a0A Minnesota carry permit isn’t a “Concealed Carry” permit. It allows a permittee to carry a firearm, either <\/em>concealed or openly. \u00a0 Now, most permittees carry concealed; partly because there’s no sense in showing a criminal who it is that might oppose them, and partly because we live in a society where some people become fairly unhinged around guns.<\/p>\n

And by “a society”, I mean “modern, NPR-listening, Volvo-driving, St. Olaf-attending, upper-middle-class white-as-the-driven-snow urban America”. \u00a0People who’ve never had to learn to deal with cognitive dissonance, because they’ve experienced so little of it.<\/p>\n

By the way – if I did <\/em>have a carry permit (or a handgun, for that matter), I doubt I’d ever find an occasion to carry openly; \u00a0in Saint Paul, there’d be too many people getting erroneously exercised over it. \u00a0I like to pick my battles<\/em>. \u00a0In other parts of the state, it’d be less of a battle.<\/p>\n

Pick Your Battles<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is, in fact, one of the most important lessons from carry permit training; the best way to use your permitted firearm is\u00a0not at all. \u00a0Never. \u00a0<\/em>Using a handgun is,\u00a0at best<\/em>, the second-worst possible outcome to an altercation.<\/p>\n

And if you talk with most carry permittees, you find that that lesson has sunk in. \u00a0When someone flips them off in traffic, they don’t flip back; they “wave with all five fingers”, as a carry permit instructor of mine advised. \u00a0More so? \u00a0If they see a dangerous situation brewing – a bar fight, a skeevy situation – they make themselves scarce.<\/p>\n

Because nothing is harder to talk your way out of than a shooting.<\/p>\n

A permitted firearm is there only\u00a0<\/em>for when the battle picks you, and there’s nothing – nothing! – you can do about it.<\/p>\n

And Minnesota permittees are pretty good about picking their battles. \u00a0In ten years, there has been precisely one unjustified homicide carried out by a permittee. \u00a0That’s a murder rate a couple of orders of magnitude below the rate for the general population, and bordering on “infinitely”.<\/p>\n

Avoidance<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, a group called the Minnesotans for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms decided to try an awareness raising event; holding an “Open Streets – Open Carry” event at an “Open Streets” event in Southwest Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

The “Open Streets” events are, of course, a metro-wide series of glorified block-club parties.<\/p>\n

Twin Cities’ gun groups have, of course, done open carry events for years; most notable were the “Open Carry Picnics” at Lake Harriett<\/a>. \u00a0You may have heard about them – but not because anything untoward happened there.<\/p>\n

The intention? \u00a0Have a picnic. \u00a0Pull up a grill and some lawn chairs and socialize.<\/p>\n

Period.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, MNRKBA picked the one in Southwest Minneapolis – a neighborhood full of Saint Olaf\/Carlton liberals who are not well disposed to cognitive dissonance. \u00a0They called in their connections.<\/p>\n

And Don’t You\u00a0Dare\u00a0<\/em>Call The Media Biased!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Strib\u00a0<\/em>and the City Pages\u00a0<\/em>covered the story…<\/p>\n

…well, no. \u00a0The two papers served as PR agents for the neighborhood’s indignant.<\/p>\n

“Gun Rights Groups Plan To Pack Heat At Open Streets<\/a>” read the\u00a0City Pages\u00a0<\/em>headline.<\/p>\n

“Pack Heat” is one of those things reporters write about carry (open or concealed) when they don’t really understand it, but know they feel contempt for it anyway.<\/p>\n

As to the\u00a0Strib<\/em>? \u00a0“Gun Owners Target Twin Cities Street Fairs For Coming Out Party<\/a>“? \u00a0 If you think the title is loaded, go ahead and count the number of times writer Mary Lynn Smith uses the phrase “gun-totin'” in her article.<\/p>\n

Loaded much?<\/p>\n

But it’s not just the articles that are the problem.<\/p>\n

Catnip For Ninnies With Authoritarian Streaks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out the comments.<\/p>\n

Especially the ones threatening violence. \u00a0 Anonymity and a public forum certainly brings out the online courage in a lot of people, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

Over on the MN-RKBA Facebook page, one woman stated she’d go out of her way to pick a fight with an open carrier, and then lie to the police to try to get the carrier arrested (the comments were deleted).<\/p>\n

There were just too many people expressing an intent to cause some sort of mischief, legal or otherwise…<\/p>\n

…over something that is\u00a0every Minnesotan’s legal right<\/em>, should they choose to exercise it.<\/p>\n

Battle Picked<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the threats, and remembering the basics – avoid dangerous situations – the MN-RKBA decided to call off the open carry events.<\/p>\n

Not because they were asked to, nicely or not.<\/p>\n

Not because they didn’t have every legal right to be there, just like any other community group.<\/p>\n

Because a bunch of wannabe thugs threatened to create a thing all responsible carry permittees always avoid; a situation.<\/p>\n

I Did Say Ninnies, Didn’t I?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Of course, Heather Martens and “Moms Demand Action” – who are as devoid of “victories” as they are of any history of factual statements on the issue – are trying to claim this as a victory for the gun-grabber movement. \u00a0Both are apparently try to exploit this event as a “win” for their hapless groups.<\/p>\n

And there’s one more ninny. \u00a0Indeed, the big kahuna of Twin Cities lefty ninnies. \u00a0More at noon.<\/p>\n

Martens and Jane Kay are, as usual – as always – lying. \u00a0Neither “Protect MN” nor “Moms Demand Action”, nor any “organized” anti group, had any role or say in this. \u00a0Nor a case.<\/p>\n

No, the entire decision was over the obvious potential for trouble.<\/p>\n

And anyone who claims otherwise is lying, or trying to gin up drama for their personal, political or PR gain, or both. \u00a0Most likely both.<\/p>\n

But again, more at noon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bit of legal background first: \u00a0A Minnesota carry permit isn’t a “Concealed Carry” permit. It allows a permittee to carry a firearm, either concealed or openly. \u00a0 Now, most permittees carry concealed; partly because there’s no sense in showing a criminal who it is that might oppose them, and partly because we live in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pc","category-victim-disarmament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36856"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36858,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36856\/revisions\/36858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}