Offbeat:
Steve Maloney, OffBeat’s web editor, texted me a photo that his uncle took in the French Quarter on Tuesday. Note the handgun on this young man’s right hip. My jaw dropped.
Did you know that the state of Louisiana recognizes “open carry,” which is apparently what this guy is practicing as he strolls down a street in the Quarter. “Concealed” guns require a special permit.
Scary.
In my personal opinion, New Orleans should be a gun-free zone, period. Politically, no one locally has the moxie to stand up for this concept. What you’ll hear is if we get rid of guns, “then only criminals will have guns.” Yeah, like this young man. Why does he need to carry a firearm with him in the French Quarter? Are we in the Wild, Wild West or something?
It make take a couple of decades, but there’s no reason why we need guns in our society for “protection.”
What are you going to do over that two decades to ensure that we don’t need or have guns, Jan? Are you going to send the police after folks with guns? Because if you are, then your entire philosophy is a lie. You just want only certain people to have guns.
But if the police aren’t going to confiscate guns, then how are you going to get them? We won’t willingly give them up, Jan. And what are you going to do about the criminals who want to use theirs for untoward things, Jan, like raping you or harming you in other ways? The police can’t take care of you.
As for open carry, do you carry all of your belongings – purse, credit cards, car keys, cell phone – inside your waist band? Why do you expect me to do that with my gun?
You do understand, don’t you, that making New Orleans a “gun free zone” won’t do anything to ensure that there aren’t guns in New Orleans? You do understand that rapists, thieves, robbers and muggers will still carry weapons, don’t you?
And you understand that folks who conceal carry consists of two groups: those who do so legally (like me), and those who do not do so illegally. You do understand that there are folks who carry concealed illegally, don’t you Jan? And you do understand that the whole notion that the gun being concealed makes you feel safer is entirely a false psychological construct, don’t you Jan?
Or perhaps not. Perhaps you haven’t thought through any of this. And perhaps you should.
