First, a little background.

Arkansas’ attorney general said Friday that legal gun owners are free to openly carry or ride with their weapons but should be ready to field inquiries from law enforcement personnel wondering why they’re carrying.

Republican Attorney General Leslie Rutledge released an opinion Friday stating that law-abiding Arkansans are free to carry or possess their weapons on themselves or in their vehicles without fear of prosecution so long as they are not in a place where it is prohibited by law and they do not have an intent to “unlawfully” use the weapon.

Rutledge’s opinion has been expected by many, including Gov. Asa Hutchinson. It was requested in early June by three legislators who wanted to settle whether modifications to the state’s weapon-carry statute in 2013 made Arkansas an “open-carry” state — one that allows citizens to openly carry firearms without a license.

Because Rutledge’s opinion is nonbinding, it does not bar police from arresting citizens who open-carry, which has happened sporadically across the state over the past two years.

Ever diligent to make law themselves, the Bald Knob police have taken the AG’s opinion as a cue to harass peaceable citizens.

BALD KNOB, Ark. (KTHV) – A vague open-carry law in the state has one police department attempting to clarify it.

Bald Knob is cracking down on open-carry, trying to make a grey law more black and white. The Bald Knob Police Chief Erek Balentine is concerned that guns openly carried in stores and restaurants is too alarming to customers.

This concern over open-carry started in Bald Knob with the controversial arrest of Richard Chambless in May of this year.

Recently, the district court became the first in the state to find a guilty verdict for open-carry. Now the police department hopes one sign can help everyone feel safer.

“In this setting it needs to be relaxed. They are in a relaxed environment and shouldn’t have to fear if there’s ill intent or harm coming to them,” said Sharon Beauregerd, beautician at Cosmetology Career College. By federal law, no guns are allowed in this salon because it is a school. However, as a business owner who sells the skills she’s teaching, she wants to make this clear to customers. “If you come in open carrying, and I’ve got these students here, I’m going to protect them. I’m going to ask you to leave our facility.”

Bald Knob police have been helping area businesses prohibit guns.

“My job is to take action and protect the community. You can’t expect someone to obey something that not posted,” said Balentine who is offering signs to put on business fronts. Balentine said there are confusing regulations on where, when, and why you can carry a gun. “There’s no way to tell. He could be on the run for murder, be a felon.”

Note the article, which apparently accidentally tells the truth.  Rather than let the legislature clarify the law, which is their job, the police are attempting to do the same and expect the courts to back them up, an expectation upon which they can probably rely.

And notice what the police chief says.  This is all about how people feel, not real safety.  No felon on the run for murder open carries anywhere, but if they have a weapon they will conceal it.  But as long as it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind.

Such is the simplistic psychology of the ignorant public, and such is the temptations of a badge, gun and court system to back it all up.  Cops can not only enforce the law, according to chief Balentine, they can make it too.