Shooting themselves in the foot

People don’t like guns.

Not all people, obviously, or the National Rifle Association wouldn’t have the backing it does. But plenty of people are uncomfortable with them, especially when they see strangers carrying them in public places.

Across California, advocates of concealed carry permits have been staging open carry meet-ups — a group of gun owners go to places like Starbucks or California Pizza Kitchen with their guns visible on their hips. They don’t protest, they just eat. The meet-ups have been making people uncomfortable.

And that’s the point.

California has strict laws about concealed carry permits, and this group wants to open them up a little. They believe people who are uncomfortable seeing guns on peoples’ hips would support loosening the concealed carry laws so they don’t have to see the guns.

I don’t think it’s going to work like that.

People don’t like guns because of what guns can do. In an age in which parents send their children away to college scared that their child’s school will be the next Virginia Tech and in which many gun owners don’t have to take a test or get a permit to own a gun, firearms are a touchy subject — and people are rightfully scared. People aren’t going to feel more comfortable if gun owners can hide their weapons in restaurants. They just want people to leave them at home.

Several of the establishments where gun owners have had meet-ups don’t permit guns, such as Peet’s Coffee and Tea and California Pizza Kitchen. Starbucks decided to allow the guns and let the protestors be, and the company has taken flak for it.

The group is not even supported by the NRA, and many gun rights advocates don’t approve of its methods.

“I’m all for open-carry laws,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, a gun rights advocacy organization in Washington state, according to the New York Times. “But I don’t think flaunting it is very productive for our cause. It just scares people.”

It does scare people, and making people nervous about seeing guns in public isn’t going to push anyone to support concealed carry permits. Instead, it’s going to push people to fight the NRA and gun rights advocates, and to vote for anti-gun laws.

It doesn’t matter that most people who carry guns are harmless. Stories about gun owners who do nothing with their weapons except maybe a little hunting don’t make the news. People see children shooting other children at Columbine High School. They see 33 people dead at Virginia Tech. Two weeks ago, a teacher was killed at an elementary school.

It’s understandable that people get scared when they see guns on anyone who isn’t in uniform. Some might see a gun in a coffee shop and be fine. Others remember four Seattle police officers who were killed last November.

It might be legal to have open-carry meet-ups, but the organizers should think things through — scaring the public isn’t the way to get people to help their cause. It’s a way to create more opponents.


E-mail: hanns@indiana.edu