In recognition of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s recently opining that the open carry of firearms is, as he understands it, legal now under Arkansas law as long as the person doing the carrying doesn’t intend to commit a crime, The Observer is pleased to announce the next step in the ongoing fight to preserve and defend the Right to Bear Arms: The Open Carry of Large Butcher Knives, Rusty Machetes or Razor-Sharp Hatchets Movement.At the core of our grassroots, common sense movement is this: Because the world is a terrifying hellscape full of people who don’t look like you and me, nor pray, have sex, live in the same neighborhood or watch the same news channel as you and me, the law-abiding citizens of Arkansas will henceforth exercise our right to bear either a large butcher knife, rusty machete or razor-sharp hatchet everywhere we go
I was actually going to mock the editorial by pointing out that Arkansas has a pretty decent knife law to begin with since they removed the length limit on knives a couple of years back. What is happening in Arkansas in relation of Open carry is that the former Attorney General concluded that the way the law was written, OC was illegal. The new Attorney General however declared that the law allows for Open Carry so now people like the editors at The Observer are freaking out. The law will probably need another pass at the Legislature to get it fixed, but as I understand it, the intention was for OC to be legal.
But I found pure gold in the comment section and I could not let it get away:
I lost it at the door gunner for the Apache Helicopter although I have to admit that the Department of Airborne is a damned good one.
Why would anyone want to carry large butcher knives, rusty machetes or razor sharp hatchets when they can carry guns instead? CSGV showing their “superior intelligence”, again?
BTW, I didn’t get past Airborne Dept….
……..He didn’t mention the “licence to kill” though. Sounds like a fake to me.
Actually, I carry a razor sharp hatchet and large hunting knife in the toolbox of my truck. If I lived in Miami again, I would add a machete to that kit, but here in the northlands, it doesn’t do much. Then again, in Miami I could ditch my snow shovel.
I also have several flashlights, jumper cables, first aid kit, road flares, fire extinguisher, and a mutli piece mechanics tool kit, along with my S&W. You know, just in case.
This attitude is far past just hating guns and believing in disarmament. It sees every useful tool as a weapon. These people don’t just abdicate self defense, they abdicate complete self reliance.
Pretty much this.
He forgot space shuttle door gunner 🙂
I cancel him out as I’m a combat veteran in 10 wars, and have been in the military for 50 years, and I was the door gunner on Submarines!
That’s a job with lots of pressure.
GROAN 😉
Sure you didn’t wash out? Or did you batten down and take the dive?
Open carriers carry in holsters, or slung, ne c’est pas? The female is illegally brandishing, the guy with the cleaver is . . . just stupid.
They should have their cutlery in scabbards for their argument to make sense.
I meant the female with the machete. The way the picture is cropped, I didn’t see the hatchet in the other female’s hand until I reread the text and looked for it. Hatchet lady probably isn’t brandishing.
This is basically what I wanted to point out. Those people aren’t open-carrying any more than I would be running around with my finger on the trigger.
Guaranteed that the levels of muggings, rapes, etc would drastically drop if everyone carried weapons. Criminals prey on weak targets, if you have an equalizer, you are no longer weak. A weapon is no different than training in self defense / martial arts – you are doing it for your protection.
Regardless of how you “feel” about weapons, you cannot deny that a criminal would rather pick an unarmed person as opposed to an armed person, just the same as he’d rather pick someone w/ no self-defense training vs a 5th degree black belt.
“Door gunner on an Apache” lost me, too. Also, “combat veteran of 4 armed conflicts”. Name them. Pics or it didn’t happen, bro.
On another note, CSGV and The Observer lost me at “rusty machetes” and “razor-sharp hatchets”. If your machete (or any of your tools) is rusty or your hatchet (or ax) is razor-sharp, you’re doing it wrong. Rust kills tools — even machetes — and the proper blade profile on even the sharpest hatchet precludes it being “razor-sharp”; razors have a VERY different profile designed for a VERY different purpose than what a hatchet is made for.
But I don’t seriously expect CSGV to understand any of that.
I’d ask for his 214, but chances are he’d say that he was a sooper seekrit ranger seal who’s records were lost in that fire back and are classified anyway.
Then call him out for an unarmed sparring match. That’s the challenge he issued. He’s just spouting off faux military BS in hopes that nobody will call his bluff.
Chairborne?
I guess they are trying to be sarcastic with the “Because the world is a terrifying hellscape full of people who don’t look like you and me, nor pray, blah, blah, blah…”, but they are the ones who are in fact trying to jam millions of their fellow citizens into cages because of disagreement on what constitutes civil rights.
We ARE our own worst enemy… And I lost it at the Apache DG too!
…so the entire point of the CSGV post is, “Wouldn’t it be scary if bunches of people walked around with big sharp things?” , right?
Why would that be frightening to me? I have a gun, after all…
(though I do know people who were seriously steamed when my state’s CCW law only covered handguns and not, say, swords…)