1. Typically I probably won’t support open carry in Florida. Now, before all the mental midgets here open up the flame throwers to BBQ me,,,,, chill out please. First off, I thought the LEO in the video was truly professional. If I were in charge of a group of LEO I would be using this video as an example of what to do. Good job!
   I have to ask why a person openly carries a non typical firearm & a video camera, and takes to the streets. This proves what? I fully suspect he was looking for a confrontation so he could become a gun rights martyr and claim his instant stardom on YouTube. I know there is a crowd that will say he is merely exercising his rights. I say he could carry concealed and avoid all confrontation too. WHY does anybody carry in the first place? I carry to lawfully defend myself, not bring unwanted attention to myself. I suspect people like this want all the attention they can get. Tell me, show me, WHAT positive outcome resulted from this the video guy’s event that will help to preserve my rights to carry? The LEO stated that a concerned citizen called and made mention of a guy carrying what looked to be a full auto weapon. I would anticipate that open carry will only add to his sort of thing,,,, and we can all become YouTube superstars with our gun rights videos.
   Is such “attention” a good thing when we have such a strong anti gun movement? Face it, there are HERDS of gun toting mental midgets out there on the streets that perform all manner of STUPID stunts each day and the main stream media jumps all over it. Is this added attraction something we as responsible gun owners really benefit from? Or does it add fuel to the anti gun fires instead?
   In a perfect world, yes, open carry would work. But we are FAR from perfect. We can’t segregate open carry privileges to only those who can safely do so in a positive manner. We will have the unsafe, idiot guy, who was next to you on your last range visit waving his new shooter wildly about for all the free world to see. This attention does our cause good of course. As I see it the ONLY thing all the video camera toting folks have done is to create a huge controversy on YouTube, and fuel the fires of the anti crowd.
   I can & do carry concealed now. I see absolutely NO tactical advantage to open carry. And if it passes, I will still conceal. Close friends residing in wide open Western states tell me the never see anybody openly carrying unless they are far from town kind of thing. A few Floridians are expressing open carry in anticipation of a good thing happening. I ask HOW we can assure ourselves that added attention won’t cause the pendulum to swing rapidly the other direction and bite our backsides?
   Mall Ninja Alert: OK boys, you can flame away on me now!

   1. *shrug* historically a lot Americans open carried every where and some of course kept “hideaways” it worked fine then. I see no reason NOT to do it now. Just because some hysterical half wit pisses themselves at the mere sight of ANY type of weapon? Nah…the hysterical halfwits can either go fuck themselves….or they can grow the hell up and actually EDUCATE themselves and maybe even *gasp* actually learn to shoot, even if they decide owner ship isn’t for them personally, they might then actually have a fucking clue as to what they’re talking about.

      1. What I want is all cops to say “piss off! Is legal!” to the halfwits. Then the unnamed majority will accept it faster. If you shove it down their throats, you generate backlash.

2. I used to walk down the street with a .22 rifle when I was a kid. We need to get past the cops stopping people JUST because they’re carrying a gun.

   1. Agree, and that will require re-educating at least 2 generation of LEOs taught to overact at the presence of a gun on somebody not LEO. But being a douchebag is not the way.

      1. Migquels right on with his last bit. The LEO said their was a complaint. It’s not the LEO’s job to re educate complainants (which actually they might have done after determining it was semi) that’s OUR job. And talking about Terry stops (after the officer has stated is articulable reason for suspicion pretty articulately) isn’t going to help anybodys grandma understand how open carry makes everyones grandma safer. Good training tape: “how to” for cops and “d’oh” for OC proponents IMO.

3. Reasonable suspicion that it’s an MP5? Sure.

   Reasonable suspicion that it’s full-auto? Nope. not unless he can specifically cite some visible feature from where he’s standing that would indicate it being FA, vs. Semi.

   He was a master wordsmith in that he gave meaning to the detainee’s statement that those statements didn’t have and he used a lot of impressive sounding catchphrases to make his (arguably) illegal seizure (YES…he did seize the MP5) ‘appear’ perfectly legal.

   And function testing for FA on an unloaded firearm?? He didn’t need to do all that… all he had to do was check for a giggle switch. It was all for ‘show’ in case his (arguably)illegal actions got him called into court.

   What he did was to find a ‘polite’ way to violate rights that ‘reasonable’ people couldn’t/wouldn’t object to (in court).

4. Sigh. 24 years ago, my teenaged buddies and I would gather up 870s, 37s and the odd SxS then ride our bikes through our little town of 2,000, out to the farmers’ fields for a day of hunting. Nobody blinked.

   1. Back in the 60’s, I got on the school bus with a single shot 410 and a box of shell. The shotgun sat at the back of the classroom all day and never did go on a rampage. I guess the guns we owned back then were better behaved.

5. I think this cop did damned well with a couple of guys who were looking for a confrontation and got one — albeit an anti-climactic one with a very well trained officer. (I loved: “Any questions, comments or concerns?” about five times)

   The .22 knockoffs of the MP5 look EXACTLY like the real deal until you see the hole in the muzzle (that’s kinda why people buy them, yes?) Even in a state where open carry is lawful, this stop made perfect sense to me — and I am the LAST guy typically to favor police encounters of this variety.

   Whether this cop would have stopped them if they had holstered pistols, I cannot say. But he handled this circumstance very well.

   And YES, he could tell it was not FA from the inspection he made. First, no MP5-ish weapon in .22 is FA if not illegally altered. Next the selector has two positions. Next he racked the the weapon pulled the trigger then racked the weapon again. He then released the trigger to re-set and pull it again.

   I give the cop 10 for 10, especially as the kid (he sounded about 15) was really doing all he could to be impolite.

   As for open carry — I’m of the mind that if you are doing it only for the same reason that a dog licks his balls (i.e., because he can) then it seems to give away all the advantages of CCW.

   1. As for open carry — I’m of the mind that if you are doing it only for the same reason that a dog licks his balls (i.e., because he can) then it seems to give away all the advantages of CCW.

      Please explain what “benefits” concealed carry provides that open carry “give[s] away”?

      And I will be gentlemanly and openly admit that yes, I am intentionally baiting you.

6. Lame reason for suspicion. When I see somebody drive down the street in a car that looks like an AC Cobra, its only reasonable to assume it is a kit car unless its otherwise specified given the rarity of original Cobras. Same goes for guns that look like full-auto firearms.

   Also I guess he could argue that he suspect the faux suppressor barrel extension was a real-deal can…the barrel length alone should clue him in that it is NOT a full-auto MP5.

   Still other than that tomfoolery he did conduct himself as a gentleman.

7. On the other hand, perhaps the cops need a little “reorientation” so shit like this doesn’t happen:
   http://pjmedia.com/blog/gunned-down-in-vegas-what-really-happened-to-erik-scott/

8. To ron move to Cuba

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