Sheriff Gualtieri apparently threw enough of a hissy fit that somebody dug the original transcript (or at least we hope they are being honest about that) and published them
“It’s a question of whether, at 3 o’clock in the morning at the 7-11 store, when there’s a silent hold-up alarm and the deputy pulls into the parking lot, and the citizen is walking out of the store with a .45 stuck in their holster, let’s say, and a cup of coffee in their hand — it’s not going to be a good situation for that citizen,” Gualtieri said. “At a minimum, they’re going to be thrown down on the ground with a gun pointed at them — or worse.”
Nope, no improvement as far as I can see. I really do not know the type of cool criminal that hangs around Pinellas county, but I doubt that they stroll out of the store they just robbed at gun point with a holstered weapon and sipping on a cup of java. But you know who fits the profile of somebody just coolly coming out of a store with a cup of coffee at 3 am?? Cops in plainclothes on duty.
Congratulations Sheriff, your men just “threw down or worse” a fellow Law Enforcement Officer.
Law Enforcement officer are supposed to asses any situation they encounter and yes, sometimes they may have only a couple of seconds to do a life or death decision, but I don’t think the scenario pictured by the Sheriff demands that his deputies clear leather and start capping rounds no matter how bad the 7-11 coffee might be.
“Picture this. … You take as an example a 60-year-old man who is unassuming, not a threat to anybody, just your average citizen who has a concealed-carry permit and carries that gun absolutely everywhere he goes,” Gualtieri said. “And he walks into his local bank today to make a deposit, and he walks into the middle of an armed robbery. And when he walks in — unassuming, non-threatening — and he’s got his gun and it’s concealed, when he walks into that bank, there’s a good chance that that bank robber is not going to be threatened by him and is not going to shoot him because he happened to walk into the middle of a bank robbery. And you take that same 60-year-old guy, and he walks in there, and he’s got a big old .45 on his hip when he walks through that door, and that bank robber’s in the middle of robbing that bank and he sees that gun, he’s going to take one in the chest … because he’s a threat, he’s a visible threat.
OK, the sheriff manages to come up with a perfect storm scenario that makes one suspect he watched Point Break in some rerun late at night. Most bank robberies are now of the pass-a-note-to-the-teller-grab-and-go. But even if it happened, it is not his business or gets a say-so. Anybody who Open Carries will bear the responsibilities and the risks associated with it and it is not up to the Pinellas County Sheriff Office to butt in. They get to enforce the law, not to dictate it.
So, Sheriff Gualtieri, chill out. So far the only announced risk that Open Carry may bring is your attitude, not Law Abiding citizens.
His scenario with the bank is why I don’t open carry. The problem with open carry is that you can never see 360 degrees and I just don’t want that risk.
But that is tactics which do not get to determine law. I won’t be doing any OC that I see of in the future, but that does not mean I don’t want OC.
We need OC to keep the ‘state’ (and their assorted minions) from infringing, which they just CAN’T seem to quit doing. The tactical sense of doing it at any particular time and place is a WHOLE OTHER ISSUE. Let’s stop the statists and those who want to control us FIRST.
ABC promotes open carry in the active shooter scenerio posted in the comments in an earlier thread. For some reason, shooters have a sixth sense for who is concealed carrying anyway, and your shirt is going to get in the way when you try to draw.
Since when do robbers use holsters and carry cups of coffee around?
Hey Sheriff! You know why I open carry? It isn’t about “feel” and it isn’t about “need”.
I am a free man and I will carry my sidearm, because FUCK YOU, that’s why.
I’ve been thinking about this idea for a while and wanted to bounce it off some of you. We as liberty defenders get short shrift when it comes to the media spin most of the time. And just voicing our opinions to the statists in the various legislatures seems to make little headway, most of the time.
Would it be more cost effective to put our money and efforts into buying billboard space in prominent places like in Pinellas county along the highways with a challenge to the communities such as asking; “Why does Sheriff Bob Gualtieri want to murder citizens going about their daily business?!?” or in other areas of the state/country with messages such as “Why is the Tallahassee Democrat (or fill in your favorite control-freak organization) so concerned with making you defenseless when bad people want to rob you or hurt you?!? What is their REAL reason for wanting to control you?”
Is there a legal reason that we can’t put up signs with messages like that? Calling them out on their lies?
I wouldn’t disagree, but it would have to be a nation-wide billboard company. A local one would be an easy target for undue influence.
And I wouldn’t even try to shame the newspaper. They do a good job themselves plus they would take up the mantle of victim: “Them gun nut rednecks want to shut is down! They hate the First Amendment!”
I don’t OC often, but to me one of the ‘advantages’ is if you inadvertently uncover your pistol in the holster. In some states that is considered brandishing… sigh
Whether a person OC or CC should be a personal choice not some law makers choice after all it is their life not the government.The government is allowed to make to many of our decisions for us already and censor our lives.Making personal decisions and choices were suppose to be one of rights as long as it is within the common law and that doesn’t mean someone making a useless and needless law so it is not our choice no more.It is just a power and control our government seems they have the right to do anymore.