Guns: Open Carry is the new push for Gun Nuts

They say, We are just regular guys carrying guns - no big deal.  (Until someone is dead)

Open carry activists throughout the country have posted similar videos online. Perhaps the most  haunting and bizarre is a jittery clip posted last year by Robert Pratt of Michigan. In the video, Pratt carries a shotgun while walking his dogs through suburban Plainwell. Two police cruisers intercept him at the curb, and four officers surround him for a long, tense conversation. One of the cops is James Pell, whom Pratt greets by name — Cassandra Pell, the officer’s daughter, was Pratt’s girlfriend. The officers try to reason with Pratt, asking him to go home and put his gun away, because it’s unnecessarily frightening his neighbors. Pratt says he is “just exercising rights as a U.S. citizen” and that he would continue to openly carry his gun in the neighborhood because “people need to be aware of laws.” He cites the specific state laws and city ordinances that allow him to carry his shotgun.

This June, Pratt used that same weapon to shoot and kill Cassandra Pell, and then to commit suicide.

But the Plainwell shooting, and other violent crimes committed by people who were legally carrying their weapons, confirm the worst fears of some opponents of open carry. “Their perception of what they’re doing is so different than the majority of people watching them,” says Liz. “They think they’re just showing up saying, ‘see, we’re a bunch of nice guys who just happen to be carrying around semiautomatic rifles.’ Whereas for people who are out and about in a suburban area, it’s terrifying — especially considering the climate.”

http://www.alternet.org/gun-activists-have-new-craze-and-its-more-dangerous-you-think?page=0%2C3&akid=11306.294211.WMJHs5&rd=1&src=newsletter939697&t=10