Time: August 14, 2010 from 1pm to 4pm
Location: Guilford Courthouse Battleground Park
Street: 2331 New Garden Rd
City/Town: Greensboro, NC
Website or Map: http://www.nps.gov/guco/plany…
I’ll be there. If you couldn’t make it to the first one in April, this is your chance to be a part of one of these. Your rights: use ’em or lose ’em.
Update:
A lot of the discussions on this one are going through the 4-19 Muster site. I’ve changed the subheading on that site to reflect that the site is no longer solely for the 4-19 event. I’ve also changed the settings so that the “III We are Everywhere” logo appears as new members’ default avatar:
I was at the first one and I’ll tentatively be at this one!
I just got called by abc world news in Gergia and New York office today. They will f/u wiht me in a few days. They are going to fly down a news crew next week to interview open and carry folks. Approaching it with caution. Steve Osunsami is the journalist who cotatced me after reading our news artcle in the paperas follows:
http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/06/21/1544247/open-carry-gun-activists-laud.html
Open-carry gun activists laud N.C.
By Josh Shaffer – McClatchy Newspapers E-Mail
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Text Size: tool nameclose tool goes here Randy Dye will sometimes carry a gun on his hip, right out in the open, no jacket pulled over it, no inside-the-belt holster. It draws funny looks, and Dye doesn’t much care.
One time, Dye explains, he was standing in line for a money order when the guy behind him asked, “Are you a police officer?” Dye said no, and the guy kept staring, so Dye stared back. “We good?” Dye asked, and the conversation stopped.
“I wasn’t trying to intimidate,” says Dye, a retired trauma nurse in Chatham County. “He approached me. If you don’t understand your constitutional rights, you need to go read them.”
In North Carolina, a grass-roots segment of gun rights advocates increasingly calls for firearms displayed as blatantly as a ballpoint pen in a shirt pocket. A national pro-gun Internet group, opencarry.org, ranks the state among the friendliest to those who wear a weapon for all the world to see. The state, like Montana, Arizona and Kentucky, gets a gold star.
Unlike concealed weapons, plain-sight guns are almost totally unregulated in North Carolina, where only a misdemeanor “going armed to the terror of the public” speaks to the issue. In contrast, gun-friendly states such as Texas and South Carolina are rated as relatively hostile to carrying unconcealed handguns in public even though they, like North Carolina, are among at least 48 states that have concealed handgun carry permit laws.
In the Triangle, more than 100 people have joined an Internet “meetup” group dedicated to open-carry firearms, getting together at a Raleigh Five Guys and a Cary Chik-Fil-A, encouraging even the skittish to attend. A similar group has formed in the Triad, and backers, including Dye, will hold a rally in Greensboro in August.
“It’s gaining momentum,” said Paul Valone, president of nonprofit firearms group Grass Roots North Carolina. “These are perfectly normal people. These are not gun nuts.”
1995 restrictions
Before 1995, firearms advocates note, it was legal to carry a gun openly almost anywhere in public. But when the state’s concealed weapons law passed that year, ending a 116-year-old ban on hidden guns, it also set up restrictions for guns of any kind – concealed or otherwise. Firearms are not permitted inside schools or government buildings, for example, and private businesses have the right to post prohibitions on their premises.
A recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows that 47 percent of Americans oppose open-carry laws, citing safety concerns, compared to 41 percent who are in favor. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has lobbied against overt firearms display. Even among gun owners, the question of open versus concealed carry creates a division, with varying degrees of eagerness or dismay about wearing a loaded pistol on the hip.
“I think a lot of people would have problems with that,” said Hilton Cancel, a retired police detective who has a concealed carry permit and sits on the board of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence.
In arguing against openly packing a handgun in public, Cancel echoes one of the Old West lines used during the debate about North Carolina’s concealed handgun permit law: “Parents with children, and seeing folks carrying guns out in the open, just kind of gives you the feeling you’re in Dodge City.”
Still, there is nothing on the books that outlaws overt weaponry, short of that misdemeanor that bans going armed “to the terror of the public,” which generally doesn’t apply to simple gun display.
For some gun rights advocates, carrying an unconcealed gun is an opportunity to vigorously exercise their 2nd Amendment guarantees and for self-defense. In May, Harris Teeter grocery stores faced a huge backlash from gun-carrying customers when the company posted signs banning guns, concealed or otherwise. The signs came down quickly. In 2005, Charlotte contemplated an open-carry ban, but later balked. Nationwide, Starbucks has won plaudits from gun owners for refusing to ban firearms in its stores within open-carry states, unlike stores such as California Pizza Kitchen, which allows only uniformed officers with open guns.
“The Constitution doesn’t say I have the right to keep and bear arms if I keep them concealed,” said Eric Shuford, an instructor at the Wake County gun range, who reports seeing more interest in open carry. “It says I have the right to keep and bear arms.”
Armed, not ordinary
For Bubba McDowell, a blogger in Zebulon who considers the 2nd Amendment the most important part of the Bill of Rights, owning a gun is both a right and a serious responsibility.
He started open carrying 33 years ago and only got a concealed permit last year. People ask him about his gun every day, he said. When a Best Buy employee asked whether he was a police officer, a military man or an ordinary civilian, he replied, “I’m not an ordinary civilian. I’m an armed civilian.”
“The usual question is ‘Are you an undercover police officer?’ because I have long hair and a beard,” he said. “It’s part of my wardrobe. As I put my belt in the loop. The pistol holster is part of the loop.”
There is nervousness about open-carry, even among lifelong gun folks. Shuford will wear a gun in a grocery store, especially in the summer when it’s harder to conceal. But the possibility of someone reacting badly to the sight of a gun is always there, so he limits the habit.
At Perry’s Gun Shop in Wendell, Barry Perry reports heavy interest in concealed handguns, showing off rows of pistols designed for that purpose in his display case. Most gun owners don’t want people to feel intimidated by a weapon out in the open, he said. Others worry that open carry is too extreme and likely to generate a backlash that cuts into other firearms laws. More, even passionate gun advocates, doubt open carry’s effectiveness as a crime deterrent.
Even Valone, who advocates removing many of the restrictions attached to North Carolina’s concealed carry law, has doubts. If somebody were robbing a convenience store in which he were buying a soda, Valone said, he’d rather they not know he was carrying a gun. It takes away the element of surprise.
Regardless, he advised, an open carrier needs to know the law. You can’t take a gun anyplace where admission is charged or alcohol is served.
And when Dye led a protest last week outside Rep. Bob Etheridge’s office in downtown Raleigh, he carried no piece on his hip – verboten at a public demonstration.
“We do our best to follow the law,” Dye said. “We don’t always agree with it.”
Read more: http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/06/21/1544247/open-carry-gun-activists-laud.html#ixzz0rY7usCFH
Read more: http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/06/21/1544247/open-carry-gun-activists-laud.html#ixzz0rY7mgjhS
great job, keep the oath, keep the figth.
Herberto Nunez.
“fighting the same fight, preserving the same principles”
Keep in mind that it is illegal to carry a gun at any protest in NC.
Is it ok for me to post this on local NC shooting forums?
Email me and let me know.
Chris, I plan on carrying. Where are you getting your information?
Is Open Carry legal at demonstrations in N.Carolina.Someone posted that open carry is illegal at demonstrations in N.Carolina @ Sippsy Street Irreggulars and I´m Very curious as to what are the facts.
Dennis
III
Texas
State law it is illegal to carry a gun at a demonstration in any public place.
§ 14‑277.2. Weapons at parades, etc., prohibited.
(a) It shall be unlawful for any person participating in, affiliated with, or present as a spectator at any parade, funeral procession, picket line, or demonstration upon any private health care facility or upon any public place owned or under the control of the State or any of its political subdivisions to willfully or intentionally possess or have immediate access to any dangerous weapon. Violation of this subsection shall be a Class 1 misdemeanor. It shall be presumed that any rifle or gun carried on a rack in a pickup truck at a holiday parade or in a funeral procession does not violate the terms of this act.
(b) For the purposes of this section the term “dangerous weapon” shall include those weapons specified in G.S. 14‑269, 14‑269.2, 14‑284.1, or 14‑288.8 or any other object capable of inflicting serious bodily injury or death when used as a weapon.
(c) The provisions of this section shall not apply to a person exempted by the provisions of G.S. 14‑269(b) or to persons authorized by State or federal law to carry dangerous weapons in the performance of their duties or to any person who obtains a permit to carry a dangerous weapon at a parade, funeral procession, picket line, or demonstration from the sheriff or police chief, whichever is appropriate, of the locality where such parade, funeral procession, picket line, or demonstration is to take place. (1981, c. 684, s. 1; 1983, c. 633; 1993, c. 412, s. 2; c. 539, s. 174; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c); 1997‑238, s. 4.)
the relevant part is:
“or upon any public place owned or under the control of the State or any of its political subdivisions”
Looks like this only applies to STATE owned lands and property. We’ll be holding our rally on a NATIONAL park, FEDERAL land.
Myself and others plan on attending armed in the same manner as the last RTC.
More discussion here:
http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum41/45662.html
OK on private land, but not public land during the event. If the event is not a demonstration, but rather a informative event then it is OK.
As the lady who removed the Mexican flag from a Hispanic grocery store in Dayton, Tennessee, and as candidate for Governor of Tennessee, would I be allowed to speak on behalf of patriotism and Americanism at your rally.
The latest developments in the Mexican flag case are on the front page of the Herald News,
http://www.rheaheraldnews.com this the 9th of June.
We need a Governor who has a proven record, like Davy Crockett, who puts real action behind their stand for State and National sovereignty.
My number is (423) 775-0774.
I am also the organizer of the Rhea County Tea Party and head of the Tenn. Committee for the Bill of Rights. I would appreciate your consideration.
June Griffin
For God and Country
June, thanks for volunteering. I’m not the lead organizer behind this rally; Tom Green is. So I forwarded your message to him. By the way, my name is Daniel Almond, and i was the organizer of the last Restore The Constitution rally held on the banks of the Potomac on 4-19-2010.
I will be attending and armed see ya there.
Leaving Brownsville,TX. Aug.12@24:00
Looking forward to this event and meeting everyone.
God Bless the Republic.
Dennis
III
Texas
If you have a CCW/CHP permit to carry that is recognized by NC via reciprocity law, does that meet the requirements of § 14‑277.2.(c) above, to wit: “…(c) The provisions of this section shall not apply … to any person who obtains a permit to carry a dangerous weapon at a parade, funeral procession, picket line, or demonstration from the sheriff or police chief, whichever is appropriate, of the locality where such parade, funeral procession, picket line, or demonstration is to take place.
Is there a NC State preemptive law which may apply that allows carry?
If the State (government regardless of level – Fed, state, county, city, township, etc.) didn’t grant the right and the right is specified as to “not be infringed” and is furthermore codified in the Supreme Law of the Land, from where do the so-called authorities get their legitimate authority to “infringe” upon the “supreme law of the land”? I think the “courts” created a new dialect of the english language that bears little relation to the original.
I wonder how this law will fare following the upcoming decision in McDonald v. Chicago?
We should all be writing the SCOTUS justices individually to let them know how we think the RKBA should be decided. It is OUR CONSTITUTION – NOT theirs!
I’m in full support.