Reply #65: It's the Teabaggers who made it offensive

[Euromutt]

As I've posted elsewhere (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=118&topic_id=373040&mesg_id=373499), there are two kinds of open carriers.

The "Open Carry Movement" (henceforth "OCM" for ease of typing) existed before anyone outside Illinois had even heard of Barack Obama. Their objective was to normalize open carry: to get the general public used to the idea that a person openly carrying a firearm does not necessarily present a threat to public safety. In other words, their objective was precisely not to intimidate.

Then there were the Teabagger types who showed up packing outside Obama's town hall meetings over the summer of 2009, and have continued to do so intermittently. Their purpose is to intimidate, I can't argue with that, though I'm inclined to think the entity they want to intimidate is the federal government, rather than other private citizens present.

Because the Teabagger types showed up at (the periphery of) presidential events, they attracted way more media attention, and thus created a misperception on the part of the general public that they were representative of the OCM, when in fact few to none of them were part of the pre-existing OCM. In fact, their shenanigans did a lot of damage to the OCM's cause, setting it back by at least five years, and prompting a major effort at damage control on the OCM's part, including a voluntary moratorium on open carry for the remainder of 2009. The OCM was--and probably still is--rather angry at the OCing Teabaggers over this, and any Teabagger who shows up on the Open Carry forum is likely to get a frosty reception at best.