Open carrier Seattle (courtesy q13fox.com)

Back when Occupy Wall Street-types were occupying downtown Providence, Rhode Island, I surveyed the protestors about the Second Amendment. Ten occupiers were resolutely pro-2A. One wasn’t. So when I read the report stating that open carrier “Shane Butts of Puyallup told Q13 FOX News that he was at Seattle Central Community College to ‘ensure people’s rights get respected'” I had no cause to doubt him. “These people have a right to free speech,” Butts asserted . . .

Damn straight. Just as Butts has the right to open carry his slung rifle at the event. In fact, what’s up with the coverage? “Some people nearby expressed concern about the rifle,” the story claims. What people? More mainstream media anti-gun FUD, timed to coincide with Oregon’s background check bill.

Keep calm and carry on I say. You?

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61 COMMENTS

  1. Eastern washington is pretty pro gun (feels like the south to me) but seattle? Not so much.

    • This is why I think it should be easier for states to sub-divide.
      Baltimore does not share the values of the rest of Maryland, Chicago does not share the values of the area of Cook County and perhaps some of Lake County. I sure as hell know North Florida and South Florida do not share the same values. IMO if we really want representative Government it should go on a ballet if you get 5% of a states population to sign a petition backing a sub-division of the state.

      • I would like to see it based on population more than personal opinion. Both Texas and California need to do some long division.

        • Those numbers are way low for Florida. According to FDACS who issues the ccw licenses, there are over 1.3 million active Florida licenses at present. That number on that list looks 10 years old. Florida wasn’t the first “shall issue state,” but did start that movement when it went “shall issue” in 1987. There have been over 3 million issued since then with the above number active.

      • We aren’t anywhere near being taken over here in S Florida by transplanted North Easterners as far as guns go. Not in the foreseeable future anyway. Alot of them are the 1st to go to a gun range and at least see what all the fuss is about anyway. Then buy their 1st handguns. As for politics here in general. We in the 3 southern counties east coast side are in trouble as I see it.

        • Not yet. It ain’t all Century Village retirement communities calling the shots. To be rather harsh but correct.
          The transplanted Retired Yankees are dying off. The White boys and Latinos that do work for a living, raise a family and are citizens, own guns. They want no part of the scumbags or disarmament crowd that would leave them defenseless and something resembling Connecticut. Ain’t happening.
          Someone has to remind them, we won’t comply, and even a Democrat knows not to go too far down here.
          Even Debbie knows that.

    • In eastern wash and ore the people are pro gun but the western Halfs of those said states are anti gun

      • No… we’re only anti gun in Seattle and Portland. The rest of Western Washington at least is fairly pro-gun.

      • I can attest to that. Gun owners galore on the west side OUTSIDE of the seattle/everett/olympia cesspits and the surrounding “swamps”. I still say eastern WA should be its own state. To hell with king county controlling the rest.

      • Pretty much just Portland is anti-gun in Oregon… Ive lived for years in various places less than an hour from Portland and everyone around me and most of the people I go to church with own guns and are pro 2A. Hmmm I wonder if instead of building more bike lanes we could convince them to wall off Portland and have it be its own city-state…

  2. Well all the news coverage of the event here in Olympia WA was the so called “riot”. Just a bunch of people trying to start something. Some fires and so forth. Nothing about the gun.

  3. I’m not alarmed by the rifle. I am alarmed by his haircut. It looks like a crew cut got started in the back and then he changed his mind. Maybe a sign of mental instability. Or just bad taste in haircuts.

  4. Mall ninja. If your going to OC please adjust your attire accordingly. The idea is to normalize the carry of firearms not to give credibility to the antis stereotype of the paranoid white male in tactical gear waiting for the revolution to pop off. Exercise theven hell out of your 1st and 2nd but can you give me a little business casual?

    • Freedom of Attire for Me, but Not for Thee?

      I’ve heard high school girls care less about what others are wearing than some who post here.

      • Wear what you want brother but this is chess not checkers. We have the think ahead. I want to reach those fence riders and I believe a professional attitude and articulate message will help combat the irrational blood in the streets propaganda the grabbers love.

  5. Took me 5 weeks to get my CCW from Seattle PD, and I carry daily. It’s way more gun friendly than places like LA and NYC. I can go get an AK anytime I want.

    • 5 weeks? It’s usually 60 days for the first time. Dang, I’m impressed.

      • By law, it’s should take no more than 30 days for a person resident here at least 90 days.

        The relevant bit of RCW 9.41.070 (the whole thing is at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9.41.070):

        (1) The chief of police of a municipality or the sheriff of a county shall within thirty days after the filing of an application of any person, issue a license to such person to carry a pistol concealed on his or her person within this state for five years from date of issue, for the purposes of protection or while engaged in business, sport, or while traveling. However, if the applicant does not have a valid permanent Washington driver’s license or Washington state identification card or has not been a resident of the state for the previous consecutive ninety days, the issuing authority shall have up to sixty days after the filing of the application to issue a license.

        I got mine in just under the 30 days from the King County Sheriff’s office.

      • 25 years ago, Bothell took 30 days for my first one. Time to renew this year. Lynnwood takes about 3-5 days for renewals.

    • ‘ “Some people nearby expressed concern about the rifle,” the story claims’

      And yet… crickets. No detainment, no SWATting or false arrest. Just someone exercising his rights. I’d call that a pretty decent step forward in Seattle.

      Still too bad the only fair network news coverage was on FOX

  6. Why not carry your rifle in a case? Your nice, padded, discreet case? Make your point without being so confrontational about it?

    • Why not carry openly?

      If we are going to say “guns are not the cause of society’s problems,” we can’t then come back later and sound like we think a VISIBLE gun is some sort of “problem.”

  7. While the guy has the right to open carry here in WA, I question the wisdom of open carrying at a protest that traditionally becomes violent once the protestors start causing property damage and throwing things at cops.

    And the statement that he’s there with his rifle “to ensure people’s rights are respected”, while admirable in theory, makes me question his wisdom even more. What is he planning on doing once he decides people’s rights aren’t being respected?

    • The “assurance” of people’s rights part is the only thing I could see as damaging. That statement could be construed as playing policeman.

  8. Baltimore: Space to destroy.
    Seattle: Shut that crap down.

    Seattle has a severe progtard infection, but it hasn’t quite lost its Northwest attitude. Live and let live — and may your deity have mercy on your soul if you use violence to break that most basic of all social compacts.

  9. I’m quite concerned about the dude’s rifle. He has a perfectly functional bayonet lug but no bayo.

  10. I am not at all concerned about his rifle. I’d still look at him funny, though, ’cause open-carry is something I’m not used to seeing — and I live in North Carolina, which is allegedly a “Gold Star” open-carry state according to opencarry.org

    I say, keep calm and carry on. 😉

  12. Working in the film biz, I hang out with “lefties” all the time. You’d be shocked how many of them are really curious about guns.

    • This is where the TTAG community can help bring in future shooters. Find the newbie “leftie” that is curious about firearms and take them shooting. Have them try it in a safe environment– they just might like it.

  13. I’d love to shop at Pike Market open carrying, I just don’t need the hassle from the lib freaks that hang out there.

  14. You’d be surprised how many leftists are pro-gun, it’s really scary to see people that want to violently overthrow capitalism open carrying. Don’t forget, the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War was the Battle of Blair Mountain.

    For those of you that don’t know,
    For five days in late August and early September 1921, in Logan County, West Virginia, some 10,000 armed coal miners confronted 3,000 lawmen and strikebreakers, called the Logan Defenders who were backed by coal mine operators during an attempt by the miners to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. The battle ended after approximately one million rounds were fired and the United States Army intervened by presidential order. We must not let something like this happen ever again, if we want to live in a capitalist society.

    There’s a page on Facebook called the Socialist Rifle Association which calls for arming and training of the working class for revolution,

    https://www.facebook.com/SocialistRifleAssociation?_rdr

    With wealth/income inequality getting worse everyday, I’m worried that these leftists with guns might attempt to overthrow capitalism eventually..
    It may be necessary to pass legislation that bans people with left-wing views from owning firearms, those that want to overthrow capitalism are enemies of the state and must be disarmed, if you want live in a capitalist society then the left shouldn’t have the right to keep and bear arms nor have the so-called “right” to collectively bargain.

      • Not trolling.. This isn’t a joke, we need to disarm the leftards before they use this “inequality” nonsense as an excuse to attempt to overthrow the system, why should people that hate our country and believe the workers should control the means of production instead of those that took the risk to start the business..

        Do you know what happened in the Spanish Civil War? As Catalonia was having it’s revolution, business owners were rounded up and killed by the militias of the CNT, an anarchist trade union so their businesses could get taken over by the workers.

        History must not repeat itself, leftists do not have the right

  15. Saw a guy open carrying his handgun at our local tire center.. at least 13 people were in the store around him. MDA would have you believe everyone would be running and screaming out the doors.. I was observing everyone else… not one person even noticed he was carrying.

  16. May Day is the perfect time to parade your arms about. The Soviets and Chinese did it for years.

  18. I live near Seattle and saw some local coverage. What was interesting was that one person walking with the marchers was really getting in the guys face about carrying. Everyone else? Couldn’t care less. And he walked past a LOT of SPD officers who looked at him but didn’t intervene.

    A banner carried in the anarchy march was a “put wings on pigs” sign. I think I was the only person seeing that sign that got the message they were sending….

    Seattle “anarchists” who hate The State and Big Corporations – but use social media on their smartphones to organize their activities and did most of their damage by busting out windows in cars and vans used by the local news media and defacing art work at the local community college. Way to stand up against The Man, kids….

  19. I have yet to see someone open carrying a long gun, I’d feel odd doing it myself though.

    • Some of us remember, quite clearly as it was not really all that long ago, when OC of long guns was not all that unusual.

      If the mere sight of a firearm, long or short, causes one to hyperventilate, that says a LOT more about the hyperventilating person than the one carrying the firearm.

  20. Last I checked, Washington isn’t an open carry state, hence all these “advocates” are actually breaking the law.

    Sorry, but to use a certain famous person’s catch phrase, if you are breaking the law, you’re not a patriot, you’re a pinhead. I hope those breaking the law in Washington come to their senses; however, I have no sympathy for any of them who end up in jail.

    You can advocate expansion of your rights without relinquishing your status as a “law-abiding citizen”.

  21. What’s amazing to me is that I never saw a single thing mentioned about it by the mainstream media covering the riots that night. Refreshing.

  22. You must realize Seattle is responsible for the recent anti-2A law passing here, AND Q13 FOX supported the progressive extremist left infringement. Q13, though labeled FOX, is as bias as can be. Anyone who lives here can tell you what it’s like, that is if they are being honest. As for Q13 FOX news, they are worthless unless you want to know when the next Capital Hill parade is, the next cooking recipe, exercise scheme or how wonderful Bloomberg and Gates are. Easily one of the least professional and most silly news stations on the air. That said, all the Seattle news is progressive left and bias.

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