The Schenkkans (courtesy cary.knowability.org)

“I’m surprised by it. I don’t think it’s a good signal to our children in this state that people can open carry something that is so dangerous and intimidating to others. It sends a message that this is the norm and children are not as able to get away from it.” Frances Schenkkan, board member of Texas Gun Sense, quoted in Davis Takes Friendly Fire on Gun Issue [via texastribune.org]

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75 COMMENTS

  1. Agreed.

    So, when will we be banning cars and cheezeburgers? We wouldnt want to send a message to kids that driving 3000lb missiles of death or eating oneself into the hospital is acceptable, no?

    • So, when will we be banning cars and cheezeburgers?

      While this is (currently) a position only held by those on the fringe Left, I can certainly see laws making operating a gasoline-powered car or eating “unhealthy” food more difficult and expensive being passed as those in favor of a much stronger State take power.

      It’s for the good of the planet, y’know…

      • It’s happened in middle school to me. They had( idk if they still do) a ban on candy.
        Welcome to jersey.

      • I agree, except it is not a fringe. There is someone or some group trying to ban something someplace all the time. Bridgewater, CT is still a dry town. The last remaining town in the entire state without a liquor store or which allows alcohol to be sold. If you listen to people who want to keep it dry, it will some how destroy the moral fiber on the community. Forgetting for a moment that within a 15min drive you purchase alcohol in any neighboring town but somehow if its within the town limits, it is somehow bad. In Brooklyn NY, there is a location that has been vacant for over 132 years. It is an old rock quarry that is to dangerous to walk into so it has fenced in for 132 years!!! Whole Foods decides it will take the spot, build a store, create about 100 jobs and contribute taxes to the community. 8 years later, they are still being fought because of some group that wants to ban them because they say they want to “protect the open space” — a space abandoned and fenced off for 132 years!!! And the local PZ has allowed the BS to happen for 8 years.

        There are groups that want to ban books, ban movies, ban cars, ban religion as a whole — and the list goes on.

        Its not fringe, over the last few years, groups have petitioned to either “ban” something, take something away or scream bloody murder because they have been offended for the most minor infraction.

        The issue as always, not enough people speak up to push these idiots back and the media is more than happy to give them more press than they should have.

        And if you believe those things are bad, never ever move into neighborhood run by some homeowners association. You will often need permission to the color and type of paint you use inside or outside of your home.

        There are control freaks everywhere

        • You are right, and right about moving into a HOA neighborhood. Not having experience with HOAs we moved into one in SC. I don’t think anyone really reads the detail because initially you think this is a good thing. Not. How about no gardens, no hammocks, restrictions on how long you can leave your garage doors up. Yes this stuff really happens, and yes you are right again because nobody stands up and says this is BS!

        • During the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the King’s tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists. History itself, for good or ill, is made by determined minorities. Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed citizens to change the world. Indeed, it has never been done otherwise.

      • All those environmentally friendly poison batteries are pretty heavy, and I can guarantee leftist parents will still drive them just as recklessly while yelling at their poorly raised new age kids instead of watching the road.

      • You better believe that’s on the way if socialized medicine gets established. If you’re gobbling down cheeseburgers, you’re a LIABILITY to the “people.” If you’re speeding… you’re a liability.

        • The problem is they will be working off old dietary information based off of bad research from the 50s. I never discuss diet with doctors because a lot of their information is incorrect and based off of a block they received ones school 20-30 years ago. They also don’t have the time to stay current. Oh, another area where the government has interfered and got it wrong, just like guns.

          • Your body will tell you what you need. You know what you need because you want it. It’s pretty much that simple. Doctors have no clue. Our bodies have survived 3,000,000 years of evolution, and that’s just since achieving human! Then some smart-aleck comes along, discovers willow bark, and decides that he’s wiser than Mother Nature. I trust my body, because it’s had more experience with real life than my mind. The body is where the common senses are. 😉

  5. In case everyone has forgotten, rights are not to be relinquished for the expediency of “helping cops”. Can you imagine the laundry list of rights we would need to give up to make their jobs really easy?

  6. I think it’s best if we keep our children as ignorant about firearms as possible. They can get all the firearms knowledge they need from Quentin Tarantino movies. Just like it’s best to keep them ignorant about sex except what they learn from watching pornos.

      • I wonder if she lives in Austin, because isn’t open carry a no-no in Texas? If it is, then what is she intimidated by? Yet another example of paternalistic cowardace…

    • Exactly – l am generalizing here but I see this trend more and more where more and more weathly people are moving into gated or exclusive communities. It’s just too wild out there on the outside. Guns everywhere! In doing so, they don’t have to get their hands dirty by taking ownership of their personal safety or property. Guns are for my security, not yours. They are for security at the gate or the resorts I go to, or the cops I pay with my taxes. As all POTG know, you take on a great responsibility when you carry -especially openly. For this woman, and her kind, they’ve secunded or contracted that responsibility away. Their money allows them the freedom to not have to worry about their own safety. But they forget those who can’t afford private security. Who are subject to 10 or more minute police response times. The gun is their security. Open carry says to any potential attacker, you now have to factor my weapon into your decision. I am not a victim, and no matter what happens, I have the very real potential to defed myself, and kill you in the process.

      So this lovely woman has no understanding of that. She’s afraid of guns because guns are fir beastly men who I pay to defend me or want to attack me. There’s no middle ground, no understanding of real life. If all guns were gone, if she didn’t have to see any guns, the problem of being attacked, more or les, is out of sight, out of mind. Back to the gated community for her and when she leaves, she doesn’t want to see any guns, because that messes with her lack of personal responsiibity meme and it’s much much easier to live in condition white and be oblivious when your not carrying.

      • In other words, she’s a moron, right? Willfull ignorance – the worst kind.

        Look at her facial expression – not much intelligence behind those eyes.

  8. Don’t want those kiddies to see dangerous and intimidating guns handled by responsible, accountable adults. Nothing worse than responsibility. They might grow up as sovereign individuals who contribute to society. They might turn a jaundiced eye towards lickspittles like Texas Gun Sense. A slippery slope, for certain.

  11. I would like to invite her to speak at the next general assembly of all residents at the Huntsville State Prison in Huntsville, Texas.

  12. For much of this countries history; OC was the accepted norm; some of the first gun control laws were to outlaw concealed carry because only criminals would conceal a weapon. I was talking with a teacher of mine that fought in WWII in the navy; he talked about as a teenager in a small town in the east; he led a band of forty others boys that trained as militia; they made up uniforms; marched, trained with firearms; and they marched in front of the whole town with the mayor and other public officials in attendance with their rifles shouldered. Just think what would happen now if that was tried.

    How things change, and not for the better; at least when it comes to our second amendment.

    • it was and still is the norm in rural communities. Not in urban centers. Unfortunately because some people decide to parade around cities with guns the state ends up passing a law that restricts everywhere. Human nature I guess…

      • Unconstitutional laws passed cannot be blamed on the victims of those same laws. The laws aren’t the fault of those who exercised their rights. The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of government. If one wishes to stretch the logic, blame for ANY law can be twisted to blame those directly affected by it. How much recognition of the RKBA was there if the People couldn’t exercise it; urban, suburban, or rural?

  13. You know what, they are right. All cars should be banned in Texas. By their logic, cars do kill more children then guns, thus no cars should be allowed in the state.

  14. Next time a kid drowns in a pool in her state I hope she starts campaigning to ban pools. You know, for the children.

    • How about Bicycles, Baseball Bats, Ice Skates, Ink Pens and Pencils and Kites, they are ALL dangerous and can kill children. Let’s ban them all.

      Just My Onion, Your Garden May Very

  15. Don’t the police open carry? Either she’s lying about handguns being intrinsically intimidating and dangerous, or she’s suggesting that it’s proper for children to be intimidated and endangered by the police.

    Most likely it’s just that she doesn’t believe that regular, everyday law-abiding citizens can responsibly carry firearms. Typical liberal duplicity of feigning adoration to conceal their contempt for the stupid unwashed masses.

    • 1) Uniformed police do not have the option to conceal a weapon
      2) Most people teach their children that police are the ‘good guys’. Your average dude bee-boppin down the avenue has no such reputation.

      • I am a non violent, law abiding citizen, and I honestly feel far more threatened by the police than a random guy walking around open carrying.

      • Officers carry under privilege granted by government whereas private individuals walking down the street carry under the authority of an unalienable right. There’s a huge difference between the two. The privilege can be modified or revoked by government. The right is unalienable. When the officer accepts the job and while on duty, that officer accepts the constraints placed by the government. When the private individual walks down the street, the government accepts the constraints placed upon it by Constitution. The government can restrict the on duty officer but cannot legitimately do so with the private individual without violating the Constitution.

  16. I think they are talking about themselves with their child mentality. “Oh no open carry I need an adult”

  17. If open carry is intimidating to the unarmed…using her logic… I assume open carry by patrol officers is “intimidating” as well.

    This shows true intent. Set of rules for one group and denial to another.

  19. Yeah, it’s much better to pretend guns don’t exist francis, that way you can brainwash the children. What school do the libs go to for those wonderfull smiles? the Larry Storch school of acting? So far in Wi. the grabbers have STFU, although every once & awhile you hear about Walkers “dangerous” policies. Oh well, the Brits heard the same shit so put a sock in it frances & mothers for mayors money, Randy

  20. They are worried that children will see open carry as the norm, and that they will be intimidated by it. [scratches head] Aren’t the two ideas contradictory?

  23. “The discussions that I have had with the law enforcement back home, they think that open carry does not make their job any easier, and I’m with them,” Van De Putte said. “This is one where Wendy and I are on a different page.”

    I didn’t think the 2nd Amendment was about making a cops job easier.

  24. It sends a message that this is the norm

    And so we come to the heart of the matter. All the pro-gun laws, all the favorable court decisions, all the speeches in favor of Second Amendment rights are great, but normalization is the key to everything. For them, and for us. Because once people get used to guns, they stop being frightened sheep. And once that happens, the gungrabbers are out of business.

    • Exactly. And like most civil rights advancements, you have to put it out in front of people. Confront the nay-sayers and their fears out in the open and normalize the public to your cause.

  25. Wendy Davis’ “support” for open carry is like Barack Obama’s alleged opposition to Gay Marriage. It will cost her nothing with her gun-hating supporters because absolutely no-one thinks she is telling the truth.

  26. As Charleton Heston said in the original Planet of The Apes, “Get your hands off me you damn dirty democrats !! “

  27. “I don’t think it’s a good signal to our children in this state that people can open carry something that is so dangerous and intimidating to others.”

    Yeah, Frances, being left completely defenseless is a much better signal to our children.

    And I do wonder, how is open carry dangerous & intimidating? Are you saying that LEOs who open carry are dangerous & intimidating? Then perhaps you’d better not call them if you have an emergency. And another thing, why don’t you think it’s a good signal just “in this state”? Open carry is peachy in other states?

  28. Police openly carry something just as “dangerous” all the time. Are police supposed to be “intimidating” to the citizens of Texas? If they’re not, then they should be disarmed!

    Really though, I like what the whole Wendy Davis situation says about Texas. In Texas, politicians have to promote how pro-gun they are to get elected. Wouldn’t it be great if it was like that everywhere?

  30. I’m pretty sure when kids were growing up during the first 200 years of the US they weren’t afraid and intimidated by guns precisely because they were taught that guns were tools.

  32. On a related note, anyone watching the Olympics right now? One of the American doubles skating teams did a James Bond inspired routine and Simon Shnapir was wearing a costume shoulder holster. Just having kids see that as normal helps.

    • I’d watch figure skating if they combined it with shooting, like Biathlon! “Oh my GOD, Dick! They just did a double axel (?) and shot TWIN BULLSEYES! CUNNING STUNT!!!”

  34. When will we be banning advertisements for the Democratic Party? After all, we wouldn’t want to send a message to children that it’s OK to be a lazy leech demanding others pay them purely for existing.

  35. This issue goes way beyond what appears at first glance. We have far too many citizens that believe the role of government is to restrict citizens. Prevent citizens from doing what our highest Law in this nation, the US Constitution, says is allowable. Before you simply say that nowhere in the Constitution does it say citizens can openly carry firearms in public, let’s look at what it prevents the government from doing.

    “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

    What does the vast majority of the Constitution do? It restricts what government can do to it’s citizens. After all, why do you think the original citizens had a revolution against England? Because they enjoyed all the God given rights to which they were entitled? No, it was because the British could do whatever they wanted to do without regard to the plight of their “subjects.”

    Precisely what the meaning of “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state” implies has been picked apart for well over one hundred years. What the authors and signatories to the Constitution meant my Militia was the people of the State. Notice it said State, not Nation. The remainder of the Second Amendment is so obvious that nobody can misinterpret it unless they have nefarious purposes.

    The message that has already been sent to our children, intentionally I may add, is that they cannot do anything unless it has been “granted” by the all controlling Federal Government. I live in Mississippi where open carry was clearly articulated by their new law. Basically saying it was allowed and that a holster does not “conceal” the fact that a firearm is in your possession.

  36. I think I’ve figured out part of the grabber mentality. Since an armed society is a polite society, by wanting everyone disarmed they expose their true agenda – they want carte blanche to be obnoxious assholes with total impunity.

  38. Grinning pinheads. Nothing ever happens to these people, or they wouldn’t think… feel the way they do.

  39. “It sends a message that this is the norm and children are not as able to get away from it.”

    Duh! That’s one of the purposes. Children are brainwashed to fear and loath their unalienable rights. This is one of the balances to that public school indoctrination. *rolls eyes*

  40. Hang on… what happened to ‘Just Kos Edition’? It seems to have just disappeared down the digital toilet.

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