ARE YOU READY FOR OUR RE-FOUND RIGHT?
The tides are changing, within 24 months I expect some form of “Shall Issue” to be the norm around the country… including Maryland. Once the ruling is handed down, it will not be the end of the story, just the beginning of a new chapter. Are you ready, not to just have the Right to carry, but to deal with all the issues such freedom will bring along with it? There will be growing pains to deal with and there will be knuckle heads that we will need to endure. If the re-found Right extends to not only to concealed carry (CCW), but open carry (OC), are we ready for it? I have experienced both CCW and OC when living in Virginia, Arizona and Florida. I am a fan of both with a preference to CCW when I can, but realize there is a need and preference for OCing at times. The fact is we may be dealing with both.
To start with, we need to be working with our friendly Legislators to prepare for the flood of new laws and restrictions that the Anti’s will try to impose on the re-found Right. The Maryland General Assembly may call an emergency session to deal with what they will consider a “threat to public safety”. How should we prepare for this, what recommendations should we have in place? How can we minimize the damage and avoid years of additional court time to maintain our re-found Right? What laws will be expected and need push back (Gun Free Zones, “No CCW” signs in store windows, Schools, Government buildings, bars and restaurants, etc.). Will your employer allow you to carry?
At the same time, we need to be ready to help provide guidance to the Law Enforcement community. New guidelines will be needed and a plethora of new issues will need to be dealt with. These are the front line people that will be the first to deal with CCW and/or OCing. What can we do to make the transition safe for everyone? We need to pre-position ourselves to avoid problems. A series of open meetings where leaders of the Law Enforcement and Maryland’s 2nd Amendment community (MSI, AGC, etc?) should be planned in an effort to develop common ground concerning our re-found Right.
The public will be our next area of concern. How will you personally deal with a “freaked out” citizen (walk away, try to educate or run)? If stores put up the “No CCW” signs, how will you react? How about restaurants, bars and other places serving alcohol? Will you have a lock box in each of your cars to secure your gun when you enter a “Gun Free Zone”? Will your spouse, significant-other, date, parents and children know how to address these situations? Co-workers, employers and customers need to be considered. Will the gun community create its own Legal Team to proactively fight for, and/or counter the coming legal battles?
Then there will be the idiots. You know, the people that have problems making a decision that YOU agree with? How will you handle the OC’er? How about the guy with a 500 caliber, 14-inch barreled, gold plated pistol strapped to one side and a half-dozen matching 33-round magazines on the other… will you defend his Right or will you condemn him? The possibilities are endless, just look at the decisions made by your fellow drivers during your morning commute. The guy driving with his knees, as he reads the morning paper held up by the steering wheel, has a cup of Joe in one hand and a brown-sugar Pop-Tart in the other… what decisions would he make concerning CCW or OCing? How will you handle the resulting situations caused by similar decision making while carrying a gun?
Within the first few months of being able to exercise our re-found freedom, someone will pull a trigger. It may be in self defense, it may be by accident or it may be during a moment of incredible stupidity. The fact is each pull of the trigger will reflect on all of us. How will you react? How should WE as a community react? Florida, Virginia and Arizona have all had a few. For some reason I believe Maryland will lead the pack, probably due to the lack of experience with guns by the general population. 90% of the people credit their entire gun handling experiences to Television and the Movies.
So, we need to start having a dialog about what our future holds, and how we will handle our re-found Right. The good and the bad, as there will be both. We cannot just sit back a “see what happens”. If we do, the knee-jerk reactions of the Anti’s will overwhelm us and we will spend the next 10 years fighting to retain our Right. We need to be proactive and start working with our Legislators and Law Enforcement officials to avoid needless delays and lawsuits. Yes, the Anti’s will fight to gut the 2nd Amendment in new ways, but if we keep the momentum up and not fall back to the lackadaisical attitudes that cost us our Right in the first place, life with our re-found 2nd Amendment Right will be much easier.
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