I was meeting a friend for lunch at a popular restaurant here in Salt Lake City. When entering the restaurant, I noticed, much to my dismay, that the fellow walking in ahead of me had a prominently displayed handgun strapped to his belt. So I did what anyone, I am certain would have done. I approached him and asked, "Excuse me sir, are you a police officer?" He turned to me (luckily he did not place his hand on his gun while doing this) and said, "No. Why?" I replied, "well, I am asking you simply because you are carrying a handgun for all to see on your belt, in a public restaurant." He announced, "IT IS MY RIGHT". I queried, "what about my right to feel safe while I eat chips and salsa?" He turned and went to his table, ironically passing two uniformed police officers who didn't even blink.
Congratulations sir. You are an intimidator, a controller and a force to be reckoned with. Do you feel oh so powerful with that strapped to your hip for all to quiver at?
13 comments:
I'm a little confused. I don't own a gun, so I don't know what the laws regarding carrying them are. Is it against the law for him to wear his gun on his belt? Should the police officers have done something?
Not sure what the law states...I am merely making a shocked observation, as a citizen coming from a country where handguns are illegal, that this demonstration must be actually...legal? - as the police did nothing.
Hey, You live in Utah where there was a debate about whether concealed weapons should be allowed in church/university class. You can guess which way my vote would go, but it would definitely make fast and testimony meeting a little more interesting if the wackos could really take issue with what was said.
Not the best link, but here's one from the right time frame about the church disallowing guns in church.
http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/47827
And another about your University
http://www.heraldextra.com/news/article_1c73d624-97c4-543b-afb7-1dc1deb1abdf.html
Handguns are not illegal in Canada. With the correct permits, it is legal to own a handgun. It is, however, illegal to carry it on your person. I would imagine this fellow was carrying it 'prominently displayed' because it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon in Utah. He probably would have preferred to conceal it. Just a word of advice: Next time you start a debate on gun control with a man packing a piece, be sure he has the safety on.
Adair, turns out that guns are allowed on university campuses here and in dorms etc. In fact, two guys in my med school class packed heat in their front right pockets...yikes. It was also interesting that Tennessee has now made it legal to carry handguns into bars. Alcohol and guns are like a sweet cocktail of insanity. Bar fights will no longer require bloody-ing ones fists...that's a plus?
Second - I wouldn't have been as upset if this guy would have had a concealed weapon. You have to wonder about this man's hubris as demonstrated in his display...that is what is scary to me.
I remember when there was the big debate about the U's campus-wide gun ban (later overruled by the state Supreme Court, saying that the state gets to say whether or not people can bring guns to a state university). Lost in all the debate and court fees: the fact that at no point while the "ban" was active was there anything in the way of active enforcement (metal detectors, bag searches, etc), so essentially the "ban" was just a "feel-good" measure. I guess if someone had shot someone on campus, they could have gotten whatever penalty comes with homicide + a punishment for disobeying the ban.
Hey! How cum you erase my note! You dont like peeples hoo disagrees? I said.. I like dat cowboy man. If anyones starts any trubles dat man wood say "HEE HAW NOT IN MY TOWN!"
FACT: Britain banned guns in 1998. Within 7 years deaths and injuries from gun crimes increased by 340%.
Truth: I believe you got that statistics from one of the many emails that I get re: gun control (and in those cases trying to prove the evil of it). That is not an accurate statistic at all, and whenever you read any statistic, it should always be referenced to an official report or well-done study. Here is the real 'truth':
Figures taken from the Home Official Statistical Bulletin-the UK government's report.
1997: 12805 Total offences with guns (which includes imitations)
2007: 17343
This is not 340%.
Homicides:
1999: 62
2007: 53
And for critique on the government's report read:
http://www.port.ac.uk/departments/academic/icjs/staff/documentation/filetodownload,66240,en.pdf
Get some real empirical data, and don't regurgitate information from non-referenced "statistics". They are trying to scare you and trick you by not allowing you to process real data.
Hi Dana, or should I say "brilliant blonde". I did not get my info from chain emails as you so rudely assumed. It was a valid study reported on by a major news network. I’m wondering if you intended anyone to check up on the information and statistics you referred to. That website you sited… was a staff list for the University of Portsmouth. I also looked up your statistics from the Home Official Statistical Bulletin. At the top of the webpage it states, "The views expressed in these reports are those of the authors, not necessarily those of the Home Office (nor do they reflect Government policy)".
Seeing how hungry you are for some legitimate information you might enjoy this. The BBC reported that England's firearms restrictions "seem to have had little impact in the criminal underworld." Last December, London's Evening Standard reported that armed crime, with banned handguns the weapon of choice, was "rocketing." In the two years following the 1997 handgun ban, the use of handguns in crime rose by 40 percent, and the upward trend has continued. From April to November 2001, the number of people robbed at gunpoint in London rose 53 percent. From 1991 to 1995, crimes against the person in England's inner cities increased 91 percent. And in the four years from 1997 to 2001, the rate of violent crime more than doubled. Your chances of being mugged in London are now six times greater than in New York. England's rates of assault, robbery, and burglary are far higher than America's, and 53 percent of English burglaries occur while occupants are at home, compared with 13 percent in the U.S., where burglars admit to fearing armed homeowners more than the police. In a United Nations study of crime in 18 developed nations published in July, England and Wales led the Western world's crime league, with nearly 55 crimes per 100 people.
Your blog is a really a disgrace to real political blogs everywhere. If you don’t like the truth or an opposing opinion you insult, deceive and find illegitimate sources to prove your point, all the while titling yourself as “brilliant”, full of “northern wisdom”. Hilarious. But I guess this just shows that anyone can start a blog and act like they know what they’re talking about. I'm out.
Oh wait one more thing before I kiss your wannabe political blog goodbye. TODAY reported ON THE NEWS… and I quote, “In 1997 England banned handguns. 8 years later the number of deaths and injuries resulting from handguns had jumped to 340%” Uh Oh! FACTS!
Some other FACTS reported on the news today that might make your anti-gun head explode. “Before Washington DC banned handguns in 1976, guns were used in 63% of DC murders. By 2007 that percentage jumped to 81%, …far higher than the national average.” (But how is that possible?! They banned guns!)
In Chicago, before banning handguns in 1982, 38% of murders involved guns. Now? 70%.
An honor student was killed by being hit with a railroad tie in Chicago this week. WE NEED TO BAN RAILROAD TIES. THEY KILL PEOPLE!!!!
You are obviously completely ignorant of the gun laws in Utah. The man caring a handgun secured in a holster in that restaurant… that was totally legal. Don't like it? Don't go to Utah. But it is weird that Utah has the most lenient guns laws in the country AND has one of the lowest violent crime rates, a rate with continues to decline. How is that??!! With an armed citizen and TWO cops, that restaurant was probably pretty safe, so little dana can feel free to eat her precious chips and salsa in peace.
Peace Out Dummy. Your blog is lame.
Truth: I appreciate your passion but am disheartened by your lack of civility. Northernwisdom is a great blog that facilitates open dialogue.
While I have nuanced opinions about the right approach to gun control, I think no thoughtful person would argue that there should not be any form of gun control. So this forum becomes an opportunity to discuss what level/form gun control should take.
This blog is an opportunity to discuss and Dana continues to keep conversation moving in a civil, yet spirited, manner.
Further, Truth, I am still unsure from where your statistics come.
America has among the highest rates of homicide in the developed world at 5.62 per 100,000 people. Meanwhile England and Wales has only 1.41 homicides per 100,000 people. Most Western European nations have homicide rates similar or lower than that reported in England and Wales. This data is from the most recent UNODC report on crime/homicide (2005-2006). A new report is not scheduled to be released until next month. You can access the report at http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/CTS10%20homicide.pdf.
Clearly gun control alone is not the only factor leading to lower homicide rates in Western Europe, but surely one would not deny that gun prevalence does play a role.
Let's remain spirited, but civil. PEACE out indeed...
I don't have much experience with handguns, but my high school in the D.C. suburbs had a rifle range beneath the cafeteria. Kids could go target shooting there in the evening. I went a few times and I suppose it was kind of fun to go shoot guns a block from my house.
Anyway, to add my two bits to dana's post, I'm guessing this guy
didn't really seem all that threatening, since you decided to walk up and confront him over his handgun. (Probably wouldn't try that with the typical gun-wielding fellow in my neighborhood.) The fact is, you must have believed the guy would not suddenly go postal when challenged by a stranger in a restaurant. Everyone in the scenario expressed his/her opinion on the matter, nobody got hurt, and now the episode is being dissected on a blog. That sounds like the American way.
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