All animals from the lowliest invertebrate to ourselves, the unrivaled dominate species of our world, the most complex machine in the known universe, have the ability to predict the world around them. Without it, no individual or species could survive. It is absolutely fundamental to be able to predict danger in your environment. And, that’s the problem with open carry.

When you encounter a stranger, you are trying to predict their behavior, primarily how much of a threat is that stranger to you right now! If you think about the evolution of animal life on the planet, being able to monitor your environment for danger and reacting quickly and effectively to threat ensured that your life continued and raised the probability that you’d live long enough to reproduce and raise your young to the age of reproduction.

Back in the evolutionary hood, when you encountered a stranger from your own culture, you had a very good chance of predicting the threat level. You’d recognize all the signs. But, if you encountered a stranger that was from outside of your culture, then you’d have a harder time. You had limited experience with people from that culture. You relied on generalizations based on limited experience with people from that culture. In other words, you used a stereotype to help you determine how much of a risk this person was.

If someone is openly carrying a weapon, that person is acting hostile. There is no other way to interpret it and still guarantee your safety. You must treat a visible weapon as a direct threat, especially a gun. There are good reasons to do so:

1. Guns are deadly! Between 1989 and 1997, 83% of all suicide attempts by firearms were lethal! The next closest, drowning at 70%. In the research for my recent posts on gun violence, I found a statistic that 30% of all gunshot injuries that were treated in ERs were fatal. The next closest was like 9%.
2. Accidental shootings! You don’t even need to intend to hurt someone to shoot someone. The more guns in a state, the more unintentional gunshot deaths! Whew! We’re shooting for freedom today! A quick perusal of news stories reveals these heartbreaking tragedies:
   • The friend who manslaughtered his friend dead by pointing a gun at him to scare him into not driving!
   • In a story fraught with unintentional irony that just seems to make the entire thing all the more stupid-tragic (isn’t that a literary genre or something?), a woman on Happy Valley Road, got into an argument with her boyfriend and pointed a gun at him. He started to tell her to be careful since it could go off, but before he could finish the sentence, it — SURPRISE — went off and killed him! And, this wonderful Second Amendment passion play happened in —SURPRISE — Surprise, Arizona.
   • A woman, eight months pregnant, is shot by her four-year old son! Won’t that make a FUN story to embarrass the four-year old in front of future boyfriends or girlfriends! Ha ha! He was so “happy” about his impending little sister, he shot his mom! What a little tyke he was! He sure loved him some Second Amendment, he did!
   • And, in an absolutely cringe-inducing mirror-neuron stimulating report, a man in Indiana literally shoots himself in his own dick stealing one of Ye Olde Blogge’s favorite jokes!
3. Escalations! Most reported self-defense shootings are actually the result of escalating arguments and conflicts. So, the presence of a gun can make even casual conflicts with a stranger deadly. Your next convenience store run, could be your last.
4. And, an armed society is NOT a polite society because only assholes walk around armed. Apparently, most Americans (5 to 1) do not feel safer in gun carrying states and women who’ve been threatened by a gun are most likely to report feeling less safe in armed communities. These findings might have something to do with owners of semi-automatic weapons being more likely to binge drink! Now, there’s a comforting thought.

So, of course, when that asshole walked into a Missouri Walmart with a rifle, handgun, and wearing body armor, people thought the worst was coming. Of course they were afraid. This asshole said it was a “social experiment,” but his only real motivation was to enjoy the sight of people being afraid of him. Didn’t I already say that open carry dicks are likely to be assholes. Well, this guy was case in point.

He claimed he was trying to determine whether open carry would be respected in a public place. But, why wouldn’t people assume the worse when they see an armed white man? Aren’t all mass shooters nearly always armed white men?

The idea that we have nothing to fear from an armed individual in public is the ultimate in gaslighting. Of course, we have everything to fear. Guns are fucking dangerous and lethal whether the carrier of the gun intends on hurting anyone or not. After all, Babe Ruth didn’t hit no home runs without he had a bat. I heard that somewhere, but damned if I can remember it to attribute it. But it is too good of a lie to pass up, so my apologies.