Texas Open-Carry Laws Blurred Lines Between Suspects and Marchers

[applegrove]

By MANNY FERNANDEZ, ALAN BLINDER and DAVID MONTGOMERY at the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/11/us/texas-open-carry-laws-blurred-lines-between-suspects-and-marchers.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

"SNIP.............



Advocates have carried their rifles at the Alamo in San Antonio and outside mosques in the Dallas suburbs. But city and county leaders said the presence of armed protesters openly carrying rifles on Thursday through downtown Dallas had created confusion for the police as the attack unfolded, and in its immediate aftermath made it more difficult for officers to distinguish between suspects and marchers.

Two men who were armed and a woman who was with them were detained, fueling an early, errant theory by the police that there was more than one gunman.

Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas suggested in an interview on Sunday that, in the wake of the attack, he supported tightening the state’s gun laws to restrict the carrying of rifles and shotguns in public.

“There should be some way to say I shouldn’t be bringing my shotgun to a Mavericks game or to a protest because something crazy should happen,” said Mr. Rawlings, a Democrat. “I just want to come back to common sense.”



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[Igel]

1. Yes, common sense is good.

However, often when people want to make a point against what they think is unreasonable, they act unreasonably.

That's not justification. That's just understanding.

Oddly, the point that was often made, that black men in such a situation wouldn't be tolerated carrying only broke down when anybody carrying would probably have been a "person of interest." Quiet dogs, like dog whistles lying unused, aren't real noticeable.