Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Not helping...

If you're just rambling around Phoenix, AZ with your slung AR-15 and decide you need a cup of coffee, the Starbucks at Sky Harbor should probably not be your first choice of places to wet your whistle.

You're not helping, Peter Steinmetz.

As my roomie pointed out, there are plenty of pictures of IDF reservists somehow managing to enjoy a frappaccino without unslinging their shootin' iron and muzzling passersby. (And, as I replied, the only reason the IDF reservists in question are carrying those AR-15s is because they have to be armed and aren't issued pistols; a restriction that does not apply to private citizens in Arizona. Steinmetz could have had a sidearm conveniently strapped to his belt leaving both his hands free and not caused a tenth the fuss, but I presume that would not have suited his purposes.)
.

36 comments:

Jennifer said...

I'll all out of facepalm this morning, so he just gets "the look"

Windy Wilson said...

This is pure speculation, and perhaps a bit of projection, two things the Left do frequently and regularly when they compare desiring to own, carry and know how to use guns for self defense with owning and using for penis-compensatory purposes and as phallic symbols.

Some of the open carry dorks have said they do so in the hopes of normalizing the sight of rifles in public. I think the comparable model in their minds is something in the manner of blacks sitting at lunch counters 50 years ago. After all, it is a "similar" civil right.

I must remind them that 50 years ago, in addition to suffering arrests, firehoses, dogs, beatings, and murder, the civil rights workers had the indisputable advantage of a Federal judiciary that was on their side.

All Mr. Provocateur and others of his ilk will accomplish is the passage of laws banning open carry except (perhaps) during hunting season, and prosecuting concealed carriers who happen to accidentally flash or print.

Good going, guys; whose side are you on anyway?

Matt said...

What a Maroon! While open carry is legal and not rare in AZ, open carry of long-arms outside of hunting is a rarity. Some jurisdictions might consider it brandishing a weapon. It appears the Airport police were able to handle it without armored vehicles, platoons of armored officers and artillery support.

Kendal Black said...

The open carry activism/agitation we're seeing these days does not pass the smell test for me. It works against gun owners' interests, causing adverse press, negative legislation and more and more businesses prohibiting guns.

So in effect the people doing this stuff are not our friends; look at their continuous bad outcomes, not their pro-gun rhetoric. I can't fathom their motives but I can certainly say when someone is working against my interests.

http://shootery.blogspot.com/2014/07/open-silliness.html

Scott J said...

As Col. Cooper wrote many times the pistol is a defensive weapon and the rifle an offensive weapon.

Open carry of a pistol indicates you are prepared for defense.

Open carry of a long arm indicates you are prepared to go on offense. In other words looking for a fight. That "fight" might simply be bagging some game for your table but it's not defense.

And, yes, I know things aren't always as cut and dry as Cooper expressed but I think we'd all be a lot better off if we tried to get closer to that view rather than make everything just a bunch of blurry lines.

Anonymous said...

Further puzzlement. He claims his only business at the airport was to buy a cup of coffee. Now even if I liked Starbucks coffee, I would not think of going to the airport for it. If nothing else, the parking hassle. I am guessing he intended to cause maximal discomfort to antgun folks.
Kishnevi

Anonymous said...

Building on Windy Wilson, may I suggest a parallel: a black man goes into a restaurant and is nicked for "lewd conduct" towards a white woman and her daughter. Other blacks want to know, "Man, what were you thinking??? Whose side are you on???"

While I don't know what happened, it certainly seems possible that the woman is as zealously anti-gun as Steinmetz appears to be pro, and she started shrieking the moment she SAW the gun. "He POINTED it at me!!!"

The cops, as they are required to do (and, perhaps, wanted to do) dutifully nicked Steinmetz for doing nothing more unthreatening than unslinging.

Tam said...

docjim505,

If I had a dollar for every time Cletus stuck an AR muzzle up my nose while unslinging at a gun show, I'd have those three FNH SCARs I want.

Scott J said...

And for the record I've done the open carry of long arms in public thing. I was here and our point was in fact to show a willingness to fight (and likely die considering how out of shape I am in that picture)

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2010/10/gideon-three-hundred-and-success-of.html

Ed Skinner said...

Maybe he caught some neurologocal thing at work? Blame the employer. They have deep pockets.

staghounds said...

Jail is a good place for him.

Anonymous said...

Now, I'm a long-time Arizonan, and believe any law-abiding citizen should be able to go anywhere with a rifle or a pistol.
Without legal or social poo-poohing.
In a proper Republic, this would be so.

Having said that(as this isn't a proper Republic) there's such a thing a poking the bear.

What A Maroon!

gfa

Cormac said...

Director of Neuroengineering?

Even the smart can do the dumb

Gay_Cynic said...

We are, thankfully, far from the point where the "rooftop solution" or revolution are valid approaches - long may it remain so.

Further, I while I believe it should remain lawful, I believe that every shred of derision and scorn heaped upon those who engage in the open carry of long arms is in fact merited.

While we are making progress, "baby steps" and incrementalism are our friends in winning back gun rights - not in your face confrontation that frightens the fence-sitters into the welcoming arms of the gun control bigots.

Open carry of sidearms? I'm mostly ok with it as long as it is "carrying" rather than "carrying at."

This ain't my first time in the barrel, and as a former Pride co-chair I am pretty supportive of the whole normalization notion - but to the folks OC'ing long arms? You are doing it wrong - normalization happens in doses digestible to your target audience, not in doses that send them running for the hills.

GC

reno sepulveda said...

Fighting and dying is just like everything else... the people that talk about it the most are the people prepared to do it the least.

Anonymous said...

Going to the airport for coffee does not pass the smell test.

I hope your enjoying your 15 minutes of fame.

Gerry

Drang said...

Thank you, Windy Wilson, for articulating for me what I have fumble-mouthed trying to explain to OC activists. Do you wish attribution the next time I give one of them what-for?

Old NFO said...

I[m really beginning to believe these are a lot of false flag ops...

David Neylon said...

Sky Harbor is definitely not an airport you just drop into for coffee even it is on the way to work, which it is for Steinmetz. And it should be noted that this is the second time he pulled this stunt when both he and his son went OC to pick up his wife at the airport. He was carrying a rifle that time too but since it never left his shoulder there were no charges brought.

wizardpc said...

Looking at the guy's facebook page, it would have to be a very, very long con for this to be a false flag.

Hanlon's Razor

Bubblehead Les. said...

Well, as Director of Neuroenginneering, perhaps the Doctor should tell his Staff to install some COMMAN SENSE into his Brain Stem the next time there's an OR Opening!

Sidheshooter said...

Unless someone else gets posted first: aside from the fact that OC'ing a rifle at an airport shows a retarded sense of civic responsibility, period, there is this: if he was just standing around, IDF style with his AR, he's primarily guilty of seriously stunted emotional development. It's possible that the women reacted out of bare fear--and while that's still sort of on him, it's a bit open to debate.

But if he un-slinged his rifle and was indeed muzzling folks? How is that any different than taking out your 1911 or G17 in an airport and waving it around?

I wasn't there, and it's up to the cops to ferret out the specific level of his idiocy meter, but if the women's complaints are to be taken at face value, this guy all but started making "pew-pew" noises with his weapon.

The length of said piece hardly matters in that case. He's a witch; burn him.

Stuart the Viking said...

Take any of the rifle OC loon pictures where the rifle is not at sling arms and replace the rifle in the picture with a handgun. Hey look! A crime!

I don't know why these loons think that walking around with a loaded firearm "at the ready" is OK when it's a rifle when it sure isn't OK when it's a handgun.

s

Cincinnatus said...

Frankly, the last time I flew out of Sky Harbor for a gaming con, I was so outrageously overcharged for a beer and stale chips that I could have thought of a use for an AR. Hmmm ... maybe that is why that crappy bar was inside secure area ...

Cincinnatus said...

That said, odds are good that I would have dialed 911 if I saw this clown myself.

OldTexan said...

I have to use my judgement about what is reasonable and normal and when I see someone carrying a long gun I look to see if the action is open and the magazine is our of the gun. I the person is carrying into a gun show or gun store that fits in with normal behavior, no problem.

If I am sitting drinking coffee and someone comes in with an AR and takes it off his shoulder I am wondering how fast I might need defend myself and what the hell is going on. Is this a guy coming to get coffee or it is a disturbed person, off his meds, getting ready to make headlines?

The unknown and irregular behavior of these guys makes even gun people nervous. The fact that they dress kind of like they should be mowing the lawn or changing oil does not help and if they decide to get a group and all dress the same in full GI Joe camo that would make me even more nervous.

Please don't mix gun causes with street theater and muddy up the issue of open carry. I hope see open carry in Texas in the next few years and stunts like this don't help us.

KM said...

Going to the airport for coffee does not pass the smell test.

^^^This^^^
I can barely get myself to go to Sky Harbor when there's someone to pick up, let alone for a freakin cup of coffee.
Would these idiots please STOP!!

Tam said...

https://www.facebook.com/peter.n.steinmetz

Windy Wilson said...

Gay_Cynic talks about baby steps, and the recent DC case is a good move in the right direction. To expand on my blacks at the lunch counter metaphor, there were many cases between Plessey and Brown, and there was a reason that the brave activists did not do their freedom riding and lunch counter sitting in the 1920's after a couple of intermediate cases were won. The time was not yet right, the public did not yet have the necessary beliefs to make the extension to the next stage.

And D.W. Drang, I always believe in proper attribution where possible.

KevinC said...

And to make things ever weirder, he's the Director of the Barrow Neurological Institute, one of the most-respected brain surgery centers in the world.

The man works with head cases every day, and then he goes and does something like this.

I leave the state, and things like this start happening.

Coincidence?

Noah said...

At the risk of trimming the fur on my wookiee suit, might I suggest that an IDF reservist and John C.C.W. Public are in somewhat different categories of 'what's reasonable and proper to tote around town'?

KM said...

Kev, you were still here the first time he did it! ;)

He was a big deal there no doubt but he's actually more researcher than 'Director' of BNI.
(according to my sources)
BNI's web page has been almost scrubbed of this dolt.

Karl said...

All of us lose when compared to the more enlightened, more evolved culture of the IDF.

Just My 2¢ said...

From the article:
"The website of St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix said Steinmetz was a director of its neuroengineering program."

OMG! The guy really might be a brain surgeon!

Please, somebody pull down his pants and kick him in the head.

george pace said...

Anyone have the url for the video of him muzzle sweeping? The only videos I can find are after the fact with the police escorting him to a seat and then arresting him. No results at all of a search on the Today Show website where Tam claims she saw the video. I'd like to see it. Thanks.

george pace said...

Oh. It turns out that video I saw WAS the supposed "muzzle sweep"... I didn't see it, did you? Where is it? Another witness claims there was no muzzle sweep. If that is the video of the "muzzle sweep" then all the people claiming this guy is "guilty" need to correct themselves. I wonder if those of you condemning him for unsafe handling will offer apologies and correct the record? What about you Tam?