Elsewhere...

...someone stated that Open Carry events were damaged by "agent provocateur and how one or two deliberately placed idiots can turn an OC event into the hallmark of bad press for gun carriers."

This particular application of the No True Scotsman fallacy never fails to amaze me.

I replied:

"What the **** is the fascination with "False Flags"? Why can my side not own our own ****ing idiots? Some dude in skinhead drag and shouting sedition while carrying a derped-out WASR at the Open Carry March? Oh, he must be a "deliberately placed" "agent provocateur". No, numbnuts, he's your fellow traveller. Own him. Counsel his ass. Tell him to stop stinking up your event or leave. Police up your own $#!+, people, or it will get policed up for you."

I have no particular beef with open carry. I'm beginning to have a beef with Open Carry.

I carry a gun. Usually there's a shirt over it because I don't feel like hearing about every Cletus's favorite holler points in the course of my daily peregrinations. Sometimes, for reasons of comfort or due to occult legal circumstances, there is not a shirt over it.

I'm not a "CCWer", I'm not an "OCer". I'm not in your Jets or your Sharks. I'm not a Sheepdog. My gun has less emotional freight or symbolic significance to me than my watch and only slightly more than my shoes. It's a thing I carry around so that, should the necessity of fool-shooting be forced upon me, I will have something with which to shoot said fools.

I have no real beef with folks getting together on the courthouse lawn to do some Second Amendment cosplay. It's not my cup of tea, but neither is dressing up like Doctor Who characters or acting out favorite scenes from Anne Rice's kinkier, non-vampire books. If that floats your boat, knock yourself out.

But if, when you're down there waving signs and Gadsden flags and getting your militia on, you notice one of your group is acting like a complete douchefaced weasel and crapping in everybody's punchbowl, don't just have a sudden flareup of Social Anxiety Disorder and scrunch your shoulders and pretend he's a "False Flag Agent Provocateur Deliberately Placed". He's not. And you need to go set him straight, Commander Riker, or he's going to steer your Enterprise right into the Death Star.
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