An Open Carry AdventureSafe - Responsible - FunDo you carry a gun and sometimes struggle with how to best explain the reasons to your children? In today's politically incorrect society, it's not easy raising kids to understand and respect the Second Amendment. "My Parents Open Carry" was designed to help parents and children have a meaningful discourse on freedom and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.Have fun with Brenna and her family as they turn an otherwise ordinary day into an open carry adventure!
"I believe in the right to bear arms, and as a small business owner, who am I to take it away?"-- Sharma Floyd, who put a sign in the window of Shiloh Brew andChew in Maryville, TN, that "guns are welcome on premises"by KenAccording to a Wall Street Journal "U.S. News" report by Ashby Jones, "Smaller Restaurants Welcome Gun Owners," Shiloh Brew and Chew owner Sharma Floyd is just one of "a small but growing number of independent restaurateurs around the country" who "are rolling out the red carpet" to gun-toters.
In May, she posted a small, paper sign in the window of her restaurant noting that "guns are welcome on premises," above a picture of a handgun. After a local television station ran a story on Ms. Floyd's move in July, business spiked, she said, largely due to an influx of diners carrying concealed weapons.
Ah, a story with a happy ending! The opening Ms. Floyd and those other restaurateurs are exploring is the "wide latitude" that private-business owners have long enjoyed had "to allow or restrict the presence of firearms," even in states where there's no question of the legality of carrying out on the street. "Some," Jones reports, "motivated largely by a perceived anti-gun sentiment arising after the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Conn., have decided to open their doors to guns and their owners."So screw Starbucks, with its request that patrons not bring guns into its more than 12,000 U.S. locations. And screw Sonic, Chipotle, and Chili's Grill and Bar, which "made similar requests after participants at gun-rights demonstrations brought rifles and semi-automatic weapons into their outlets to advocate for the right to display weapons in public." Meanwhile, "some gun-policy experts suspect that the niche of pro-gun restaurants will grow, alongside some smaller chains that take the opposite approach."Take the experience of Jay Laze, owner of All Around Pizza and Deli in Virginia Beach, VA, who "last year began giving 15% discounts to diners who either were carrying openly or had concealed-carry permits," and says, "Most that come in are responsible and have their guns holstered." Apparently he's unconcerned that only "most that come in are responsible and have their guns holstered." I guess we don't need to know about the others. "It was good for business," Mr. Laze reports, "and I've hopefully educated some folks on the Second Amendment and the right to carry."Ditto Bryan Crosswhite, who gives 10 percent discounts on Wednesdays to customers who bring guns with them into the Cajun Experience in Leesburg, VA, and
said he, too, had experienced no serious problems with his program, adding that he won't serve alcohol to patrons openly carrying. On occasion, he said, people used his restaurant to showcase some of their more serious firearms. "I had a guy show up with an AR-15," he said. "I told him to go home."
"No serious problems," eh? Isn't that usually the case before the first serious problems develop? And what's with denying those guys exercising their freedom to carry their freedom to drink? Not to mention sending the guy with the AR-15, er, packing? What about the Second Amendment? Is Mr. Crosswhite perhaps in need of some of Mr. Laze's educating on the Second Amendment and the right to carry?WHY DO YOU NEED A GUN IN A RESTAURANT? MAYBE FOR THE SAME REASON YOU NEED A GUN IN CHURCHWhich brings us back to that exciting book-form "Open Carry Adventure," My Parents Open Carry. (Don't try to puzzle out the grammar of the title. There isn't any. I guess if you've got guns, you don't need no stinking grammar.) And I say es, you bet! Let's all "have fun with Brenna and her family" -- as they show some smelly homeless guy that he can too dance if he's really motivated, and as they make some ethnically suspect low-life they mistake for a hold-up guy in the 7-Eleven crap his pants! Hey, it's fun for the whole family, so let's go ahead and turn an otherwise ordinary day into an open carry adventure!And here you were thinking -- admit it now! -- that gun crazies are just guys afflicted with Tiny Penis Syndrome, that plus maybe gals who want to show they're as tough as anybody with a penis. Now it turns out that "open carry" isn't just for church (next time that soft-headed pastor'll think twice before he yammers on about "equality?) and for restaurants. No, it's fun for the whol danged family! Can't you think of many an "otherwise ordinary day" you would have just loved to be able to "turn into an open carry adventure"?The Raw Story's Scott Kauman began his report (links onsite):
The co-founders of Michigan Open Carry have published a children’s book extolling the virtues of having fun while openly brandishing loaded firearms.My Parents Open Carry tells the story of “13-year-old Brenna Strong along with her mom, Bea, and her dad, Richard [spending] a typical Saturday running errands and having fun together,” according to the book’s official site. However, “[w]hat’s not so typical is that Brenna’s parents lawfully open carry handguns for self-defense.”The book’s authors, Brian Jeffs and Nathan Nephew, claim that they were inspired to write the book because they “looked for pro-gun children’s books and couldn’t find any. Our goal was to provide a wholesome family book that reflects the views of the majority of the American people, i.e., that self-defense is a basic natural right and that firearms provide the most efficient means for that defense.”In an interview with Armed American Radio, the official radio program of The United States Concealed Carry Association, Jeffs and Nephews said that the book represents “an open carry adventure” in which the Strong family goes to the grocery store and the book store and confronts people.Nephews said that “it’s a good book” not just for children, but for friends and neighbors too. “It will help put people at ease,” because it’s parents, not children, who are alarmed when people openly carry firearms. “Most kids aren’t scared of a gun,” he said, “that’s another good point this book tries to make.”
Scott proceeded to cite the consternation of Elizabeth Law, a children’s and young adult editor and publisher, who tweeted, beneath a good-size reproduction of the book's cover, "When I say this leaves me speechless, I'm of course referring to the blindingly gorgeous cover art."Meanwhile, a report on Australia's news.com website cut to the heart of the matter with a report called "Is 'My Parents Open Carry' the creepiest kids book ever?"#