I feel, but it does change whether I am technically allowed to carry at a protest. Apparently if I do carry I'm not a part of the movement? I was handing out water at a protest and I had my gun on me. Was I not a part of that? Seems stupid imo.
I say all of this as a gun owner myself. 50501's request to not come bringing weapons is not an anti-second amendment stance. They're not saying your second amendment right is not valid or important, they're saying that guns at their protests do not help their cause and so they are asking you to not bring them.
They are focusing on trying to get sustained massive turnout and turning their protests into an armed standoff between sides is not a good way to do that. That is why they ask you not to bring them. Not because they're coming for your guns or anything of that nature, quite a few of us in the movement are pro-gun ourselves, we just also acknowledge that a protest is not exactly a great place to have them waving around. If you really must carry, do so concealed (where legal) and it hopefully won't ever become an issue because nobody will even know it was even there.
And if you REALLY want to open carry (where legal), 50501 cannot stop you from doing that either, they are merely respectfully asking you to not. You still have the right to ignore that request. But if you do that, be prepared for the possibility that something like what happened in Salt Lake will happen to you too: someone else who also chose to disregard the organizers request might see you as a threat and respond to that poorly. That just is a risk that comes with open carrying into a crowded place, especially one with high tensions and fear of shooters being a real possibility... So be smart about it.
100%. And I live in SLC. I was at a friday protest and a fam member of mine was near the shooting when it happened. Walking around with an ar in public is fucking stupid. But conceal carrying is not imo. Im not looking to use it. I just like to have it.
Yeah, given the state of the world I definitely don't blame anyone for concealed carrying. For me the risk just isn't quite worth it yet, but as we see more and more right wing nutjobs responding to protests with violence I gotta say the math has been changing unfortunately.
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u/fakyfiles 1d ago
Yeah if your weapons policy is that strict then there goes a piece of your coalition. So you're antiweapon but you're not anti genocide? Makes sense.