Just a few days after the Georgia governer signed the “guns everywhere” bill into law — basically, just about anybody will be able to carry a gun just about everywhere in Georgia, starting in July — parents pulled their children out of a Little League game because some gun nut was waving a gun around.
According to witnesses who spoke with WSB-TV, the man wandered around the Forsythe County park last Tuesday night showing his gun to strangers, telling them “there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Anyone who was just walking by — you had parents and children coming in for the game — and he’s just standing here, walking around [saying] — ‘You want to see my gun? Look, I got a gun and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ He knew he was frightening people. He knew exactly what he was doing,” said parent Karen Rabb.
Rabb said that the man’s intimidating behavior panicked parents causing them to hustle children who were there to play baseball to safety after the man refused to leave.
“It got to the point where we took the kids and brought them into the dugout and the parents lined up in front of the dugout,” Rabb said.
Police report they received 22 calls to 911 reporting the man.
It turns out the guy had a permit, so the cops couldn’t arrest him. He was right — there was nothing anybody could do about him.
Forsythe Sheriff Duane Piper said that he didn’t believe the parents and children were in any danger
He didn’t believe the children were in any danger. But how can you tell a whackjob who doesn’t intend to shoot from one who does? Whackjobs don’t come with warning lights. Legally, the cops can’t do anything until after the shooter starts shooting and kills a few people.
Parent Paris Horton, whose son was playing on the baseball diamond at the time of the incident, questioned the man’s motives.
“Why would anyone be walking around a public park, with a lot of children and parents and people here playing baseball, and he’s walking around with a gun?” said Horton. “I don’t think the parents would have been nervous had he just had the gun in his holster and was just watching the game.”
Why do jerks do anythng? Because they’re jerks, that’s why. He was enjoying the power. He was enjoying frightening people. This won’t be the last time this happens.
Get used to it, Georgia. Maybe you should keep your kids in bullet-proof vests, just in case the next whackjob takes it a bit further.
The NRA is setting us up for a reign of terror by armed assholes.
Whackjobs don’t come with warning lights. 🙂
It might be a good idea to introduce legislation requiring whackjobs to wear a flashing yellow light on their head. Actually the whackjobs would probably be amenable to such a proposal because it would give them the attention that they seek in the first place and it would weigh a lot less than carrying around a loaded assault weapon. Well, nah, maybe not. Once they stop carrying around a loaded weapon they wouldn’t be a whackjob. I think.
It probably won’t be the last time. It will probably end up that people who would never have otherwise been inclined to go around their daily lives armed to the teeth, will break down and start carrying just to protect themselves from the crazies…..and when we’re all paranoid and afraid of everyone else on the street, the NRA will have achieved their final victory.
I wonder what the laws in Forsyth County say about “public intimidation”? He might have had the right to carry the gun, but the way he was acting clearly was intimidating others.
Anyone who desperately wants a gun, is the exact person who shouldn’t ever have a gun.
Congratulations, GA!
You’re now another state that’s too small to be a country, but too large to be an insane asylum.
“Anyone who was just walking by – you had parents and children coming in for the game – and he’s just standing here, walking around [saying] ‘You want to see my gun? Look, I got a gun and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ “
I wonder if that dude was substituting for his desire to wave something else in front of those little kids.
The NRA is setting us up for a reign of terror by armed assholes.
Dare I say, “Mission accomplished.”
NC is an “open carry” state. But, I ever saw anyone “packing” until about a month ago. The open carry is primarily meant for rural areas. A person carrying in our town would be cited for disturbing the peace. That’s kind of kept us on the sane side of Deadwood, so far.
The gun aficionados, to use a politically correct term, often assert that once people get used to seeing others carrying in public, they will realize that guns are a welcome and comforting presence. You know, the old “armed society is a polite society” stuff. To most people, this sounds insane, with good reason.
When some “good guy with a gun” takes advantage of his right to “stand his ground,” often the “good guy” explains that he feared for his life because, it appeared that the other (“bad”) guy, “had a gun.” Evidently, it was not one of the welcome and comforting guns, but some other variety, which the members of the “2nd Amendment community” can quickly and accurately differentiate.
The thought of the parents forming a defensive line to protect their children in the dugout, is chilling. It is probably best not to imagine what might have happened if the guy with the gun had the intention of harming people. Maybe they should have taken a page from the brave militia members’ book and put the women and children up front, toward the gunman, like the stalwart defenders of Bundy would have done.
Events like this really seem to weigh in on the side of expatriation.
By the way, Swami, sometimes I think you are a genius!
“The NRA is setting us up for a reign of terror by armed assholes”
All part of the plan, the NRA wants more assholes like this shmuck, they will scare the shit out of people who in turn will buy more guns to protect themselves. More money for the arms industry, that’s the point, the 2nd amendment is being used as a marketing tool!
If I “stood my ground” by killing this jerk, because he would scare me, would I be justified in the eyes of the law? Let’s hope nobody gets killed in the crossfire.
My favorite part is the scared parent working overtime to somehow fit this into her beliefs on the second amendment.
“I own a gun. I have no problems with the Second Amendment. But they do not belong in a parking lot where we have children everywhere. If you want to make a statement, go to the Capitol,” said Rabb
I own a gun too. And I believe that Americans should have a right to own a firearm for hunting, self defense or sport shooting, but this should come with huge responsibilities and restrictions and should be subject to immediate revocation. But this is nuts.
Why do we as a society continue to allow this man to carry a weapon around? He is clearly not capable of responsible and safe gun use. What behavior is it going to take for us to take someones guns away? Or is that just something the right and the gun lobbies pretend to believe in after every publicized shooting?
Of course, it was the Republicans who came up with this concept of the executive unilaterally declaring someone to be an enemy combatant. At some point pretty soon that might be useful when dealing with the NRA.
If I “stood my ground” by killing this jerk, because he would scare me, would I be justified in the eyes of the law?
Just shoot the cops too. Then you don’t have to worry about it.
I work with three guys who carry concealed weapons. Each has said things that make me question their sanity. They don’t seem to value human life, but maybe that’s just false bravado. I consider my cell phone to be my weapon of choice. There have been several times when some funky stuff was going on and I simply held up the phone, announced the cops had been called, and the bad boys hauled ass. Once was in Miami when two black teens were throwing rocks at an elderly homeless couple, another in saint Pete, when a disgruntled young white thug was harassing a young mom and her young daughter.just hold up the phone and say the cops are on the way and I have your photo, and I emailed it to the cops.
That’s clearly Disturbing the Peace. If stopped a little league game without a gun, the cops would thrown him in jail.
Late to the party, but …
A bit of fact not possible in the rush to publish world might be useful in this discussion.
Forsyth County is, at best, schiziod. It’s the first county north of Fulton, essentially undisturbed until recently, too hilly to farm in any major way, with no real manufacturing and only local businesses to drive the tax base. Forsyth is where the Klan held weekly (then as the crowds stopped coming, monthly) parades and rallies at the courthouse; they finally stopped in the 90s as change finally reached in and slapped the past aside. The northern part is thinly settled, and you hear lots of angry muttering about the way them city folks is takin’ over (and it’s true). The southern section of the county, where hardly anyone lived thirty years ago, was scraped, denuded and paved in the 90s, in preparation for an anticipated flood of NIMBYs and yuppies attempting escape from Atlanta, beyond the reach of mass transit and all those ‘urban problems’. The developers had already exploited the south side of the metro area, until that has become a morass of strip malls, flimsy housing and minivans. But Forsyth was virgin land, ripe and ready for ‘better communities’. We’re not talking Section 8 here, folks.
And they came, bought McMansions, and bred, massively. By the mid 90s they outvoted the rest of the county and began to force changes. New sheriff, sales tax riders to fund school finance, bonding for sewer construction, general modernizations, almost all in that southern portion of the county. Because the rest of it is still bubbaland, trucks and gun racks and loud bars and jobs somewhere else. Eventually, Bubba noticed, and he is still pissed.
That Little League field is in southern Forsyth, where they vote republican but are highly unlikely to carry. I’ll wager a round of draft beer BubbaWithHisGun is from the north part of the county. Because if there was even a little league field near his trailer, and he pulled his act there in front of BubbaMoms, they’d have gone right after him with locked and loaded ’47s and this story would turn out a lot different.
Small disclosure: I lived in Forsyth, 1996-2001, a mile west of the ‘supper club’ that had an Elvis impersonator every Friday and Saturday for fifteen years. Saw it happen.
Thanks, semi. I can picture this.
“Time wounds all heels” –I always attributed that to Soupy Sales, but maybe he just popularized it.
I think Doug put it right. The last thing they want, or think that they want, is cooler heads prevailing. A hot response might not set off a revolution, but it would almost certainly ignite the minds of several hundred armed wingnuts across the country who are just waiting for the moment and a cause celebre as the excuse to do something horrible. A violent response, or even a lesser confrontation would validate their fantasies. Without a response, it will just be a couple of sweaty, uncomfortable weeks in the bugs and sand.
One of the psychological attributes that a lot of whackos seem to share is a tendency towards magical thinking. Maybe I am wrong, but I have no doubt that a lot of them think that they will spark a glorious revolution and live to bask in the glory. Maybe they feel sure of receiving their reward in heaven as well as in the history books. In their fevered minds, the harsh reality of battle is eclipsed, and they will be magically protected by their guns because they are “good guys.”
Sorry, I meant to post the previous comment on “Get along little wingnuts.” Personally, I blame a fault in my computer!