NathanForrest
Regular Member
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2010
- Messages
- 13
Openly bearing arms, beachgoers cite their rights
Members of a South Bay group hope to win public acceptance of the public display of firearms.
It was clear this was no ordinary community cleanup.
Trash bags? Check.
Gloves? Check.
Glock .45-caliber handgun? Check.
More than a dozen people packing pistols on their hips strolled down the Hermosa Beach strand Saturday, picking up garbage and distributing fliers about the rights of gun owners.
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FOR THE RECORD: A story in Sunday's California section about participants openly carrying firearms at a community cleanup in Hermosa Beach misidentified the coffee shop where the group met at the end of the event. It was the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, not Peet's Coffee & Tea.
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The event was part of a burgeoning and controversial "open carry" movement nationwide promoting the right to carry guns in public. Although carrying a concealed weapon is illegal without a permit, California allows people to openly carry guns in many areas as long as they are unloaded, though they can keep ammunition with them.
Members of South Bay Open Carry, which organized the beach cleanup, said they hope such events will dispel misgivings about gun owners and make carrying a handgun in public more acceptable. Organizers said they turned the event into a cleanup to demonstrate that they are contributing to the community.
"Just because somebody is carrying a gun doesn't mean that they're a criminal," said Scott Brownlie, a 25-year-old firefighter who stood outside Peet's Coffee & Tea with an unloaded Colt M-4 Carbine slung across his back. "If a lot of people were allowed to carry more … there would be a lot less crime."
. . .
But as the gun toters wrapped up the event at Peet's, customer Shawna Johnson said the sight of someone armed in public was unnerving.
"I think people have the right to arms," said Johnson, a biology student at Cal State Channel Islands, "but I think it's unsafe that people carry them on the streets."
Members of a South Bay group hope to win public acceptance of the public display of firearms.
It was clear this was no ordinary community cleanup.
Trash bags? Check.
Gloves? Check.
Glock .45-caliber handgun? Check.
More than a dozen people packing pistols on their hips strolled down the Hermosa Beach strand Saturday, picking up garbage and distributing fliers about the rights of gun owners.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR THE RECORD: A story in Sunday's California section about participants openly carrying firearms at a community cleanup in Hermosa Beach misidentified the coffee shop where the group met at the end of the event. It was the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, not Peet's Coffee & Tea.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The event was part of a burgeoning and controversial "open carry" movement nationwide promoting the right to carry guns in public. Although carrying a concealed weapon is illegal without a permit, California allows people to openly carry guns in many areas as long as they are unloaded, though they can keep ammunition with them.
Members of South Bay Open Carry, which organized the beach cleanup, said they hope such events will dispel misgivings about gun owners and make carrying a handgun in public more acceptable. Organizers said they turned the event into a cleanup to demonstrate that they are contributing to the community.
"Just because somebody is carrying a gun doesn't mean that they're a criminal," said Scott Brownlie, a 25-year-old firefighter who stood outside Peet's Coffee & Tea with an unloaded Colt M-4 Carbine slung across his back. "If a lot of people were allowed to carry more … there would be a lot less crime."
. . .
But as the gun toters wrapped up the event at Peet's, customer Shawna Johnson said the sight of someone armed in public was unnerving.
"I think people have the right to arms," said Johnson, a biology student at Cal State Channel Islands, "but I think it's unsafe that people carry them on the streets."
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