Yours portly is still playing catch-up from a combination of end-of-the-school-year-busyness and post-vacation-readjustment. I know the blog has been short on substantive content lately; unfortunately, I simply lack the time and energy to put more into it at the moment.
I have a busy weekend of non-blog writing ahead (mostly stuff for the Town of Lamar), and precious little time today to work.
Last night (Thursday, 9 May 2024) the Town’s Police Department hosted an event with SC SLED (basically, the “FBI” for South Carolina) to discuss the implications of our new constitutional carry bill. There is a great deal of handwringing over the idea of hot-headed eighteen-year olds blowing each other way now that they can carry openly, but when I asked the SLED agent if any of the other thirty-four States with constitutional carry had experienced an uptick in these emotional bouts of lethal violence, he waffled, saying that “it varies from State to State.” My entire impression is that this law enforcement officer didn’t really know what he was talking about.
I love the police, but like engineers, they tend to look at an issue from only one angle, usually that of safety. Safety isn’t necessarily the enemy of liberty, but it frequently is. Eighteen-year olds are still going to blow each other away in the heat of the moment; now we can just see the ones stupid enough to display their $500 handgun on their hips. There’s a lot of hysteria over the new law, but not much thoughtful reflection.
Let a thousand handguns bloom.
The Portly Politico 
I had to laugh – years ago I lived in Atlantic City, NJ. I, with my husband of that time, used to frequent a local diner to just sort of hang out and chat with other locals. One evening a new person arrived – a young, fresh-faced, newly minted police officer. Nice kid – we enjoyed chatting with him. We asked him about the effort required to join the police force and he excitedly shared with us. As he was leaving, he remarked that he couldn’t wait until he got his gun. We smiled and nodded and he left. My husband and I looked at each other, up under our eye brows, if you know what I mean. Phew! Hope I’m never going to be on the street when he’s finally armed, was our consensus.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ha! Yes, there are tons of great cops, but some make you wonder. My view on law enforcement has become much more nuanced as I’ve worked with them more. There’s a reason we have civilian oversight.
LikeLike
I will hazard the guess that constitutional carry will result in a small uptick in firearm-related violence. Small. Small enough to be lost in the statistical noise of any real study of violence and injury, and not much more than that in any study of purely firearm-related assaults, injuries, and/or deaths.
Yeah, some young bucks will go armed and the police won’t be “able to do anything about it” – quoted because rousting is normal. And, some small number of them, probably drunk somewhere, will be stupid. It’s just, so far, never been many of them at all. This is especially true because most people who decide to carry because they no can stop doing it regularly within weeks or months because going strapped is a pain in the butt.
Hell, the bigger issue is going to be the lost pistols lying around. 😆 Heck, I was walked out the restroom at a Denny’s (maybe a Wags) with a nice Sig pistol I found beside the toilet and called out for whoever owned it. Oh the walk of shame for that dude.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your guess is the same one I am making. When I asked about the other States with constitutional carry, I specifically asked if there had been a “statistically significant” uptick in gun violence/use of guns in emotional exchanges. The non-answer I received told me the dude from SLED did not know.
The whole argument that “police won’t be able to stop people simply for displaying a firearm” (which is in the new law—woooot!) is a weak one. Let’s face it—if the police want to arrest you, they will come up with a reason to do it. I don’t think that’s a reckless statement on my part. There’s a charge for everything, and they’ll figure out what they can allege to detain you.
Hahahaha! Man, what an embarrassing situation for that guy. “I lost my handgun in the men’s room at Denny’s.” Great story.
LikeLike