Sitting Duck Policy

In the state of Utah it’s legal to openly carry an unloaded firearm so long as you’re not in a prohibited or restricted place. If you have a Concealed Firearm permit you can carry conceal that firearm, or carry it loaded, or both. But according to an opinion by the Attorney General, a Concealed Firearm Permit, although it allows one to carry a firearm concealed, does not compel or require that the firearm be concealed.

It’s not uncommon for law enforcement officers to be ignorant of the law. In fact, although ignorance of the law isn’t a defense for you and I, LEOs are actually incentivized to be ignorant of the law! If a LEO isn’t familiar with a law, he or she isn’t held accountable for harassing someone due to that ignorance. However, if it can be proven that they were familiar with the law, they can be in big trouble for enforcing the law incorrectly.

Such is the case with the audio-recorded incident involving an open-carrier with a permit to carry concealed in Philadelphia, PA. The audio is divided up into four segments about 15 minutes each.

Source: http://www.usacarry.com/philadelphia-open-carrier-harassed-by-police-with-audio/

Due to the public outcry over their harassment and intimidation of two whistleblower campus cops, the University of Utah backed down from their threats to fire them for releasing their “super secret anti-gun policy.”

USSC broke this story to local news media, as well as legislators and the Attorney General, who all jumped on the U of U for their inappropriate and likely illegal actions.

The U of U should be glad they did not press this issue, as USSC had further evidence that would have resulted in huge financial costs to them if they went through with their threats to fire the officers!

USSC is working with the Legislature on measures to stop this latest academic anti-gun paranoia, by clarifying any ambiguous areas in the laws regarding guns on campus.  (Of course, criminals ignore all laws, so they are just discriminating against law abiding citizens.)

As you may know, California Assemblywoman Saldana’s open carry ban AB 1934 has passed the Senate Public Safety Committee. Traditionally, the next step a bill would take is to be heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee which in this case would happen on Monday July 12th, 2010.

However, AB 1934 has been recommended to bypass the Appropriations Committee and proceed directly to the floor of the Senate for an up or down vote. This recommendation is based upon the fact that the bill is reported to have a fiscal impact of less than $50,000.

You and I both know this is incorrect because in a post McDonald environment, unloaded open carry (though far from perfect) is the only self-defense option available to millions of Californians who are not sufficiently politically connected to receive one of the arbitrarily issued concealed carry permits. Therefore, passage of AB 1934 would subject the taxpayers of California to hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees defending Second Amendment challenges.

And should AB 1934 make it past the Appropriations Committee, either via a bypass or by passage, a final floor vote is expected in early August.

This means that we have less than a month to ensure that Senators are aware of the fiscal, legal and public policy ramifications of voting for this misguided anti-civil-rights bill.

At OpenCarry.org, we have been trying to spread the word via radio ads. Listen to one of our ads at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgJmg1lVQ7M . To date, we have spent $2,480 on ads but have only raised $1,205 in donations. While Mike and I are glad to spend money out of our own pockets for these campaigns, we simply cannot afford to run the ads that are necessary to combat this bill without your support.

If you are able, please go to our donation page at http://www.opencarry.org/goldenstate.html and give as generously as you can! EVERY PENNY GIVEN GOES DIRECTLY TO THE RADIO ADS!

And even if you cannot support the effort financially, if you are a California voter, please contact your Senator and let them know that you expect them to vote against AB 1934! Go to http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html and enter your zip code to find contact information for your Senator.