Our Rights Don’t End With Your Fears

Over the last few days there has been a bunch of hyperventing on the left. Blood is going to run in the streets because law abiding people will be allowed to exercise their rights. There are going to be guns where the were not allowed before.

Most of the noise is people that don’t know any better. I’ve had a coworker worry about guns in the office. Since we have clients in our office all the time I said “Likely, we have clients in the office.” She was terrified.

How much more terrified would she have been if she’d known I was carrying at that very moment? Or that my briefcase held a full blowout kit, extra mags and a second 1911?

We’ve had teachers cry to the school board when constitutional carry happened in our state because it meant that parents might have a gun at parent teacher meetings. The school board shut them down because the law exists. What those teachers didn’t understand was that constitutional carry didn’t let parents carry in the schools. That was the “shall issue” CCW. You still need a CCW to legally carry on school property.

A social group I belong to has a number of very outspoken Karens. When they get going on politics they are told “This isn’t a place for politics.” Nevertheless I’ve had to listen to more than one rant about how dangerous it is that people in my state can carry without a permit. How scared they are when they are out in public. I just kept my mouth shut because I was carrying a 1911 IWB strong side. I’d reduced to just one spare mag and had it in my pocket instead of on my belt.

They were afraid and wanted a law.

Today’s article is brought to you by the Karens of Wilmington, NC. They were so frightened when a bunch of Proud Boys came into the library where there was a “pride story time event” going on.

Interestingly, they are described as “far-right extremists”. All the mothers were very very scared and uncomfortable by their presence.

The Karens described that the Proud Boys had angry expressions on their faces which made them feel uncomfortable. They said the group was “loud and disruptive”

More importantly the sheriff’s office issued a statement “There was no disturbance.”

“What we have here is a failure to communicate.” Everybody has a right to protest. Everybody had a right to be in that library. Those Proud Boys were a heck of a lot more respectful than the guests of Democrats in the US Capitol or the “protesters” that have stormed state capitols.

The phrase I grew up with was “I disagree with you but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

I still believe that. The difference is that I’m now defending the rights of conservatives to say what they want while watching so many in power trying to shut down our voices.

“I get it’s a public space, so if people are holding signs outside and they are being peaceful, even if I don’t agree with the things that they are saying, I don’t feel necessarily like my life is in danger. But when a group of known violent people, you know, at that point when those people show up and they’re coming into the library and trying to disrupt the story time. That’s when I felt unsafe and that’s where I felt it was not held appropriately,” Jones said. “And they’re doing that on purpose for sure to intimidate people.”
— WECT Wilmington, NC ‘I felt very unsafe’: Parents speak out after Proud Boys show up at children’s library event

This includes a video but there is no video of any bad behavior on the part of the Proud Boys