Said often enough to friends and family who might be compelled to testify after said incident, or published repeatedly on a blog which might be introduced as evidence, this has the potential to do tremendous damage if it happens, with the added benefit of making us all look like Neanderthals in the meantime.

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/020026.php

Fortunately, that doesn’t apply to our friend, Mr. Numbskull, since he admits he doesn’t have a permit. Y’know, since concealed carry restrictions are unconstitutional, and all that.

And how! Small historical footnote, but it seems that nearly exactly this kind of scenario described by the commenter (albeit with open carry rather than concealed) is what prompted the shooting of Texas outlaw Sam Bass:

(excerpt from Wikipedia):
Bass was able to elude the [Texas] Rangers until a member of his gang, Jim Murphy, turned informant when his father was imprisoned in Tyler, Texas. He cut a deal to save his father, and informed the lawmen about the gang’s plans and movements. As Bass’s band rode south, Murphy telegraphed Major John B. Jones, commander of the Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers.

Jones set up an ambush at Round Rock, where Bass planned to rob the Williamson County Bank. On July 19, 1878, Bass and his gang scouted the area before the actual robbery. When they bought some tobacco at a store (Sam was actually also buying candy – as he had a sweet tooth), they were noticed by Williamson County Sheriff A.W. (Caige) Grimes. Grimes did not even recognize the gang, rather he noticed that they had side arms, and Texas had passed a law requiring that all side arms be surrendered when entering town. Grimes approached the men to request that they surrender their sidearms, not knowing it was Bass and Co., and because he was blocking the entrance, was shot and killed. Grimes only got off one round before he died, and a heavy gunfight ensued between the outlaws, the Rangers and the local lawmen. A deputy named Moore was mortally wounded, as was Sam Bass.
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Also, a similar issue was at the heart of the events leading up to the shootout at the OK Corral…
(long, but worth reading)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ok_Corral
Upon reading this, Is it just me, or do the Earps come off sounding like BATFE agents of their day?

Both laws in both cases were, seems to me, patently unconstitutional, but perhaps the lesson to draw is like the ditty to the People’s Court used to put it, “don’t take the law into your own hands, you take ‘em to court…”

…Though in both the above cases, both sets of perps seem to have had what today we’d call a “rap sheet”. Wouldn’t have been ideal “test cases”, in other words.

I’m no legal scholar, and I do know much of modern “gun control” came from Southern Whites acting against freed Blacks in the post-Civil War Reconstruction era and Jim Crow…and it’s an excellent historical talking point, but how much of that actually influenced/impacted these types of city ordinances out west…in Texas and Arizona in the 1870s and 1880s?

We like to rhapsodize about how free gun owners were in the Old West, but already by 1878 in the case of Sam Bass we arguably see increasing infringement on 2A rights…

…I’m guess I’m trying to understand how America went from tolerating open carry and viewing concealed carry as “dastardly” and “unmanly”–to almost the opposite today, with concealed carry being seemingly much more acceptable to many Americans than open carry.

This would be excellent historical material for Stephen Halbrook to dive into, or other 2A legal scholars.

I support the right of open carry in principle, but as a practical matter, I would prefer to carry concealed (and that’s currently my only legal option in Texas, because our state law specifically forbids open carry)–even if it *were* legal for me to open carry here. I’d simply prefer not to draw attention to myself, retaining a potential element of surprise if ever needed.