Yelling Fire

A nifty thought occured to me as I lay awake, suffering insomnia last night...or maybe the night before. It's illegal to yell fire to spark panic. Heh, odd thought, but it got me thinking more on concealed carry, hell, even open carry, and the common argument that banning those two things can be equated to the nonexistant (Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969)) ban on yelling fire in a crowded place because it will probably cause panic and hurt people.

The thought begin to fester as I contemplated it. I always thought something was wrong with that argument. I realize now that it is the threat of imminent harm. It's a step beyond argument, using an unstated logical step, you see, you have to shoot someone to cause harm with a gun (unless it's a .25 ACP, then you have to actually beat someone with the thing.), and there's no statistics that show that carrying a gun will cause panic; and concealed carry minimizes that side of the argument nearly completely. By taking the logical step that someone who carries will undoubtedly shoot someone, and then establishing that as the point to argue, the anti-gunners make a persuasive argument, and it's really hard to latch onto what's wrong with the statement, but the fact of the matter is, carrying a gun is not shooting someone.

I've carried before, legally, and nobody is ever the wiser. I live in Texas, and I don't have my permit, so it rides in my backpack, unloaded, or in my car, loaded. If anybody asks, I'm taking it to the range later in the day (Please ask, I always love an excuse to go to the range), Texas legal I call it. I've never generated a panic, because nobody sees it, and in 3 months of carry I've never shot anybody, nor have I ever needed to draw the weapon. I'm not yelling fire in a crowded area, I'm just carrying a weapon inconspicuously and legally.

That's my simple view on this one.