When Persuasion Fails, Gun Control Groups Resort to Fearmongering

<img src="http://cfif.org/v/images/sections/when-persuasion-fails-gun-control-grou... align = "right">The clash between Americans who exercise their constitutional right to bear arms and proponents of gun control appears to be escalating. Restrictionists have lost in Congress and in all but a notable handful of states. They have lost in the courts of law. That leaves only the court of public opinion.

Most states allow citizens to carry firearms openly. Many of those same states allow law-abiding citizens to carry concealed as well, if they obtain a permit.

Anti-gun groups don’t like to see guns in public. They don’t like to see guns in private. They don’t like guns, period. So the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has launched a campaign urging its members and sympathizers to report anyone they see openly carrying a gun. Never mind what they may be doing.

“If you see someone carrying a firearm in public — openly or concealed —and have ANY doubts about their intent, call 911 immediately and ask police to come to the scene,” the group wrote on its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CoalitiontoStopGunViolence?ref=br_rs">Facebook</a> page. “Never put your safety, or the safety of your loved ones, at the mercy of weak gun laws that arm individuals in public with little or no criminal and/or mental health screening.”
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As <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/01/gun-control-groups-accused-swatting... News</a> reported this week, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence is a bit late in jumping on this foolhardy bandwagon. “The Facebook pages and websites of groups including the coalition, Moms Demand Action and GunFreeZone.net included numerous comments from the public advocating that people call the police and intentionally exaggerate what they see in the hopes of getting cops to stop those open-carrying guns.”

The danger here should be obvious. Somebody calls the police to report a man with a gun. Perhaps the caller exaggerates what he sees. The police respond expecting a confrontation, and tragedy results. It’s happened before.

Police in Beavercreek, Ohio last year responded to a 911 call that a man was “walking around with a gun” in a WalMart, that he “just put some bullets inside,” and was “pointing it at people.” When officers arrived, they confronted 22-year-old John Crawford and shot him to death. Crawford was on his cell phone at the time and may not have been aware of what was happening until it was too late.

Read more at http://cfif.org/v/index.php/commentary/54-state-of-affairs/2747-when-per... or http://j.mp/1Qf5kbJ