California Detective Wants to Shoot Open Carry Advocates
February 14th, 2010 by Syd
It just gets crazier and crazier in La-La Land:
Gun rights advocates have a California police detective in their crosshairs after he apparently posted comments on Facebook advocating that "open carry" supporters should be shot.
East Palo Alto Police Det. Rod Tuason apparently posted the remarks on his Facebook page in response to a friend’s status update, which suggested that gun advocates who carry unloaded weapons openly — which is legal in California — should do so in places like "Oakland, Richmond and East Palo Alto" and not just in "hoity toity" cities.
"Haha we had one guy last week try to do it!" Tuason replied. "He got proned out [laid face-down on the ground] and reminded where he was at and that turds will jack him for his gun in a heartbeat!"
Several comments later, the detective suggested shooting the gun rights advocates, some of whom have carried firearms openly in recent weeks in California’s Bay Area, particularly at Starbucks locations.
"Sounds like you had someone practicing their 2nd amendment rights last night!" Tuason wrote. "Should’ve pulled the AR out and prone them all out! And if one of them makes a furtive movement … 2 weeks off!!!" — referring to the modified duty, commonly known as desk duty, that typically follows any instance in which an officer is investigated for firing his weapon.
Those comments caught the attention of a California attorney and blogger, as well as a Virginia man who started a Facebook group calling for Tuason’s termination.
John Taylor, whose Facebook group had 54 members as of midday Friday, said the Facebook thread confirmed gun owners’ worst fears.
"Any sworn officer who suggests shooting law-abiding citizens for exercising their most basic constitutional rights deserves the full wrath of America’s gun owners," Taylor told FoxNews.com. "It’s an affront."
California’s Penal Code makes it illegal to carry concealed weapons without a county-issued license. But it is legal to carry an unloaded weapon in plain view in a holster. In most cases, it is illegal for an unconcealed weapon to be loaded…
Source: Fox News
I still believe in the First Amendment which guarantees freedom of speech, and I don’t think people should lose their jobs for posting an off-duty rant on their Facebook page, but when the person posting the rant has the capability to back up their misguided opinions with deadly force and malicious prosecution, well, we have a problem.
I will confess to having some mixed feelings about the open carry movement. While it may be within the scope of those rights protected by the Second Amendment, open carry does pose practical and political difficulties. Given the level of violence, terrorism and insanity out there, police officers do face a difficult problem when they see someone carrying a gun. The police officer has to determine the intentions of the gun carrier without trampling on the carrier’s rights. The carrier may be an upstanding citizen and he may be the next mass murderer. Also, in many regions of the country, people just aren’t accustomed to seeing citizens packing guns around, and I do have some concern that this practice could trigger a backlash which could result in more restrictive gun laws.
In the story quoted above, it is clear that this officer is talking about open carry advocates with unloaded guns whose intentions are known. The officer wants to “prone out” these open carry advocates to teach them a lesson, and threaten them or even shoot them with an AR-15, a felony in itself. This is a severe abuse of police power. Because of this, I find these remarks completely reprehensible and I do believe the officer should be disciplined. I wonder how many of his colleagues harbor the same opinions?
It’s SOOOOO nice to know that another “Only One” has the elitist’s best interests at heart. Or is that the sheeple’s interests?
Yes, he has a 1A right to speak, but when it interferes with his judgement to do his job as a LEO, then he needs to, at a minimum, be taken off the streets STAT, before an innocent law-abiding citizen is hurt if not killed by this loose cannon.
There are similar rules and laws in place for stockbrokers and other money handlers against “insider trading”, but one doesn’t hear too much uproar against that as an infringement on 1A free speech.
Ditto for those who handle high security information against passing such info to those outside authorized channels.
Need I say more?
And as for the sheeple who become SOOO afraid at the mere sight of a gun, would they want the LEO “Only One’s” to be similarly disarmed? What would the sheeple do then when they catch sight of a true lawbreaker who is out to rob, rape and kill them? Die of fright? Interesting experiment. . . .
If some body were to make a similar comment about an LEO I’m sure he would face consequences, probably even be labeled a terrorist by the LEA’s.
I do agree that UOC’ing isn’t the best way to carry a gun, but it is the only way to legally carry a gun for self defense in California. If the LEA don’t want this to cause a problem and don’t want the sight of guns in public to disturb the other citizens then there is a simple solution to this. Make the Law regarding issuing CCW’s a shall issue law and not a may issue law as it currently is.
I couldn’t agree more.
“I wonder how many of his colleagues harbor the same opinions?”
go to waronguns.blogspot.com to be unpleasantly surprised… It’s not pretty. Really.
As a police officer here in Arizona where open carry is allowed, I think my California counterpart’s comments were out of line, ignorant and very unprofessional. Thankfully with the addition of a CCW permit system here, the number of people carrying out in the open is fewer, but still present. Yes we do have people who like to carry openly which is fine, but that does create problems at times. The problem? Folks from other parts of this nation particulary the east coast (or left coast) tend to ‘freak’ when they see pistols being carried in the open. Luckily, most AZ cops are used to it and we don’t freak especially if the person is carrying the weapon in a holster plainly visible. How many felons carry in the open? Uhh, NONE! That’s right, they hide it anyway they can. I’m not afraid of the folks who carry openly, I know they have a gun. Like Syd said in the article, I think that discretion and a little common sense is a good thing. What people can’t see won’t hurt them. Thats why I urge the open carry folks I’ve had contact with to get a permit. That way they will have fewer conversations with the police. Most agree and say they will get one. When a person is hunting or just hiking in the sticks, who cares how he/she carries their piece. They opinionated detective shouldn’t be terminated but maybe he needs some disciplinary time off and a trip to “love camp”.