Gun control advocates can be quite the hysterical bunch. Usually it doesn’t impact us gun owners much since their hysteria usually takes the form of infinite fountains of impotent rage. But once in a while their hysteria leads them to do something that we have no choice but to notice. A gun control advocate in Rochester went and did one of these things:
Matthew Halleck brings his two girls to and from the outskirts of Harriet Bishop Elementary in Rochester every day. “I’m going to protect my children anyway I can,” said Halleck.
For Matthew, that means carrying a concealed gun that he has a permit for, while adhering to all legal boundaries. “It’s not crossing the street here, where the crosswalk is, it’s making sure it’s concealed so the kids can’t see it,” he said.
But Matthew is no longer the only one who knows he’s carrying a gun. Recently a sign went up in a front yard across the street from the school. It has Matthew’s picture on it and reads, “This man carries a loaded gun around your children every day.”
“Since we don’t have a way to stop him, we felt it was important to notify the neighborhood and the parents that there is an armed man in their presence,” said Kimberly Edson, a Rochester resident who put the sign up. “The first couple days of school he had it very visible, we saw it and were quite concerned,” she said.
You can feel her butthurt from across the Internet. According to the story she also called the police on Mr. Halleck but was informed that he wasn’t breaking the law so wouldn’t be arrested (once in a while you get a sensible cop). Mr. Halleck also called the police regarding Mrs. Edson’s sign and was told that she has a First Amendment right to put up such a sign (two sensible responses from the police is rather remarkable).
Obviously there’s nothing Mrs. Edson can do as Mr. Halleck is operating within the law. Likewise, although he’s contemplating a libel lawsuit, there shouldn’t be anything Mr. Halleck can do since Mrs. Edson is exercising her right to expression. But this story does a good job of point out something that should be stated more often: if you don’t want the whole world knowing that you carry a firearm then don’t tell anybody. Concealed means concealed and advertising the fact that you carry a gun means somebody could announce that fact far and wide.