It’s raining.
For whatever reason, that’s caused more ducks than usual to congregate around our house. More ducks means more distractions for the kids. 😉 Plus, one mother mallard has 6 chicks (hatched probably just a few days ago), so the cute is irresistible.
The kids were outside tending to the ducks. I was in my office working. Wife was in the kitchen. Kids come back in the house to tell us that an Austin Police Officer drove up, rolled down his window, asked them if they were where they were supposed to be, “We’re homeschooled.”, “Alright.” and off he drove. Will it amount to anything? I don’t know, but I doubt it. We did have another talk with the kids about how to handle such situations. But what got me was what I found myself saying.
You see, Wife was saying how one of our homeschooling mentors always avoided such issues by running her errands after normal school hours. I can understand. We’re doing nothing wrong, we’re doing nothing illegal, but we are doing something that most people aren’t familiar with and “breaks the norm” of what’s expected… thus it has potential to cause trouble and bring headaches and hassles into our lives. So mentor’s approach was to just avoid it because she didn’t want to hassle. Wife doesn’t do that, we don’t lock the kids away and only bring them out when children are supposed to be brought out, but certainly Wife prefers to avoid the hassle.
I found myself saying that no, we can’t do that; we can’t avoid the hassle. Not saying we should flaunt it and invite it, but that if the hassle comes, it comes. What we’re doing is fine, legal, normal; it may not be mainstream, but how are people ever going to get used to it, acknowledge it, accept it, and not flinch or find it strange if we always keep it hidden away? If we always work to avoid the hassle, no one will ever see or know. How does that help or improve the situation? If anything, it could serve to make the situation seem worse because it’s being hidden away and not just openly done.
And I found myself thinking about Open Carry.
It may not be mainstream today, but how else are you going to get it to be mainstream unless you make it so? To hide it away isn’t going to help. Look at any sort of “civil rights” be it homeschooling or gay rights or women’s rights or various ethnic groups. You don’t get to sit at the front of the bus by always hiding at the back of it (by force or by choice).
Still trying to figure out how I stand on open carry, but this little experience certainly has influenced me a bit.
I was inspired to write this due to a comment made by Linoge on Uncle’s website. Thanx, Linoge.
Stuff From Hsoi 
Hsoi,
I said nearly the same thing over at Snowflakes in Hell in response to the poll recently published
So, what do we do with the poll numbers?
That is the real question: Do we hide firearms hoping not to offend someone or do we Openly Carry them and show by our actions that there is no reason for concern?
When you boil down the options, it really comes down to that – doesn’t it?
Do we hide or do we say that this is who we are – responsible gun owners going about our daily business.
Since we can’t Open Carry here in Texas, I’m being more vocal in my advocacy of our rights.
I’m also not hiding my range badge when I’m heading to or from the range and stop for a soda or to run an errand. I’ve had several people ask about it or the Club shirt that I wear.
We can be open about things because we know that it is the ethical, moral and legal position we are advocating.
Great way to tie together seemingly disparate activities into a common mindset.
I didn’t intend to tie it together. As Wife and kids and I were discussing the homeschool event, I found myself talking about “do we hide it?” and all that… and next thought that popped into my head was “Gosh, this sounds in many ways just like the Open Carry debate”. The I was catching up on blogs, saw Linoge’s comment… and figured I should write, since Lingoe has probably been one of the more vocal folks on this avenue.
It’s not even about rights, it’s just about “stuff”. That which we see all the time is normal, that which we don’t is strange. The way to make something normal is to see it all the time; the way to make something seem strange is to shut it down, hide it, suppress it.
Would I like to see open carry in Texas? Yes. I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be allowed. Will *I* open carry? Still don’t know. Politically I get it, but tactically it may not always be sound.
Hsoi,
I don’t know if I would Open Carry often but I would — because of the comfort factor.
And more importantly because of the medical factor. I don’t talk about my Asthma much but it is greatly aggravated by the heat. Adding a cover garment over a t-shirt in the summer time is enough to make a drastic impact.
I would love the option of not having to wear a heavier shirt on a trip to the grocery store or to the movies.
Wonder if there are others like me that suffer and could we make a court case out of it?
Court case? I doubt it.
But that’s another reason to have it: options.
Hm. I wonder if those thoughts ever went through my mother’s mind… we routinely went on errands runs and whatnot during the “school day”, simply because traffic loading at the stores were significantly less than after work. I was just told that if I was asked what I was doing there, to say that I was homeschooled, and that my mother was over that-away. If people ever moved on to talk to her about it, it invariably resulted in a relatively lengthy conversation about the technicalities and the merits, and the questioners went on their merry way.
Never got questioned by cops, though… Does your state have a Homeschool Legal Defense Fund (who seem to have changed their name and grown a little in the past decade+)?
Could be I got my open carry idea from her, and her example, now that you phrase it like that… 😉
I am certainly not going to encourage anyone to open carry, or even try to entice them to do so – it is definitely a choice one should make of one’s own free will, but also one that should be made while in possession of all of the facts and perspectives on the matter. It is a sad truth of history that groups that actively remain in the shadows can more easily be persecuted, marginalized, and eventually done away with, and either the rest of society will not care, or they may even actively support doing so due to uncountered misinformation campaigns.
Concealed carry, while it is a great and necessary step, does nothing to prevent this – your average person might be aware that people are carrying guns around in public, but he would never know who, specifically. But should he see his neighbor, who he knows is a relatively good guy, doing so, the cogs might turning…
Of course, they could start turning the other way too, but that is a risk all freedoms have.
We are members of HSLDA. I don’t think anything ill about the police officer; in fact, let’s turn it around… if a cop saw a bunch of kids midday and the cop didn’t say anything, wouldn’t we be upset that he wasn’t looking out for the children of the community? But the kids know, be polite, answer the question but upon any further questioning direct them to Mom & Dad (and we’ll direct them to HSLDA’s lawyers, if it comes to that).
Your last statement says it all: risks of freedom. To be free means you will have risks. So many people are too afraid, don’t want to take risks, and feel a need to remove risks from the world… as if that’s doing you a favor. Sorry, but I’d rather live in a world with risk. It’s a lot more fun. 🙂 Sure, I’m older, wiser, and don’t blindly take risks… but I’ll sure take a well-thought-out and calculated one.
But there are some that just aren’t as adventurous and feel life for all would be better off without any risk. Just wish they’d realize that not all of us feel that way/
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