4 Dead After Colorado’s Open Carry Law Delays Police Response to Shooting

[Photographer]

On Saturday, Christian extremist Noah Harpham shot three people to death in Colorado Springs, Colorado before police were ultimately able to take him down. There were no “good guys with guns” around, depriving potential victims of the NRA’s fabled saviors, a recovering alcoholic with violent tendencies. Until police arrived, there was only the shooter and his potential victims… But could the police have arrived a little sooner? According to Mother Jones, the answer is yes.

Pointing to an excerpt from the Denver Post, Mark Follman notes that “police may have had a chance to intervene before the slaughter began—but that a police dispatcher may have reacted without urgency to a 911 call about Harpham because of Colorado’s open carry law.” The Post notes that Naomi Bettis called 911 when she saw Harpham, whom she recognized as her neighbor, wandering around with a rifle and a “distraught look on his face.” However, her report was not taken very seriously by the dispatcher because of Colorado’s open carry laws:

Witnesses watched in horror as Harpham picked his victims off. One of them, the bicyclist, pleaded for his life before being killed.

more at http://www.occupydemocrats.com/4-dead-after-colorados-open-carry-law-delays-police-response-to-shooting/

[Arugula Latte]

1. The gun nuts are running the asylum.

Absolutely disgusting.

[ileus]

2. and folks ask why carry when riding the bike.

I always respond by saying I lost a pound to make up for the weight of the pistol....normally they don't have a response. LOL

[saturnsring]

9. im sure they have a response

[hifiguy]

3. I have to wonder why the pathoogical fetishization of gunz

as seemingly "magical" objects - at least in what passes for the "minds" of the ammosexuals - is so purely and uniquely American. This particular form of insanity exists absolutely nowhere else in the developed world.

There has tobe some sort of academic paper to read about this one (of our numerous) national psychoses.

[flamin lib]

6. I suggest a book by A.J.Summerset

ARMS the culture and credo of the gun

Well written, well researched and easy to read.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1771960280?ref_=cm_cr_pr_product_top

[hifiguy]

8. Thanks!

Abnormal psychology is always an interesting subject.

[Lizzie Poppet]

4. Not much of an open carry fan here.

Oregon allows open carry, but also allows cities and counties to prohibit the practice, an explicit exemption from our state's preemption of local gun ordinances. Both my city (Portland) and county (Multnomah) prohibit open carry.

I'm fine with that. I'm also fine with open carry being permissible in the rural areas and small, remote towns where it's actually pretty commonplace. Here in Portland, it wasn't at all commonplace prior to the local ban, and anyone openly carrying would draw attention. A police dispatcher here, even before the ban, would likely have sent a unit, simply because it was so uncommon.

For practical purposes, open carry in cities is just not a very good idea. As a personal security measure, it makes little sense (yeah, let a potential bad guy know just who to shoot first...good idea!). As a form of protest, it's staggeringly counterproductive. If you're not in a place where there is a genuinely good probability of needing a lot of immediate firepower instantly (I see why a lot of off-duty IDF members sling their ARs), it just makes no practical sense.

[beevul]

5. What does 'may have' mean? N/T

[Photographer]

13. The first call to 911 was lectured about open carry rights

and no one was dispatched so I guess that's where the "may have" comes into the story.

[saturnsring]

7. more lives lost to gun-worship

[progressoid]

10. I wonder if he hadn't been white, would they have been so hesitant.

[bermudat]

11. Word. If someone called in saying a black man was carrying a rifle,

who doesn't believe the SWAT team wouldn't have been called.
Especially in Colorado Springs.

[procon]

12. I just don't understand why anyone defends the proliferation of guns

as if a lethal weapon the cure all solution to everything. What's the difference between having gun fanatics or other kooks running around throwing rattlesnakes or Molotov cocktails?

Why would anyone trust that some amatuer vigilante with a loaded weapon is mentally competent or even has the necessary skills and experience not to shoot himself or innocent bystanders? Why would society allow anyone the latitude to serve as some self appointed street corner judge, jury and executioner for a crime that the legal system would never find cause to rule as a capital offense?

Will this madness will never stop?

[Crunchy Frog]

14. You're a responsible, law abiding gun owner

right up to the instant the bullets start flying.

I'm guessing half of DU thinks the cops were absolutely right vin respecting the guy's civil liberties, even at the cost of human lives, which aren't so important anyway.

This is absolutely in line with the logic of these laws.

[SoapBox]

15. More senseless death.

[SunSeeker]

16. Yup, kinda hard to tell the loons apart when everyone is walking around with a gun ...

and looking like a loon.

[Skittles]

17. cowards need their guns