For the umpteenth time...

NO ONE IS PROPOSING OPEN CARRY!!! There is currently NO SUCH LAW being proposed...

So please, feel free to continue to be "saddened, bewildered, confused, and perplexed", about whatever "horrible thing" that is currently on your radar. But this is simply not a valid concern...

I lived in AZ and was washing my clothes in a commercial laundry and some ugly-looking clown came in to do his wash and he was PACKING HEAT outside his clothing. That was commonplace for years now. What more can I say - that IS the way Florida is going. And the majority of Floridians SURVEYED said NO WAY JOSE !!!!
......It is going to be a real SNIT SHOW......coming to an area near you. And those in the surrounding areas to The Villages will be CARRYING SERIOUS HEAT. Just be forewarned!

That is a GOOD summation of the situation.

Actually, that is untrue. I have done many things and been many places where most people would be frightened to go. Just the opposite!

I believe Florida was one of the first states that allowed for state citizens to carry concealed after passing a background check and successfully completing a licensing test. All the doom sayers were predicting death, destruction, mayhem and Hollywood type gunfights in the streets. Never happened.

In Tennessee open carry was approved with a carry license and again predictions of death and disaster. Never happened. Recently Tennessee passed into law that a citizen that who wasn't prohibited from possessing a firearm could carry without a permit. Again it was predicted that death and mayhem would follow. Hasn't happened yet.

In every state that passed laws for concealed carry have had the same Chicken Littles screaming about death and disaster resulting from the law. Hasn't happened.

You have to remember that some people are ruled by their emotions and not by facts. The ones with an agenda who are ruled by those emotions are the most dangerous.

Funny how attitudes often completely contradict reality.

Minnesota, my state of origin, has some pretty draconian laws but permit-to-carry is not one of those situations. It was open carry in Minnesota from the getgo, over 20 years ago now. Some few did carry openly. I never did: I figured that the only person who needed to know I was carrying was me, and in any case the last thing I wanted to happen was to be in a grocery store one day and have some twentysomething mother-of-two dissolving into a gibbering puddle of drool at the sight of my LC9. If you are taught that guns are the enemy, such an occurrence would not be unexpected.

But perception is one thing. Reality is another. And it is interesting to gauge the reactions of those who deal with the reality of guns—and the law—on a daily basis. Some years back (2016, maybe?) I attended a 2nd Amendment rally held on the lawn of the Minnesota State Capitol building in St. Paul. A crowd of maybe 3,000, there to talk, look at exhibits and show their support for the 2nd Amendment. Most of us were carrying, maybe a quarter of the crowd carrying openly. There were some pretty high-powered political types speaking as well; a former member of Congress, a Minnesota State Senator and the House Minority Party leader, Republican Party chairperson, etc. There was law enforcement there as well; five officers in all. Four were Minnesota State Highway Patrol officers deployed on the sidewalks ringing the rally, but facing AWAY from the crowd on the lookout for anti-gun demonstrators (who never came). The fifth, a uniformed St. Paul cop, was with the crowd at the rally, looking at exhibits, chatting with the other attendees and having just as good a time as any of the rest of us.

I was particularly struck by this. A crowd of maybe 3,000 civilian rally attendees with maybe 2,000 if not more firearms both carried openly and concealed, well-known dignitaries in attendance—and the focus of the law was not on that at all but on possible problems caused by the ANTI-gun types! That said a lot: probably a whole lot more than the anti-gun people would ever want to hear.

Well, that is a good and informative post about a one-day experience which, I believe was intended as an example of how peaceful a bunch of LIKE-MINDED (literally brothers-in-arms) individuals can be. Maybe they went home and beat their wives afterward, I don't know.
.........I do know that Minnesota 20 years ago is NOT the same as, or equal to, Florida today. That would be the famous apples and grapefruits comparison. Currently, the whole US has had ever-increasing murders and other violent crimes in recent years. And several northern visitors to The Villages (aka La, La Land) have commented that when they watch the Orlando nightly TV news, they say that it sounds like there are 3 NEW murders each and every night.
...........Anyhooo, I seriously doubt that this Applebee incident is a once in 5-year thing in La, La, Land. I imagine that incidents like that will be happening at a rate of about once every 5 MONTHS in our local area SOON !

It's not a retirement community.

The Villages is not a retirement community? That would be news to The Villages:

The Villages is a collection of quaint retirement neighborhoods...

Just because you keep repeating false information does not make it true...

Not a single politician is suggesting, promoting, trying to pass a bill, or any type of legislation allowing "OPEN CARRY"...

It is NOT the way FL is going... No ifs, ands or buts about it...

And as far as your irrelevant story about AZ goes...

https://wordsporn.com/wp-content/upl...eed-to-See.jpg

No Arrest
 

Since there hasn’t been an arrest, assume the best. A good guy with a gun saved many from harm.

As of now (unless new information is released to the contrary), that is a reasonable assumption...

I won't assume anything. The last information I could find was dated March 10, and as of that date, police hadn't even mentioned if Hudson was armed.

If he was UNarmed, then the "good guy with a gun" didn't save anything at all, and ended someone else's life.

We have very little information still.

I know it can be confusing, but I was commenting on someone else's post about a "what if" scenario...

You know, like "if" they just forced their way in to have some pie...

Better to be prepared with a concealed carry weapon than to wait for a police officer to arrive much later to take a report. Like the saying goes, the police are only minutes away when seconds count. Or something like that. Almost a million crimes are deterred in the U.S. by good armed citizens with a gun, every year.

Hmmm, "ugly-looking clown?" If it was a clown (an ugly one) how did you know he was not sporting ("packing") a water gun (aka squirt gun)? If this person was a good looking lady or handsome guy, would it have bothered you as much that "they-he or she" was "packing?"

Things change.

From ‘Open carry’ is now on the table as permitless carry bill goes to the House floor

But Tuesday, Hillsborough County Republican Mike Beltran filed an amendment to the proposal in the House (HB 543) that calls for allowing open carry in Florida.

The measure has cleared all of its committees in both the House and Senate – and will go before the full House later this week – with the open carry amendment attached to it.

Get back to me when it passes...

... and change daily:

The amendment showed up Tuesday afternoon, when Hillsborough County Republican Mike Beltran filed the open carry amendment, electrifying gun rights advocates who have been pushing for more than a month for ‘open carry’ to be included in the permitless carry bill.

But Beltran withdrew the amendment shortly after 1 p.m. on Wednesday.

Thanks for keeping us updated on that bill's progress (or, in this case, lack of progress)... :thumbup:

Personally, I'm not a fan of "open carry"...

New information has been released.

Go look at the on-line police scanner news site.

:ho:

This link provides more information.

Police: Man fired shots into the air outside prior to deadly shooting inside The Villages Applebee’s

Well that seems to help the man who killed the guy who came into Applebee's.

So the shooting appears justified from what we now know.

I would not call that happy for anyone involved.

They can't find the gun but found the shell casings outside.

Something tells me he was acting threatening inside and FAFO.

It was a happy ending for the people in the closed restaurant (as well as their families and friends) the good guy likely saved from being robbed at gunpoint, shot and killed or wounded or criminally battered by the thug

Nothing suggests anything like that. He reached into his pocket and no gun was found by the police on the man killed.

The shooter has to live with the fact that he killed another human being and probably will be served with a wrongful death suit by that victim.

The people weren't going to be shot (though they didn't know that). This article and others state the gun was not present.

Criminally battered? Now you're making things up.

That happens a lot on these boards and those like it.

I guess this knocks the "pie theory" off the table...

A big question that needs to be asked is, where is the gun? Witnesses say they saw the man shooting a pistol in the air while the car drove off and then enter the restaurant, but no weapon found. Did someone in the restaurant decide the pistol was theirs for the taking and pocketed it?
Now, as to the low life getting shot, perform dangerous actions and you are subject to dangerous reactions. Not anything near rocket science. What was the licensed to carry good guy supposed to think or do after witnessing the actions of the thug shooting outside the restaurant when said thug entered the building and demanded to know who called the police. He then reaches into his pocket, so what is a reasonable individual supposed to think? Oh, he has an itch and is discreetly scratching the itch or is he going to pull out his gun to threaten or kill other people? He has voiced his anger at having the police called on him. At that point in time, you don't have the luxury of Monday morning quarterbacking like is going on in this thread, you have to react in a manner that provides for your safety. This individual demonstrated that he was willing to use a gun.

Wait a minute. It's not enough to say "they didn't know that". The police report says witnesses say the deceased "reached into his pants", and the licensed good samaritan shot him. No one in the restaurant knew the gun was gone, so as far as they were thinking, they all could have been in grave danger.

Read what I was replying to. If Hudson had no gun in the restaurant (it has not been found) then the good guy with the gun did not save anyone from being shot. THAT is what I was replying to.

I'm still not sure how I feel about shooting someone because they *might* have a gun. This situation is a little different since Hudson appears to have been shooting while outside and was now inside and looking for someone to confront. Still, I would like the standard for use of deadly force to be higher than just thinking someone might be reaching for a gun, especially since it turns out there was no gun.

Most guns I have seen on people with pants are not in the pants pocket but under the pants-- half- in and half out.

And it looks like a pistol.

He had already demonstrated violent behavior by firing a gun outside the restaurant. He comes into the building angrily demanding to know who called the police and then reaches into his pants. What would any rational person think about his reaching into his pants? When you are on the floor bleeding out, after being shot with the gun he had in his pants, are you going to be thinking that you were the better person for not shooting first?

As I asked in a previous post, where is that gun? He was seen shooting one just moments earlier in the parking lot.

“ Most guns I have seen on people with pants are not in the pants pocket but under the pants-- half- in and half out.

And it looks like a pistol.”

I guess you have a lot of television and movie experience.
Concealed means concealed!