Ah, the typical debate – from the LA Times:

On Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk is a bid to bar Californians from openly carrying firearms, legislation that could open a new front in the state’s decades-old gun control debate.

The measure, aimed at an increasingly popular tactic used by 2nd Amendment activists, would make California the first state since 1987 to outlaw the controversial practice of publicly displaying a weapon…

…Gun control advocates hope that California will now pave the way for the rest of the country to outlaw the practice.

“Openly carrying a gun with [an ammunition] magazine in your back pocket into Starbucks and other establishments creates a culture of fear and intimidation,” said Brian Malte, director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “It is irresponsible and dangerous.”…

I don’t know about you, but seeing someone openly carrying a weapon doesn’t intimidate me…by nature, criminals don’t want anyone to know they’re armed until they commit their crime.  Honest men and women legally carrying firearms, in my view, increases public safety:  it is highly unlikely that a criminal will commit a crime if some of the people in the area are clearly armed.  Criminals are not brave – they are cowards who prey upon the weak.  So, don’t be weak – be armed.

The liberal gun-grabbers, though, will never give up…somewhere deep inside them is a desire that all Americans be good, little slaves.  Disarming us is vital if liberalism is ultimately to gain full control of the United States.  Thwarted in one area, they’ll just try another…and they’ll keep at it and at it and at it until they have disarmed the American people.  Or, alternately, we stand so firm in defense of our liberty that it becomes the rock-solid law of the land that any law abiding citizen can carry whatever personal weapon he likes anywhere in the great Republic.