Open carry and the public

David has a post up about some gentlemen in Wisconsin who recently had a bit of a run-in with the po-po:

A 62-year-old woman visiting a local Culver's sees several restaurant patrons with guns on holsters in plain view.

She doesn't know that Wisconsin law allows people to openly carry a firearm, so she notifies authorities, later telling them, "I didn't want to be that one person that saw guns and didn't call and something horrible happens.

Yep ... and nobody bothered to ask her any pertinent questions like 'What are the men doing?' or 'Are they threatening anyone?' or any other kind of question hat might help the responding officers. If someone had asked those kinds of questions, the police-citizen interaction might have gone something like this:

Officer - Hey, guys ... how's it going?

5 armed men - (variations of) Just fine officer, how about you?

Officer - I'm doing well today, thank you. Listen, we just got a call about 5 armed men in Culver's, and I'm just checking it out. Did you fellows eat at Culver's?

5 armed men - Yes, sir ... we meet there some times right before we go shopping.

Officer - So you gentlemen aren't up to anything nefarious?!

5 armed men - No sir, just having a bite to eat and doing some shopping.

Officer - Ok, sounds fair to me. You gents have a nice day, and be safe.

5 armed men - You too, officer ... and thanks!

I mean, how hard is it? The men weren't doing anything illegal, it probably didn't appear like they were going to, it's legal to carry openly in the state, and if they haven't violated a store owners' property rights, why escalate things?

It's my opinion that Erik Scott was killed primarily because the 911 call greatly exaggerated what Erik was doing in side the Costco that day. But since we as the general public don't seem capable of holding the police accountable for what they do, I don't guess we can expect things to improve.

pm