Does 'Open-Carry' Make America Less Safe?
A debate over who should be held accountable for violent officer shootings in America left Lt. General Russel Honore and the FOX Business Network’s Charles Payne at odds during an interview that ended abruptly on Cavuto: Coast to Coast.
The discussion heated up after General Honore argued that open-carry laws are making police officers less safe.
“We are going to have to take a look at social media… The problem is our First Amendment [guarantees] us to be able to say anything… The other issue we want to [take another look at], because it’s causing law enforcement, and I’ve talked to our officers here on the ground in Louisiana since last week several times, this idea of open carry… I don’t think that’s a good idea… It’s making our officers less safe it’s making our citizens less safe,” he said.
However, when Charles Payne questioned whether it was “human beings [who are] making these evil decisions,” Honore disagreed.
“Our law enforcement keep us safe on the street and it’s distracting to them and we need to go back and look at it because what have we gained by open carry? Has it helped the stock market? Nobody can say it ever made us safer. Where are the good guys with the gun? Who is the good guy and the bad guy based on the Dallas scenario? I just say, it is not an attack on the Second Amendment. I owned guns all my life,” he said.
Payne replied, “In all respect Sir, the Dallas scenario, the bad guy was the guy shooting at cops. It was pretty simple. He was moving around a lot but there wasn’t a whole bunch of people who pulled out guns. There was one evil person with a gun and he assaulted and ambushed a whole bunch of police officers. So if that’s the rationale for that people are going to say to you then how do you explain Chicago this past weekend? How do you explain these places where they have very restricted gun laws and the highest body count?”
“We have very limited gun laws in Louisiana. Anybody 18 years old can own a gun and open carry it -- anybody with the exception of people as described by through law that can’t because of some judgment. So what has that gotten us in Louisiana? We are leading the nation in dead bodies of our citizens. We incarcerate more people than anybody else in the country. We spend more money on prisons than we do on education. What has that done for Louisiana?” answered Honore.