Calming down the askeert Californians:
California Gov. Jerry Brown announced Monday that he signed into law a measure that bans handgun owners from openly carrying their weapons in public.
Previous regulations had allowed the open carrying of unloaded handguns in public, but police chiefs and sheriffs objected to the rule because people felt frightened when they saw handguns in public places.
[. . .]
Gun rights activists had exercised their right to open carry their unloaded firearms by showing up to public places in large numbers with firearms in holsters, which alarmed some members of the public.
It's tempting to ask why they might be more frightened by the sight of a gun that's supposed to be unloaded than by the thought of a gun hidden away that is loaded. But the answer is easy: People see guns, it freaks them out a little. They start seeing a lot of guns out in the open, and it freaks them out a lot.
On the other hand, if my primary concern is self-protection, why in the world would I want to carry around an unloaded weapon in the open instead of a loaded and concealed one? One suspects the open carriers in this state were mostly would-be
