San Mateo County (CA) 'Only One' threatens to kill people for exercising rights

The open carry movement is gaining ground in, of all places, California.

The Hayward resident is a member of an organization slowly gaining membership in the Bay Area. Open Carry aims to make it possible for Americans in every state to legally carry loaded guns in public. The loosely organized Bay Area chapter is igniting powerful feelings among law enforcement agencies, gun control advocates and ordinary residents

To be California-legal, those openly carrying have to carry their firearms unloaded, with the ammunition (presumably) within easy reach. Sorta like "six seconds from safety" carry in Illinois (six seconds, when under attack, can be a very long way from safety), it is, at least, better than nothing.

Some would disagree. San Mateo County Sheriff's Lt. Ray Lunny, for example, puts it this way:

"Open carry advocates create a potentially very dangerous situation," he said. "When police are called to a 'man with a gun' call, they typically are responding to a situation about which they have few details other than that one or more people are present at a location and are armed. Officers have no idea that these people may simply be 'exercising their rights.'

"Should the gun-carrying person "... move in a way that could be construed as threatening, the police are forced to respond in kind for their own protection. It's well and good in hindsight to say the gun carrier was simply 'exercising their rights,' but the result could be deadly," Lunny said.

Lunny didn't bother to elaborate on what he meant by "mov[ing] in a way that could be construed as threatening," but I can't help but note that "could be construed as threatening" covers a great deal more ground than "is threatening."

The article, for example, quotes several frightened herbivores who seem to consider any movement (and, presumably, standing stock still) by those wearing a fiream, but not wearing the trappings of government-sanctioned power (badge, uniform) to be "threatening."

Threatening enough for Lunny to justify killing the peaceable armed citizen? Kinda sounds that way.

Now, who's being "threatening."