Gun Violence Prevention Group Worries About Open Carry

Local gun control organizations, such as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in Los Angeles, are expressing concern about an upcoming South Bay Open Carry firearm demonstration. 

Pro-gun activists plan to carry unloaded guns as they clean up trash around town on July 10. The California open carry law permits residents to carry unloaded firearms in public so long as they are fully visible.

Just as the city started to prepare for the event, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that municipalities and states must abide by the Second Amendment. The case, McDonald v. Chicago, concerned a city of Chicago ban on handguns in the home. The justices ruled in favor of Chicago residents who wish to have guns and sent the case back to a lower court for a final ruling on the ordinance. The case is similar  to Heller v. District of Columbia in 2008.

Suzanne Verge, president of the Brady Campaign in Los Angeles, shared her concerns with Hermosa Beach Patch about gun ownership and the open carry law.

Hermosa Beach Patch: Please tell us a little bit about yourself and the Brady Campaign.

Suzanne Verge:  We have chapters across the country and several here across California, working at the local, state and federal law level to prevent gun violence. I got involved in the movement after my brother was murdered in Santa Monica.

Patch: What is your view of the upcoming event in Hermosa Beach organized by South Bay Open Carry?

Verge:  I'm glad they're working with the police. Obviously, I oppose the open carrying of firearms because it's a waste of police time to have to come out and inspect to see if they are unloaded. And I do not like the fact that [the police] can't ask for any information on a firearm if it's being carried out in the open, such as serial information. 

When a crime happens and there is a citizen with a gun who wants to play hero, there can be problems. The police now have to figure out who is the criminal and who is the citizen with a gun. 

Patch: So that's why the organization has taken a stand against open carry, but why exactly are you personally against it?

Verge: The situation with two people arguing over that parking space, and one pulling out a gun, that's an example of why. The man who killed my brother, he wasn't a criminal until he shot my brother, that's an example of why. People carrying guns may risk acting out of emotion and use it in a moment of anger and passion or under the influence.

Another example: In November 2009, four police officers were sitting in a coffee shop and a man came in and shot and killed all four. They were police who were trained and got shot. I think we need to leave the policing to the police and not have citizens walking around with guns open.

Patch: What do you think about the recent Supreme Court ruling?  

Verge: It was a very narrow ruling. It referred to guns in the home as being for self-defense and [said] the right is not unlimited. In Heller v. District of Columbia, they recognized that the right to bear arms was not a right to carry weapons for just whatever purpose. 

We will have gun criminals saying they can have [guns] for self-defense, but according to the decision, there are still rules that come with the right.

Patch: Has violence increased or decreased in areas that have allowed the open carry of weapons?

Verge: The Center for Disease Control cites the risk of having a gun at home. The study found that people who keep a gun in the home are almost two times more likely to be murdered with a gun and almost 17 times more likely to take their own lives using a firearm.

Those findings are consistent with many previous studies: Guns in the home are associated with domestic violence, and in particular injury or homicide of women at the hands of an intimate partner. For suicide, the net effect of having a gun was highest among 18- to 24- year olds.

Patch: Could you talk a little more about what happened to your brother?

Verge: Someone in anger -- a 33-year-old lawyer in Santa Monica -- killed my brother. Both of their lives were ruined, his life and my brother's.

This Q&A concludes a three-part series of interviews on open carry gun laws, including an exclusive interview with South Bay Open Carry founder Harley Green and a one-on-one with Hermosa Beach police Chief Greg Savelli.

Please share your views on the open carry laws and the upcoming demonstration by commenting below.