SF-TX
08-24-2009, 08:19
For all the faint of heart, Texas also has a fairly liberal carry policy.
The comments at the end are worth reading, especially the response from G.S. Dunn (first posted comment).
August 21, 2009, 6:50 pm
Frommer May Boycott Arizona Over Guns
By Robert Mackey
This week, the travel writer Arthur Frommer found himself in the middle of an unusually heated debate on his blog at Frommers.com after he published a post headlined “Do Guns at Political Events Disturb You? Then Consider Skipping Arizona for Now.”
Jack Kurtz/The Arizona Republic, via Associated Press A man with a rifle protested an appearance by President Obama in Phoenix on Monday.
Although Mr. Frommer, the founder of Frommer’s Travel Guides (which is an online content partner of The New York Times), has used his blog to express strong opinions in the past, his post on Wednesday — expressing horror at the spectacle of about a dozen gun-toting protesters on Arizona’s streets during a visit by President Obama — stuck out from other recent entries like “Current Room Rates in Orlando at Non-Disney Properties Are Almost Too Good to Be True” and “Southwest Airlines Announces a Four-Month Airfare Sale — and It’s a Dilly.”
We’re going to go ahead and assume that readers of The Lede can guess which post generated hundreds of times more comments than the others.
In his post on Arizona, Mr. Frommer explained that news coverage of the president’s visit — a trip that was intended, in part, to promote the state’s tourism industry — had convinced him to avoid going there:
I am not yet certain whether I would advocate a travel boycott by others of the state of Arizona; I want to learn more about Arizona’s gun laws and how they compare with those of other states. But I am shocked beyond measure by reports that earlier this week, nearly a dozen persons, including one with an assault rifle strapped about his shoulders and others with pistols in their hands or holsters, were openly congregating outside a hall at which President Obama was speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
For myself, without yet suggesting that others follow me in an open boycott, I will not personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of political protest. I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would also endanger my own personal safety there. And therefore I will cancel any plans to vacation or otherwise visit in Arizona until I learn more. And I will begin thinking about whether tourists should safeguard themselves by avoiding stays in Arizona.
Mr. Frommer added that he was not speaking as a partisan:
I would feel as I do regardless of the political identity of the speaker whom these thugs attempted to intimidate. The continued tolerance of extremists carrying guns is a frightening development which strikes at the heart of the political process and endangers the ability to carry out a reasoned debate. Is there any responsible citizen of the United States who believes that people should carry guns to a public debate or speech? If Ronald Reagan were delivering a political talk in Phoenix, Arizona, would they have felt it was proper for protestors with guns to mill about outside the hall from which he would leave?
At the end of his post, Mr. Frommer asked readers if starving the state’s tourism industry of dollars might be the best way to change its laws: “The question is, should we all organize a travel boycott of Arizona until this tolerance of armed intimidation is ended, probably by an act of the Arizona legislature?”
As NPR’s Mark Memmott pointed out, apparently the mere suggestion of a boycott by Mr. Frommer was powerful enough to get the mayor of Phoenix on the phone with him for 20 minutes the next day. On Thursday, The Arizona Republic reported:
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Steve Moore, head of the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau, spoke with Frommer, inviting him to visit Phoenix to clear up any misperceptions about the city’s safety.
“It’s a great place to live, work, raise a family and particularly to visit,” Gordon said. “It’s unfortunate an individual expressing his beliefs (the man with the rifle) got the coverage he got because that’s not what Phoenix is about. Phoenix is one of the safest major cities in the United States.”
According to the mayor, Mr. Frommer said he has friends in Arizona and would take Mr. Gordon’s comments to heart, but apparently did not rescind his threat to call for a boycott.
The Lede was unable to reach Mr. Frommer for comment on Friday evening, but when we do get in touch with him, we will let readers know if he has reached a decision.
As The Lede noted in a previous post, last month Arizona’s governor’s signed into law a new measure to allow gun owners with a concealed-carry permits to take their firearms into bars in the state.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/frommer-may-boycott-arizona-over-guns/
The comments at the end are worth reading, especially the response from G.S. Dunn (first posted comment).
August 21, 2009, 6:50 pm
Frommer May Boycott Arizona Over Guns
By Robert Mackey
This week, the travel writer Arthur Frommer found himself in the middle of an unusually heated debate on his blog at Frommers.com after he published a post headlined “Do Guns at Political Events Disturb You? Then Consider Skipping Arizona for Now.”
Jack Kurtz/The Arizona Republic, via Associated Press A man with a rifle protested an appearance by President Obama in Phoenix on Monday.
Although Mr. Frommer, the founder of Frommer’s Travel Guides (which is an online content partner of The New York Times), has used his blog to express strong opinions in the past, his post on Wednesday — expressing horror at the spectacle of about a dozen gun-toting protesters on Arizona’s streets during a visit by President Obama — stuck out from other recent entries like “Current Room Rates in Orlando at Non-Disney Properties Are Almost Too Good to Be True” and “Southwest Airlines Announces a Four-Month Airfare Sale — and It’s a Dilly.”
We’re going to go ahead and assume that readers of The Lede can guess which post generated hundreds of times more comments than the others.
In his post on Arizona, Mr. Frommer explained that news coverage of the president’s visit — a trip that was intended, in part, to promote the state’s tourism industry — had convinced him to avoid going there:
I am not yet certain whether I would advocate a travel boycott by others of the state of Arizona; I want to learn more about Arizona’s gun laws and how they compare with those of other states. But I am shocked beyond measure by reports that earlier this week, nearly a dozen persons, including one with an assault rifle strapped about his shoulders and others with pistols in their hands or holsters, were openly congregating outside a hall at which President Obama was speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
For myself, without yet suggesting that others follow me in an open boycott, I will not personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of political protest. I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would also endanger my own personal safety there. And therefore I will cancel any plans to vacation or otherwise visit in Arizona until I learn more. And I will begin thinking about whether tourists should safeguard themselves by avoiding stays in Arizona.
Mr. Frommer added that he was not speaking as a partisan:
I would feel as I do regardless of the political identity of the speaker whom these thugs attempted to intimidate. The continued tolerance of extremists carrying guns is a frightening development which strikes at the heart of the political process and endangers the ability to carry out a reasoned debate. Is there any responsible citizen of the United States who believes that people should carry guns to a public debate or speech? If Ronald Reagan were delivering a political talk in Phoenix, Arizona, would they have felt it was proper for protestors with guns to mill about outside the hall from which he would leave?
At the end of his post, Mr. Frommer asked readers if starving the state’s tourism industry of dollars might be the best way to change its laws: “The question is, should we all organize a travel boycott of Arizona until this tolerance of armed intimidation is ended, probably by an act of the Arizona legislature?”
As NPR’s Mark Memmott pointed out, apparently the mere suggestion of a boycott by Mr. Frommer was powerful enough to get the mayor of Phoenix on the phone with him for 20 minutes the next day. On Thursday, The Arizona Republic reported:
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Steve Moore, head of the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau, spoke with Frommer, inviting him to visit Phoenix to clear up any misperceptions about the city’s safety.
“It’s a great place to live, work, raise a family and particularly to visit,” Gordon said. “It’s unfortunate an individual expressing his beliefs (the man with the rifle) got the coverage he got because that’s not what Phoenix is about. Phoenix is one of the safest major cities in the United States.”
According to the mayor, Mr. Frommer said he has friends in Arizona and would take Mr. Gordon’s comments to heart, but apparently did not rescind his threat to call for a boycott.
The Lede was unable to reach Mr. Frommer for comment on Friday evening, but when we do get in touch with him, we will let readers know if he has reached a decision.
As The Lede noted in a previous post, last month Arizona’s governor’s signed into law a new measure to allow gun owners with a concealed-carry permits to take their firearms into bars in the state.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/frommer-may-boycott-arizona-over-guns/