No I'm not. I'm stating the fact that anyone open carrying is someone you know for a fact is armed. I am then arguing that the perosn you know for a fact is armed is less of a potential threat than someone who MIGHT be armed. The greatest threat is always the threat you can't identify.

As a gun owner, to me the "long gun carrying peacocks" as you put it are not responsibly owning their firearms. There is no need in society for someone to be walking around with an assault rifle. The first priority in gun ownership and gun safety is responsibility. That means storing them appropriately, always treating them as if they are loaded, don't point them at anything you don't want to shoot, and most importantly, don't treat them as a toy or "accessory". Carrying a firearm in public is supposed to be about personal safety, and unless the local Chipotle or Starbucks have turned as dangerous as Kabul or Mosul, there is no need to be carrying around a long gun in public. Hell, I have a concealed carry permit and I don't even carry my little 7-shot .22, much less my 15-round 9mm or my AR-15. As I said in a post further down, I equate these idiots with the people trying to 3D print guns on the steps of the Texas state capital: by irresponsibly "exercising their rights" they are doing more harm than good.

Most gun owners are lawful gun owners. If the law requires open carry, then those carrying openly are probably not a threat to you. Anyone still carrying concealed more likely is. It's like making schools and other places gun free zones: if a person is already planning to commit an illegal act (robbery, murder, etc) then tacking on one more illegal act isn't a big deterrent. The only ones affected by the law are those that actually follow it.

Then buy a gun at a local gun store (supporting small local business, yay America!), or if you really feel ambitious, get a CNC machine and 80% milled receiver blank. 3D printing a crappy gun out of cheap plastic that is more likely to hurt the shooter than any target out in public is a publicity stunt that is more likely to increase regulation of home manufactured firearms and 3D printing in general than anything else. This is akin to those idiots who felt the need to walk around with AR-15s and AK-47s slung over their shoulders and go into restaurants and other public places. Rights should be exercised, yes. But the 2nd Amendment is different as it is the only one that should be exercised responsibly, since it is the only one that can actually kill or injure.

You do realize what OPEN carry means, right? It generally means on the hip, outside the clothes, ie. in plain view. As in, you know EXACTLY who is carrying and who isn't. Now, CONCEALED carry is where the firearm is tucked away in a pocket, or a shoulder holster under a jacket, or inside the waistband. Concealed carry is when you don't know who is armed and who isn't. For gun control advocates open carry should be preferable to concealed carry, because you can at least tell who is armed and who isn't.

Unless the local Sheriff's Department just took delivery of that surplus MRAP and M4s and wants to try them out.

Why send/land everything at once anyway? Send living/experimentation modules and any needed non-perishable supplies or equipment such as vehicles on previous missions. Then send in a manned mission with perishable supplies/experiment subjects (seeds, plants, animals, whatever) afterwards. This allows for smaller payloads that can land easier, and has the added benefit of being easier to launch from Earth. It also gives you the chance to resend any critical supplies should one of the landings go wrong or land really off course.

The real Dread Pirate Roberts must be happy he retired years ago and is now living in Padagonia.

Because that would be translating only half the name. If you want to be correct, Abdullah would translate to "servant of God". You wouldn't translate the last name "Godwin" to "Allahwin", would you?

Most "drones" available to the average civilian have about as much functionality as an RC place with a GoPro attached. You aren't going to have flocks of the things suddenly falling out of the sky landing on peoples heads and cars.

You need shelter for the aircraft (hangars), storage for fuel and other consumables (ammunition, film/data storage, etc), repair facilities and their associated storage requirements, facilities for the personnel assigned to the base (at the very least breakrooms and bathrooms, not to mention workspaces and command/control facilities, and probably housing as well-which comes with its own needs), a control tower with both visual and equipment navigation, and of course security personnel and the related infrastructure needed to secure and patrol a secure-access facility. I don't think 10 grand and an old KMart would be able to supply all of those things.

That alone is ridiculous. Where I live, I pay about $9.50 a month, and that includes trash, recyclables, and lawn clippings within reason.

In the later books of the Lost Fleet series, they come across an alien race that is aquatic, with ships that are much more maneuverable than human ships. They theorized that the ships were in fact filled with water which allowed them to make more radical movements.

At some point the Republicans and Democrats got the strange idea in their heads that the last party in charge before the country collapses wins.

Sucks to be the students and teacher in the same room as the shooter when that happens.