After Mass Shootings, NY Sheriff Urges Gun Owners To Carry Their Firearms

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As yet another mass shooting has a gun control debate roiling the country, a sheriff in New York is urging gun owners to bring their firearms out with them.

Sheriff Paul J. Van Blarcum of Ulster County — which is about two hours north of New York City — posted the message on the sheriff office’s Facebook and Twitter.

Blarcum confirmed the authenticity of the notice to TPM over the phone.

“All I was trying to do is remind people that we’re partners with the public in safety and crime prevention,” he said. “So if you are legally licensed to carry a firearm and if you feel like you’re proficient enough in it, you’re responsible and you’re up on the laws in the state of the New York, we encourage you to carry a firearm.”

Open carry is illegal in New York, but conceal carry is permitted with the proper licensing. Blacrum said he encourages people coming into his county to become licensed gun owners and that, “We have over 10,000 permits out there.”

“If you look around the United States in the past bunch of years and around the world, whenever there’s these mass shootings, you never hear of anybody standing up and firing back,” Blacrum said. “I want people to be aware of that.”

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Notable Replies

  1. Oh, yeah, that’s gonna be a BIG help…

    :scream:

  2. “If you look around the United States in the past bunch of years and around the world, whenever there’s these mass shootings, you never hear of anybody standing up and firing back,” Blacrum said. “I want people to be aware of that.”

    Well we know that worked for the guy at the Walmart who was preparing to take down a shooter, but another shooter was already in the building and shot him in the back of the head. Maybe that’s why we don’t hear about it. Just saying.

  3. Whenever this comes up, I wonder: what is the appropriate penalty for a “good guy with a gun” that kills an innocent bystander?

    Do we differentiate between someone who was not armed to begin with and picked up a gun and used it spontaneously, versus someone who “exercising their constitutional rights” was already carrying?

  4. Avatar for caltg caltg says:

    Let’s imagine that a few of the roughly 200 people in that San Bernardino conference facility were armed and decided to shoot back at the attackers. I would bet that instead of 12 people dead there would be dozens.

  5. I just want to point out that it’s not a requirement in America that to be elected sherif you must be a moron. I think that’s a fact that some of our friends from the north and from across the pond sometimes miss.

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