[hackerspaces] Firearms in Hackerspaces?

[Phillip Rhodes]

On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 3:42 PM, Al Billings <albill at openbuddha.com> wrote:
> Remind me again why I want guns in my hackerspace?
>
> I say this as someone who grew up shooting with hunting family too.

Nobody is saying you need to want a gun in your hackerspace. If you
don't want one, don't carry one.
What I, for one, am saying, is that being afraid of a gun carried by
another member is almost certainly an irrational
fear, AND, that the other member(s) have a right to carry for
self-defense and that it would be wrong to ask them
to give up that right.

I don't know about other spaces,but ours is in a city (Durham, NC)
that has a bit of a reputation for crime
and violence, including in the downtown area near our space.  It's not
uncommon to leave the space late at
night and hear people rustling around in the dumpsters out back, or to
be accosted by random people looking
for handouts, etc.  Now I have no *particular* reason to suspect that
any of those people would ever turn violent
but there have been a couple of times when I've left the space alone,
in the wee hours of the morning, and found
myself wishing I was carrying, just in case.  (as an aside, I don't
have my CCW permit and I almost never carry
my pistol and I've never taken it to the hackerspace).


Phil