Florida State Fair - GUNS!!! © 2018 Phillip Evans

Just when you thought it was safe to go out in public, this happens. "What happened?", you may ask.

Well, this may be a little difficult to handle, so put on your reality hard-hat. Make it an extra-strength one if you are a hard core snowflake, as opposed to an ordinary snowflake.

Photo by Ramchandran Maharajapuram

Yes, guns at the Florida State Fair held each year in Tampa, Florida. And... I'm NOT talking about guns carried by law-enforcement officers. I'm talking about guns carried by non-badged citizens. Hey, didn't I warn you about the extra-strength reality hard hat? It's not my fault if you didn't put it on.

And they're sky-rocketing, SKY-ROCKETING I tell you! No, not the actual guns; they are staying put in their holsters. I'm talking about the number of guns being carried at the fair each year.

So who needs a gun at a fair? To be fair, you can ask that question about most any other place. Who needs a gun at a grocery store? Who needs a gun at a barber shop? Who needs a gun at a restaurant?

The answer is... no one does. Well, that is, until they need one anyway. Until good folks can accurately predict when and where criminals might strike, they are pretty much stuck with carrying anywhere crime might strike, if they want to be sure they can defend themselves when it does.

People can be attacked going to and from their vehicles at a state fair. Citizens have also been attacked by armed criminals in grocery stores, barber shops, restaurants, and other places.

Florida is not unique to gun carry at state fairs. It's never been illegal in Georgia to my knowledge, and you can't be ordered to disarm if the fair is on publicly owned property.

Even Oregon backed down in 2002 and decided to follow state law and allow it.

The fact is, bringing your firearm to a state or local fair has been legal in most states for many years. And so far the ONLY issue with it is merely the fact that people carry guns at fairs. BIG DEAL.

ABC Action News may as well breathlessly report on the SKY-ROCKETING of firearms carry in Walmart stores. Concealed carry by law-abiding citizens does seem to be on the rise, and that's a good thing. The more people able to defend themselves means less crime victims. Duh!

Has there been a rash of shootouts at state or local fairs by legal carriers of firearms?

I recently posted this comment on Facebook:

"What???!!! 146 guns a day (in reference to the Florida State Fair) brought into a public fair with thousands of people around, and no standing-in-line rage shootouts, no ride-rage shootouts, no pulling of guns when people lose money playing for prizes, no shootouts from sugar overload, no shootouts from... well, you get the point. Where is Moms Demand Action on giving us these dire warnings? Looks like they have they dropped the ball on this, LOL!"

If you want to be unarmed at a fair, that's your business. If I want to be armed at a fair, that's my business. To the anti-liberty zealots I say, your fear of being around firearms carried by "ordinary" citizens does not trump my Constitutionally guaranteed human right to bear arms for the defense of myself and my loved ones. And if you avoid fairs because you can't handle the thought of being around firearms, you may as well avoid a rather large selection of other places where people are armed.

I have no problem if someone chooses to be a sheep and go out deliberately unarmed. I do have a problem with a rabid sheep that wants to use the force of government to not allow me to be armed in public. People like me are not a problem to society, criminals are.