God bless America. There are few counties which allow such a diverse set of freedoms, no matter how much we might personally disagree with how they’re being utilized.
God bless America. There are few counties which allow such a diverse set of freedoms, no matter how much we might personally disagree with how they’re being utilized.
Richmond has the long-gun armed Open Carry Richmond, a group of locals and county-folk who pick busy parts of town to exercise their right to bare arms with the biggest guns legally allowed.
And New York City has women who remove their shirts following a 1992 law which allows city residence to go out in public topless.
(The movement can be traced to other progressive parts of the world, but for the sake of this write-up we’re staying on US shores.)
Now each group might be making scenes at different ends of the political spectrum, but both movements are based in the nobel pursuit of personal liberty and pushing the limits of that liberty to get there points across, and there’s a lot to say for that.
So let’s examine where these folks cross-paths and where they differ in the hopes of better understanding one another.
The “Free the Nipple” movement came out of a desire for gender equality while publicly shirtless, for women this mainly means public breastfeeding. The movement claims it’s illegal for women to breast feed in public in 35 states, and some violations come with huge punishments, like in Louisiana where an exposed nipple can lead to 3 years in jail and $2,500 in fines.
“When a woman’s uncovered chest in public becomes the simple non-event it already is for a man, we will have accomplished our mission,” reads the mission behind International Go Topless Day which celebrated its 7th anniversary this year.
Here in VA, Gotopless.org rates our laws as ambiguous when it comes to legal exposed breasts, but DC has had at least one successful test against the law.
No matter how much you agree or disagree with the concept, these ladies, and the men who support them, are fighting for the seemingly obvious right to be as free as a man is when he leaves the house shirtless.
True gender equality, man, I can dig it.
Now we turn to our home-brewed version of bare-breasted-blundbus-barers, Richmond’s Long Gunmen.
With a mission to “raise awareness of responsible gun ownership,” the group gathers locally and strolls/marches through parts of town with unloaded rifles or shotguns on their backs.
Here’s a recent video of Open Carry Richmond being accosted by police as they walked near the John Marshal Court house.
It is completely within their legal right to do this, as long as they are unloaded – personally I think this neuters the hoped affect, but hey, I’m not complaining.
Sure, they might not have a leftist-bent so many internet-folks feed on, and they may resemble what people from out-of-state think Richmonders look like, but the same could be said for the topless women from NYC and beyond.
We’ve all got our regional extremists and as long as they aren’t hurting anybody, whats the harm?
The important thing is both of these groups are able to demonstrate and gather in public spaces.
Alright, maybe no long guns in Carytown, but I’m gonna say no flagrant-exposed boobs in Carytown is a good thing too. (Lets meet in the middle and say concealed carry and public breast feeding is cool, but lets keep the rifles and nipples at home.)
And no matter where you stand politically, when you see cops accosting either party, it should be a little chilling.
Sure, a possibly loaded gun poses a much larger threat than a nipple, but I like to think we live in a society where the cops can find a comfortable distance for EVERYONE’s protection and avoid stopping anyone from expressing themselves.
As much as I would love to see both movements combined into a literal army of topless women armed to the teeth with assault rifles, let’s try, as a community, to recognize how important both of these discussions are.
There’s nothing more American than taking a stand and getting shat on for it, so I salute you, topless women and long gun-toters alike, for doing what you do no matter how muddy the waters get.
