Armed Man Captured at Springfield Walmart Is My Nightmare

The armed man who told police he was seeing if his Second Amendment Rights would be respected by the Walmart Neighborhood Market manager is my worst nightmare when it comes to open carry or constitutional carry laws. It's people carrying a weapon for exactly the wrong reason and with no regard for others.

My wife and I lived in Texas when they implemented open carry. Which allowed people to carry a weapon without concealing it. My main concern was the hot dogs who liked the idea of being seen with a firearm, who really didn't spend a lot of time learning how to use it. Or someone who liked the power or intimidation factor wearing a gun provided them more than any legitimate reason to carry one.

I shared my concerns with a few police officers I knew there, none of whom thought that would really be a prevalent issue with open carry. They were right it wasn't. Very rarely did I actually see someone with a gun openly strapped on them. And when I did, it never seemed inappropriate or intimidating.

We don't know what  Dmitriy N. Andreychenko was intending when he walked into the Walmart Neighborhood Market on Republic Road in Springfield. We know a good guy with a gun, an off duty firefighter, held him at gunpoint until police arrived. We know the Walmart manager who pulled the fire alarm got his or her customers out of the store.

If Andreychenko isn't lying and he really was just trying to get some attention and "test" the Walmart manager, he's exactly the kind of creep that causes me concern about very lax gun laws.

Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson has charged Andreychenko with making terroristic threats. Patterson went on to say, “Missouri protects the right of people to open carry a firearm, but that right does not allow an individual to act in a reckless and criminal manner endangering other citizens. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously explained, ‘the most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater causing a panic.’”

One thing is for sure, I'm glad there was a "good guy with a gun" there. I don't have the answers to our violence problem, but I certainly don't take issue with conscientious gun owners who take their responsibility seriously. It's the creeps that own guns that scare the hell out of me.