Steve Maloney, OffBeat’s web editor, texted me a photo that his uncle took in the French Quarter on Tuesday. Note the handgun on this young man’s right hip. My jaw dropped.

Did you know that the state of Louisiana recognizes “open carry,” which is apparently what this guy is practicing as he strolls down a street in the Quarter. “Concealed” guns require a special permit.

Scary.

In my personal opinion, New Orleans should be a gun-free zone, period. Politically, no one locally has the moxie to stand up for this concept. What you’ll hear is if we get rid of guns, “then only criminals will have guns.” Yeah, like this young man. Why does he need to carry a firearm with him in the French Quarter? Are we in the Wild, Wild West or something?

It make take a couple of decades, but there’s no reason why we need guns in our society for “protection.” In local newspapers, we just saw a case of an unarmed young man being shot in the head by a Marigny resident.

The teenager was a proven thief who had been caught in several other homes, up to no good. Tellingly, the teenager, Marshall Coulter, stole a gun from a home he had broken into a few weeks before, so theoretically, he could have been armed. The Marigny resident, Merritt Landry, fired at the intruder and shot him in the head. Landry ultimately had no charges filed against him.

Of course not. He was defending his home and his wife and children.

How different our country would all be if it just wasn’t so easy to buy, carry—or steal guns. How different life would be in the U.S. if the possession of firearms weren’t placed on a pedestal as an inalienable second amendment right, a sacred political cow created by an organization—the National rifle Association—whose main objective is to sell more firearms for weapons manufacturers. Not to protect your “rights.”

America—and New Orleans—is awash in violence. Anyone, and I mean anyone can get not only a handgun—which one would assume could be used for self-protection—but an automatic firearm that can cause major damage to the person it’s aimed towards. They’re available at discount stores, like Walmart; gun dealers, gun shows, and even online. It’s just so easy to arm yourself with a deadly weapon. Oh yeah, and if you have criminal intent, you really don’t need to buy one anyway, you can steal one from the homes and cars of people who are holding these weapons “for protection,” or have a friend buy one for you at the local gun show. It’s really easy. It’s much easier to buy a gun than to get a driver’s license.

I, for one, am fed up with  reading about shootings at schools throughout the country. There was one last weekend at a university in California by some poor lonely little 22-year-old with emotional problems who had legal guns–and who blew away several people, including himself. There’s been an epidemic of gun violence over the last 30 years. According to Mother Jones, there have been at least 70 mass shootings in this country since 1982, with 33 of these occurring since 2006. And, more than 75 percent of the guns possessed by the shooters in these mass killings were legal handguns, and included assault weapons and semi-automatic handguns.

Why are these types of weapons even allowed to be sold?

Listen, it’s just a matter of time before more innocent victims are claimed because the NRA and its brainwashed legions use our Second Amendment as justification for enriching weapons manufacturers and gun dealers. Then there are the “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Oh, please. Let someone try to slaughter another human being from 50 feet away with a knife. Then there are the crazies who insist that banning guns in America would be tantamount to the takeover of Hitler in Nazi Germany.

Fear is what fuels these attitudes, irrational fear (the worst kind) created by organizations who want the American public to hold onto their guns no matter whose life is at stake so that they can make a buck. Are you really afraid the U.S. government is going to come and get you? Are the hobgoblins staking you out? I am appalled by the people who buy into this.

There is no need for handguns, automatic weapons of any kind, or assault weapons to be available to anyone in this country. I know I’m on the left side of this equation, but if the state can tell me how fast I can drive without putting myself and others in danger; if I have to take a test to have a driver’s license to protect the public safety, why are these ticking time bombs allowed to exist? Makes no sense to me.

I wish some politicians could just have the guts to stand up to the NRA, which I perceive as the power that’s turned America into a gun-crazy, and gun-crazed violent society.

Please, can we not have this guy walking around in the Quarter toting a freaking handgun? Put a few drinks in him, get him riled up, whip up a testosteronic frenzy—and someone’s gonna get hurt. Or even killed. I guarantee it.

I’d like to find out how you feel about keeping guns out of the French Quarter and Marigny (Frenchmen Street) areas. Click here to take OffBeat’s Weekly Poll.