Sunday, February 09, 2014

Log Cabin Democrat Has it Wrong With Cradduck and Open Carry

*********UPDATE*************************

April 14 2016 - I have emailed an apology to Mr. Joe Lamb of the Log Cabin Democrat for this article. In this article I unjustly assumed that Sheriff Cradduck's position was somehow misrepresented by the Log Cabin Democrat. Recent events have shown me that it at least as likely that Mr. Cradduck said one thing to them and another to me. I sincerely apologized to Mr. Lamb, and I am going to leave this article up as a reminder to myself to be more cautious about whose story you accept as true.

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What do I call police chiefs and Sheriffs in Arkansas who are still willing to arrest otherwise law-abiding citizens who are carrying a firearm? It would not be proper to call them "Law Enforcement Officers" because what they would be enforcing would not be the law at all, since Act 746 clearly states that open carry of a firearm in itself is not a crime. Maybe we should call them "personal preference enforcement officers" (PPEOs) since what they would be enforcing is their own personal preferences and not the letter of the law itself?
At any rate, I was glad to discover that, despite a media report to the contrary, that Benton County Sheriff Kelley Cradduck is not in the PPEO category and continues to enforce the law as written. This report in Conway's "Log Cabin Democrat" claimed " Benton County Sheriff Kelley Cradduck and Garland County Prosecutor Steve Oliver say that “open carry” is still illegal in their jurisdictions."
I asked the Sheriff about this by asking: "This article claims that it is your position that open carry of firearms is still illegal in Benton County even after act 746. Is that in fact your position Sheriff?"
Craddock set the record straight by replying "No, open carry will be allowed."
I am not surprised that the Log Cabin Democrat got that wrong, because I have noticed that they get quite a bit wrong in what they cover and also what they fail to cover when they should.
At any rate, as a Benton County resident I for one am pleased to know that I can disregard the misinformation put out by the state's establishment newspapers and continue to vote Cradduck.



2 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Hello,

This is Joe Lamb with the Log Cabin Democrat. I'm checking to see if Sheriff Cradduck's position has changed since he talked to the media last year. If it has, of course I'd note that either next time I write about the state of open carry law in Arkansas or maybe as a story in and of itself. I've got a call in to Benton County SO's public information officer and an email to the Sheriff asking for their position. Thanks for putting this information about Cradduck out there.

11:27 AM, February 10, 2014  
Blogger Unknown said...

I never did get to speak with Sheriff Cradduck, but his chief deputy, Rob Holly, said in an email that "The Benton County Sheriff’s Office will continue to take the stance and side with the opinion of the Attorney General."

Benton County SO public information officer Keisha Guyll said that, "at this point, if people are saying that Sheriff Cradduck has told them something different, they may have misunderstood or been confused."

That's very different than what's been reported here. Please let me know what's going on at joe.lamb@thecabin.net

9:02 AM, February 18, 2014  

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