Stadnitski's Fantasy

Apparently the Dickson City Police Chief has a fantasy of living in a gun-free community, even going to the extent of using department resources to encourage and document "No firearms" policies around down. On July 4th, Rich Banks (founder of paopencarry.org) and I decided to call his bluff and spent the better part of the day in Dickson City, openly carrying our firearms all the while. Here's how things shook out:

• We visited 101 businesses that were not on the list as provided by Chief Stadnitski. We found 0 signs prohibiting firearms.
• We visited 19 businesses that were on the list as provided by Chief Stadnitski. We found 0 signs prohibiting firearms.
• During the course of the day, we entered 7 Dickson City businesses (included in the above mentioned stats). Five of them were not on the list, two were, including the Viewmont Diner, where we had a delicious lunch and friendly, excellent service. We did not receive any negative comments at all, and were not asked to cover our firearms or to leave any establishment that we entered.
• As previously reported, Denny's does have a sign posted. As of this report, the sign is still in place.

I intend to note all of this info in the next week when I make my next inquire with Chief Stadnitski as to the status of his little project.

List of Dickson City businesses we visited:

• Sam's Club - A female customer asked Rich if he had a 'gun permit'. He replied that he did, but in PA one was not required for OC. She said that she carried a gun when she was at home (Georgia) and wondered if she could open carry here and if her GA permit was recognized. We answered both in the affirmative and gave her a pamphlet. She thanked us and we parted ways.
• Best Buy - Stopped by to look for a serial to USB converter. Found one, but was too high-priced.
• Viewmont Diner - Had some excellent gyros for lunch.
• Sheetz - Stopped for gas and snacks
• Petco - Stopped to get doggie drugs so Rich's dogs don't freak out over the fireworks. Asked for assistance to find them and had a few-minute conversation with a clerk about the various options.
• Circuit City - Continued my search for a serial to USB converter. Didn't find any on the shelf, so I asked an employee. They didn't have any, which explained why we couldn't find them. Two other employees told us "Have a nice day" on the way out.
• Wal-Mart - Picked up some little flags.

After we left Dickson city, we went to Wilkes-Barre, where we met up with mystery_man and walked about two miles around the downtown area, including passing by the police department twice. After the walk, as we stood on the corner chatting, an officer drove by. Rich said he almost broke his neck twisting it to see my pistol, but he did not stop, and there was no additional response (we were a block from the station). Also, on the way back home we made a quick stop and the Wilkes-Barre township K-mart.

All-in-all, just another totally uneventful OC day.