Travel icon Arthur Frommer won't visit Arizona because people are allowed to openly carry guns

From the AP:

PHOENIX — Travel icon Arthur Frommer says he won't be spending his tourism dollars at the Grand Canyon, or anywhere else in Arizona, because the state's laws allow people he described as "thugs" and "extremists" to openly carry firearms.

The author of budget-travel guides said on his blog Wednesday that he was "shocked beyond measure" by reports that protesters openly carried guns and rifles outside a Phoenix building where President Barack Obama spoke on Monday.

Frommer says he won't personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons as a means of political protest.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon says he spoke with Frommer Thursday and invited him to visit the city to clear up any possible misconceptions about safety.

You can read Mr. Frommer's own discussion here. Unfortunately, he doesn't really understand what happened in Arizona (see here and here).

Well, Opencarry.org has a list of other states that Mr. Frommer won't be able to travel to (their maps are interactive and allow you to see the precise laws in different states). There are ten other states that have laws similar to Mr. Frommer. There are 17 other states that he should probably also want to avoid. For example, Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia is exactly the same as Arizona in terms of openly carrying a gun and within Philadelphia people can carry openly with a permit. At the very least, Mr. Frommer will be stuck to visiting just Philadelphia in the state.



Thanks to Anthony Troglio for also noticing this link.