Do you open carry regularly?

Do you (or would you if you could) open carry regularly?

  • Total voters
    144
The only thing that will cure people's reactions to open carry is...more open carry. If it was common, folks would get used to it, just as folks have gotten used to the idea of common concealed carry in states that now have "shall issue" laws.

So, if I lived in a place where it was legal, I'd do more of it. I'd try to not be ostentatious, not be "in your face", and not "push it" by doing it in places like malls. The idea would be to ease folks into it. :)
 
I would OC if I could do so without getting the "look" and harassed by cops.
Maybe if about a quarter of the adult population OCed.
I would CC but I am very thin. I thought about CCing in my pants but I would probably get another "look". :D
I might CC this winter when I can wear my coat.
I dont really need a gun on me though.
I stay out of trouble and I dont walk the streets at night.
 
No.

Open carry for me makes me feel like I am more of a target than if I were carrying concealed. Don't really care for the excess attention.
 
CC only. OC is illegal in Oklahoma, generally. A gun is more valuable than a wallet. If you walk around with your wallet readily accessible on your hip, you're much more likely to have it taken. I won't get into weapon retention...etc.
 
Don't ask for trouble...

Where I open carry is very limited: the wilderness on a hunting trip or in a very very rural environment where it's 'normal'.

If you do get involved in any urban/suburban confrontation you will have to explain to the police, a judge and a jury...your philosophy of 'open carry'...and you are going to LOSE BADLY ! You will have to explain why you are the only person 'openly carrying a fiream...and you will have to dispute all those nasty allegations about you being a nut with a gun.' You will not look 'good.' The arguement of 'I always wear my gun when I go to the Wal-Mart' - is the sort of defense that the prosecution LOVES to hear. It makes their day. :cool:
 
I live in AZ and "concealed carry" is very transparent.

Really...how many guys wear a fanny pack to hold their wallet, keys, etc? Maybe a few, but...A fanny pack just screams "HOLSTER!" in AZ. A concealed weapon in a fanny pack is not concealed.

When it's 100+ degrees you don't have a lot of clothing to conceal a gun in. A T-shirt and your jeans or shorts waistband. Even a snubby revolver sticks out there. Maybe a derringer or some sort of .32 or .25 auto... All the guns I have seen like that are sub-$150, unreliable and uncontrollable.

I have a firearm in my car that is hidden when it is parked. When in more rural areas I will actually wear a gun in open carry fashion. Occasionally, when hanging with "the guys" that I go shooting with, we open carry. I will also do so on road trips sometimes, even though I am left handed and at a disadvantage while driving.

Boy, don't we get the nasty stares and grumblings at Burger King afterwards, though... It's funny, too, because we're all college educated, clean-cut, law-abiding respectable type folks.

Routinely? No. Half the time? No. Rarely? Yes. Would I like to more? Yes. I see it as much more honest, and much more of a deterrent for mischief by BG's.
 
In TN, the same permit is good for open or concealed carry. It's a "handgun carry permit", not a "concealed carry permit".

That said, living in an urban area (Chattanooga) I carry concealed to avoid "freaking out" the sheeple. Even though it is legal to carry openly, it's just not worth the hassle around here. If I lived in the country I would be more likely to open carry.
 
Really...how many guys wear a fanny pack to hold their wallet, keys, etc? Maybe a few, but...A fanny pack just screams "HOLSTER!" in AZ. A concealed weapon in a fanny pack is not concealed.
Click to expand...

:D.

I wear a fanny pack and it holds my wallet, keys, etc? I had one smart butt look at me and point to my pack and yelled, "I know where your gun is at". I handed him my pack and said, oh really?

It was "too light" as he put it. I said maybe it's a NAA or a kahr or something like that.

Nope, too light he said.

I then showed him the Kimber at 4:30pm on my right side (we were alone).

Never judge a book by it's cover or assume... you do know what assume is don't you?

(in case you don't: ass/u/me) :D.

And I wear the fanny pack due to my back. I had to give up my wallet in the back pocket so I had to put it somewhere didn't I.

Wayne
 
Doberman,

You're being a bit dramatic here. I open carry regularly in gun-phobic Northern Virginia. It is perfectly legal and, as Chris pointed out, is even required if one enters a licensed restaurant that sells alcohol. I am discreet about it and probably 95 percent of folks aren't even aware I am armed. Of the roughly five percent who do notice, most of them assume (there's that ass/u/me, again :D ) I'm a peace officer.

Other than a few odd looks, I have never had a single untoward experience open carrying, and the Fairfax Police have never once looked crossways at me. Of course, some kids in Reston weren't so lucky - they got soundly rousted for open carrying. I guess being a trim, clean-shaven middle-aged guy has its advantages. :D
 
Fanny pack = gun

Okay, so you didn't have it in your fanny pack, but you had one somewhere. A better formula is :

Guy with fanny pack = gun.

My little old grandma carries a fanny pack, but no gun.

All the men I have met in AZ that have fanny packs have guns in them or somewhere on their person.
 
I opened carried here in phoenix
for over 13 years.I didn't seem
draw any unwanted attention from
anybody.I did get my ccw last feb
just because i wanted to be able
to carry out of state.
 
Open carry is legal here in Arizona, but except right around gun ranges or gun stores, I have yet to see anyone carry open.
I don't know if gun owners in the whole Phoenix valley area prefer to carry concealed for tactical reasons or if carrying open in more populated areas rather than in smaller Arizona towns will get you stopped by the police all the time.
I only lived here a short time and am still getting used to how things work here.
I carry concealed, but I am tempted to go out one day dressed in some fairly nice casual clothes and wear an exposed gun on my hip and walk around downtown and see what happens. I wouldn't wear a huge shiny gun that yelled out, "Look at me!", but just a regular handgun.
It has to be in an area where there would be alot of people who can see me, because anyone can walk around alone in the middle of nowhere with no one around and have no problem carrying open, because there is no one there to say anything.
 
Concealed is better anyway...

When/if serious trouble breaks out... I'd rather be the man nobody knows is armed...than to be the man everybody knows is armed... :cool:

Remember too...that some folks out there might view your firearm as something to steal...

I do miss pocketknives... In my granddaddy's day - it was normal for every man in the world to carry a nice pocketknife. Now I'm afraid sometimes to even carry one for fear of being outed by a metal detector as a 'knife owner'.

I'd rather absent-mindedly walk into a place with a concealed weapon nobody could see...than to absent-mindedly stroll into a place where
it was painfully obvious and alarming...that I had a gun.

Some cops are nice and understanding; some cops are goons looking for any excuse to have fun at your life's expense...

Quite a few restaurants won't let my dobies accompany me inside...unless I wear sunglasses and put my dobe in a special leash that gives the impression I'm blind and that he's my 'guide.' :cool:
 
The only time I will open carry is during the execution of a search/arrest warrant whereupon I'm wearing a thigh holster for my Sigarms P229....beyond that, I'm a proponent of concealed carry of a firearm.

If you are in your own residence or property, then sure, why not.
 
I carry openly all day, every day. The ONLY exception to that is the 3 hours that I'm in Church on Sunday at which time I carry concealed.
 
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