how many people know you carry?

Please give me an idea of under what circumstances you open carry. Do you actually walk around in public crowds and such? Whay kind of responses do you get? Police response?
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Question 1. Most any and all. I probably open carry about half the time.

Question 2. Yes. I actually walk around in crowds and such. If by "in crowds" you mean restraunts, convience stores, "on the street" and such places as that.

Question 3. Almost none. In five years of off and on open carry I've had maybe a half dozen people mention the gun. Most responses are along the line of "can I do that to?" "Is that a Colt?". The most negeative thing I've ever heard was "Excuse me. Your pistol is cocked." I explained that it was a 1911 and was designed to be carried "cocked and locked". The person replied "Oh. I didn't know that. Learn something new everyday." We both went back to pumping our gas.

Question 4. None. Never had a LEO say a word. From standing behind me in the line at Hardee's (open carried Makarov) to one who pulled up to an office complex in response to a burglar alarm, as I was picking up a courier package (Ruger Bearcat that time). He asked me "Did you see anything going on around here?" I told him "nope." He thanked me and got back in his car. I suppose they must get a lot of false alarms from that place. I crashed a motorcycle once. I handed the deputy my D/L and my CHP at the same time (I was open carrying at the time. S&W 39-2, 9mm). He glanced at both, handed back the CHP, never mentioned the gun, and started writing down the DL info.
 
I've been carrying since I was 21, so all my family knows, and a few friends...very few. We have open carry in Ms. also, but you need a CCP to do so...yea I know, strange.

I chose not to open carry in the Jackson metro area, I would rather not advertise to the drug dealers and wannabe gangbangers. In the smaller towns and rural areas it's not a big deal. Most people just want to know what kind of gun you have. Even had one man ask to shoot my .357 Blackhawk behind his store...granted it was 10 miles from ANYTHING except the land we hunt on. You've seen them I'm sure, small country store with one gas pump ect.

Most people in the southern states don't think carrying a firearm is out of the ordinary, many grew up hunting and shooting...just the norm around here.
 
family...friends,,,four or five buddies....nother five or six business friends.. friends of their friends.... Id say around 50 total... maybe lil more.
 
RickE,

My experiences pretty much mirror those of CajunBass, and although we both hail from the Old Dominion, I'm from Fairfax County, reputedly one of the least gun-friendly parts of the Commonwealth.

I carry openly, usually a Commander-sized 1911, an XD45 Tactical or an H&K USP (depending on my mood, or activities) anywhere I happen to be going - grocery shopping, the local coffee shop, out for a sandwich. The owners of the local bagel shop were astounded when I walked in - it had never occurred to these gents (immigrants from Afghanistan, as it happens) that Virginians have the right to go about openly armed. Now it's a standing joke.

I do have a CHL, and will carry concealed when circumstances warrant. I also carry concealed on evenings like this one, when the snow flies thick and wet.

Response from the folks I encounter (that vanishingly small percentage who actually notice the thing) ranges from mild surprise to a yawn. Response from law enforcement is . . . nothing at all, and I bump into them all the time.

I know it ain't for everyone, but it is a right I choose to exercise, rather than have it atrophy out of existence, as it effectively did in Fairfax County for many years. Use 'em or lose 'em, as they say.

God be with!
 
My wife, a few family members on both sides and probably a handful of friends ... None of them carry or even, as far as I know, own a firearm ... My sister, a Massachusetts pinko, is coming for a visit later this year -- her first command, "Don't tell me about any guns." OK, no problem, but I'll still be armed as we show her and her husband the beauties of central Texas ...
 
I'd say that anyone who knows me "well" also knows that I am somewhat of a gun nut :D

They also know that I carry daily. That's probably quite a few people... but I do not walk around with a shirt that says "I have a gun!"

I don't see it as a bad thing.
 
Please give me an idea of under what circumstances you open carry. Do you actually walk around in public crowds and such? Whay kind of responses do you get? Police response?
Question 1. Most any and all. I probably open carry about half the time.
Click to expand...

Question 2. Yes. I actually walk around in crowds and such. If by "in crowds" you mean restraunts, convience stores, "on the street" and such places as that.
Click to expand...


Pretty much the same here, I OC most of the time, conceal under "certain" circumstances.

So to answer the original question...pretty much anyone! ;)
 
Well, there's my fellow classmates with whom I took CCW instruction, along with brush up classes over the years.

Folks who's brains I've picked for a "nice" weapon/holster/light.

My barber (there's a story for another time).

I help out when my gun club hosts a "First Shots" seminar for newbies on occasion. I'll remove my cover garment and let folks notice I'm carrying.

So I guess that adds up to lots of people that know.
 
My girlfriend knows because, she is accustomed tpo always walking on my weak side, holding my weak hand, etc. I believe my instructor put it best when he said "The only one who needs to know you have it is you. Until it goes off, then everyone knows, so you better have a very good reason for it going off!"
 
Discuss/Mention Concealed carry

Cannot see any benefit.
People you discuss it with know you carry and anybody that they talk to may also hear about that you carry.

Worst case result.
Standing in line at 7-11 type store -- two guys pull guns to rob the place and some idiot looks at you and says:
............."You've got a gun, do something".
.
 
My wife...my mother/father...a couple REALLY close friends.

But sometimes I actually WANT people to know I'm carrying. Let me explain...

I am a 30 year old black male, who started carrying about 7 years ago. I won't go too far into it, but the image of a "(young) black man with a gun" doesn't conjure up a lot of warm, fuzzy feelings among people. I understand that most of the folks here on TFL could care less, but I choose to open carry at times in order to hopefully begin to dispell some of the stigmas attached to guys that "look like me".

I'm sure that some of you may "get" what I'm saying, and that others won't...and I'm okay with that. You may see me open carrying with a suit on. I may have on jeans and a button-down shirt. I may have on shorts and a cutoff tshirt. I hope that it serves to educate people, and I love it when people ask me questions ("can you just carry it out like that?"..."Why do you have a gun?")

...I will now place my flame-retardant suit on...
 
@indykappa

Good for you! Be thankful you live in a state that hasn't taken away your right to open carry (as mine has done).
 
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