Open Carry culture

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Koda94

New member
I am very pro open carry but do not myself. I've read a few posts or random comments about OC and am curious about the response those that do get in the field, where they OC - what kind of community etc., and if all the time etc.... ?

I live in suburbia and close to downtown. In all my 42 years I have only seen 2 people carry open in this environment. One was at REI and had a nice stainless auto tucked in his belt and another, interestingly enough just down the street from my home at the grocery store, had a large auto (honestly, I think this guy did not realize his shirt rode up and over the gun [Beretta 92FS] because he had a Hawaiian style shirt on untucked and seemed to be in a hurry...)

Anyways. A little about me all I know is if I showed up everywhere with a gun on my side I would a) not have a job, b) not get invited to social events, parties etc. c) get kicked out of stores, restaurants etc. d) probably not have many friends... IDK what else. In my social network, I only know of 2 others that have a CHL...

How does this work for those that do? What kind of response do you get? Do you go to house parties, dinner parties etc. while open carrying? Are you single, married? Do you live in rural areas, the country, or suburbia... downtown? Has anyone 'freaked out' on you? Harassed by the police? Told to leave a restaurant, store etc.? How do you incorporate this into your daily lives....

I'm curious about this because I just don't see how it works in suburbia America.
 
I open carry on my way to the range on occasion. The guy at the gas station I stop at doesn't mind, I get some weird looks. My main problem for not doing it more often is harassment by police. A LOT of people I know get harassed for OC'ing. My shooting buddy was stopped and had his ID and the serial # on his 1911 ran and the cop treated him like a felon the whole time. While open carry is legal in my state, I stick to concealed 9 times out of ten. I have a permit, it's just easier not to be hassled over obeying the law.

I live in a suburb type area. My friends all know I carry and don't mind.
 
I live in a smaller city outside Louisville, KY, so I'm in the same kind of environment. I split my carrying between concealed and open about 70/30. I CC when I am around my friends and family who are less gun friendly, or who I would rather not get into a debate with for the sake of our friendship. I OC if I am out and about in places I know are Gun Friendly zones- LGS, Meijers, Grocery Store, etc. I car carry at work, since I work in a psych hospital intake dept.

As for people's responses: mostly neutral, some positive, no negative. I've had people ask me if I feel threatened, if I'm a LEO, or if it's legal to OC, but it often ends up a very plesant conversation. I have had lades in the grocery store line THANK me for carrying, because they felt safer.
 
People around here don't really seem to notice or care. Around here, Las Vegas, it seems relatively well known which businesses are and are not ok with OC. Most of the daily stuff like groceries, starbucks, restaurants, people don't notice or care. Casinos, a few big chains, and malls will ask you to leave.

I don't OC that often, some of the places I go firearms are prohibited, and others like the movie theater at a casino will ask you to leave. Which leaves me either CC or not carrying.
 
I prefer to CC. The only time I OC is in the deep woods where I do not encounter people. It is just not worth the hassle to me.
 
I cc when at all possible. I am proponent of cc above everything else. And I despise the open carry guys who go out spoiling for an encounter with law enforcement. Way not cool, in my opinion.

That being said, living in a rural community, and having a job that invovles a lot of time outdoors, it is nice to be able to carry my revovler in a comfortable holster and not have to worry about taking it off when I have to run to the gas station or hardware store.

Between my work uniform, which sorta makes me look like a game warden, especially with my radio clipped to my belt, and having been raised and known around these parts for the past 25 odd years, nary an eyebrow is raised.

Especially when you think to consider that the gun I open carry is more for nuisance critter control than anything, it isn't that big of a deal.

But then again, I don't carry openly as a political statement.
 
The only place I often OC'd was in rural Virginia when we lived there. Most of the time it was not a problem. The cops out there seemed to care less. Twice I got strange behavior.

Once when I went to Lowes to pick up a fridge. I walked in and went straight to the service desk. I was arranging for pick up loading when the security camera guy called the desk and asked if he was ok. :rolleyes: The desk guy had to calm the security guy down.

The only other time was when I went to pawn shop and the pawn shop owner wanted me to unload as it was his store policy. I just left instead and never went back. He went out of business not long after.I don't think they were related but driving away paying customers does not seem to be a good idea.


CC is much superior though. Keeps everyone calm reducing odd behavior, allows you to look for real threats instead of dealing with people reacting badly. Bad guys don't know you are carrying either, giving you a small edge if you have done everything else right.
 
OC has been legal here in Ohio on the books. But if you tried to open carry in Dayton, as well as other cities you were asking for trouble. I personally was threatened to be arrested for inducing panic and I know someone that was.

The formal charges were dropped as they knew they had no real case on him but the confusion as to carrying open was caused by local government encouraging LE to discourage the practice.

I actually have since learned more about the law here (let's say more recently) thanks to TFL and others. It's funny how little we know about our own rights and how they can be warped by situations like that.

With that being said I prefer CC for several reasons. One being that it's not obvious and has an advantage in some cases. Another would be that LE is a little less jittery when they don't see it being worn OC.

I always think about how bad it would be if I was Open Carrying and someone tried to rob me of my gun when my back was turned or I was less alert to my surroundings.

I know it can have a discouraging effect to OC in public as well. Criminals seeing people carrying are aware, but I don't want them to know.
 
I don't open carry, as it is illegal in my state, but I find the various attitudes interesting. Historically, CONCEALED carry was seen as shady, as it was thought that only someone up to no good would hide their gun. More recently, that attitude has almost completely flipped. Strange. Especially since criminals do indeed seem to "Concealed carry". I'm not trying to make a point, really, just commenting.
 
I open carried for years, until we passed our first CCW law. I got that permit as fast as I could. :) I don't have a real issue with open carry, but it does expose the carrier to gun grab, (anyone here actually practice resisting a gun snatch?), and can, as mentioned, cause out-of-towners to go weak in the knees and faint of heart. I don't much mind that, as long as they leave their tourism dollars before they leave the border. ;)
I don't like the idea of a snatch, so I conceal. I can and do carry open rarely, but largely I prefer concealed.
Having said all of that - I would NEVER attempt to restrict open carry - we've had it for over 100 years down here in this sandy desert, and it's worked well enough. It's available if you want, (see at least one every week or so), and if you don't want to, we have Constitutional Carry.
 
I OC all the time in the warm weather.

I live in a fairly dense suburb of Philadelphia, in Delaware Co. It certainly isn't ''mainstream'' around here to OC, but I seldom even get more than a glance from anybody in a store. I haven't run into any LEOs' lately but have on occassion at a Wawa or something.

Most of my close friends aren't gun people, but they all know I carry, even if they don't see it. They own a gun or two, but never do any shooting.

I get more flack about OC from my shooting friends than anything.
Kinda funny, my non shooting friends except it more than the guys I shoot with. Go figure.....:confused:
If I'm invited to a someone's home through a friend, I'll have him asked about me carrying a gun. If they don't like guns, chances are I won't like them anyway and excuse myself from going. :p

BTW OP, I have never been asked to leave a place of business due to OC. As long as your well mannored, nobody seems to care. If you act like a jerk, gun or no gun, you won't be welcome too many places.
 
For years, every time OC comes up, I try to understand the practicality of it. OC deprives one of any tactical advantage and in most cases, I believe would make one more of a target or the first one taken out if those amongst us were of the mindset to rein down harm or pursue a goal with an evil purpose. I believe by OC, you are drawn into the "action" whether you are mentally ready and prepared or not. By CC, you can pick your time of entry while gathering your thoughts and formulating tactics and a game plan. Just my opinion. It would be nice if someone could present a strong case for OC other than being out in the boonies warding off bears, wolves, or anything else threatening to eat you.
 
I have never open carried in public here where I live now, and I wouldn't do it whether it is legal or not.

However, I spent most of my adult life in the south-west United States and my experience was that open carry was not a big deal: most places. Of course some common sense has to be used. It would attract attention in a major metro area for example.

I lived in Nevada and occasionally open carried. I didn't open carry into Walmart or anything like that. It was more like, I was going shooting, or I was going to do some off-road driving, or I was going on a hike: and I stopped at a gas station, and I probably went in and got a drink and or food............. But I regularly saw people open carrying in the grocery store, Walmart, whatever and I never saw anyone hassled about it. I know when I went to Gunsite in northern Arizona, I saw people open carrying in the grocery store, and in various restrants and nobody seemed to care.

In the east, I think it would be a much bigger deal.

FWIW: the first time I ever open carried, I did it by accident. I went out hiking in the desert with some friends. I had a S&W J-Frame in a belt holster. In other words, the gun was light and small. We stopped on the way home at a bar and ate some bar food and drank a few beers. When I got home, I realized that I had never taken the gun off my belt. And, nobody said a thing about it.
 
I agree with 45Gunner, OC makes you the first target...

But on the other hand OC might prevent a crime taking place when the bad guy sees a person armed and probably ready to use it...

I would like Texas to allow OC if for no other reason than to make the libs get all bunched up...

Texas is in the process of passing a law that protects us from unintentional gun exposure but until that was introduced I wanted OC just to not worry about accidentally 'printing'...
 
so far it sounds like its more accepted in rural areas and beyond, which obviously makes sense. I like the idea that its still practiced, there is a part of me that thinks if it became more common then maybe it would tilt the anti-gun culture in our favor...?
 
45Gunner posted
For years, every time OC comes up, I try to understand the practicality of it. OC deprives one of any tactical advantage and in most cases, I believe would make one more of a target or the first one taken out if those amongst us were of the mindset to rein down harm or pursue a goal with an evil purpose. I believe by OC, you are drawn into the "action" whether you are mentally ready and prepared or not. By CC, you can pick your time of entry while gathering your thoughts and formulating tactics and a game plan. Just my opinion. It would be nice if someone could present a strong case for OC other than being out in the boonies warding off bears, wolves, or anything else threatening to eat you.
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I agree. In a self-defense situation OC might be a deterrent, but I worry it could make me a target in many situations. Also, I prefer not attracting attention to myself, especially negative attention.

That said, I completely support the right to open carry, it's just not for me; I much prefer to carry concealed.
 
I've never OCed. Probably never will. Mass doesn't look kindly on it. Several years ago, mid to late 90s it was, buddy of mine got his LTC, he did several times OC his .40 in a shoulder rig. We were young, stupid and very lucky. He never had a word said to him.( He looks like a cop, if you know what I mean, hair, build, way of carrying himself etc). At least once a cop was behind him in line at a store when he had it out in the open. Some looks, but no problems.
Wouldn't try it myself then, certainly not now. Not in this state anyway.
 
In my state OC is legal and has a fairly significant following - OC does not require a permit. However, I believe CC is the best method. Also, I believe that the permit system is backwards. OC should require a permit, CC should not require a permit. Of course, there are those who believe a permit should never be required.
 
I CC here in TN, did when I lived in GA as well. Don't want to deal with the LEO hassle, weird looks, or someone with an opinion about guns. That said I am 5'6" and 140lbs, I wear a small shirt and carry a full size 1911 so I'm usually printing just a little bit, I don't worry about it since OC is legal here.
 
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