Question About AZ open Carry.

Status
Not open for further replies.
A

azak01

Inactive
Sorry if this is in the wrong Forum.

Bought a new open carry holster today that is attached to my belt, when i got in my car i noticed the butt of my g17 would not let me sit comfortably with the glock in the holster, so i took it out of the holster and locked it in my glove box. Later as i was re-entering my car, leaving the place i was just at, with one foot in the car i unholstered my g17 to lock in my glove box and i noticed a guy in the car next to me giving a super dirty look.

Question, would this be considered "brandishing" my weapon when all i was trying to do was secure it in my vehicle? I wouldn't have been able to take it off with the holster on unless i literally took my whole belt off and undid it.
 
No, at least not in AZ. You're unholstering and putting it in the glovebox, period. Brandishing is waving it around and pointing it at people.
 
I really appreciate your response. I was worried this person would call the cops on me or something, i probably just over-reacted. I can be a worry wart at times.
 
Open carry is alarming, threatening and rude. This isn't the old west, and walking around with an exposed gun is disruptive to everyday life and increases the chance of something unfortunate happening, whether it is an altercation, car accident or getting the police called.

I love the 2nd Amendment, but shoving it in everyone's face shows a lack of the kind of awareness people who are supposed to be taking a defensive posture ought to have.

Please get a CCL.

IMO and all that.
 
you don't need a ccl in AZ

I always carry concealed but just bought this new holster to try it out.
 
Last edited:
It was probably a tourist from out of state.
Don't sweat it.
Although it might be better to not advertise.
No telling who is watching.
 
Open carry is alarming, threatening and rude. This isn't the old west, and walking around with an exposed gun is disruptive to everyday life and increases the chance of something unfortunate happening, whether it is an altercation, car accident or getting the police called.
Click to expand...

You're not in AZ are you? Or KY.
 
To who?
Click to expand...
Everyone who went to the grocer or out to dinner and wouldn't expect to see people who clearly aren't cops toting weapons.

I lived in Virginia where people did it sometimes, and most people reacted like they felt unsettled. I've visited Arizona many times, as do lots of Northerners in the winter, and neither saw nor expected to see open carry.

I don't care who you are - a gun in a shopping mall draws your attention in that less-than-positive way that lethal weapons have always tended to. That's why cops conceal when they aren't in uniform.

It's kind of like laws allowing public nudity - whether walking around with your penis exposed is legal or not, its still highly conspicuous and rude.

And as a defensive posture, open carry is like a sign that says "Criminals: Shoot me first". I don't see the tactical advantage in informing people out of your sight line that you are potentially dangerous to them, but not yet.
 
RX-79G said:
To who?
Click to expand...
Everyone who went to the grocer or out to dinner and wouldn't expect to see people who clearly aren't cops toting weapons.
Click to expand...
Open carry has been legal in AZ for forty years or more. I clearly remember being on a business trip in Tucson in the mid-1970s. Wandering a downtown shopping mall one evening I saw a gentleman wearing a stereotypical 10-gallon hat, cowboy boots, and a Colt (or clone) SAA strapped on his waist. Even back then, my reaction wasn't one of terror, it was "Hey! How cool is that! People out here in Arizona get to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights!"

I don't consider open carry to be alarming, threatening, or rude. Cops open carry all the time -- even detectives. In fact, in my state so many people aren't even aware that we private citizens can get carry permits that most people who see someone carrying simply assume it's a cop.

Frankly, while it's your right to be alarmed by the mere sight of an inanimate object if you so choose, carrying one IS still a Constitutionally guaranteed right. Since you do not have a Constitutionally-guaranteed right not to be alarmed by inanimate objects, IMHO the RKBA trumps any purported "right" you might think you have not to be alarmed.
 
I already said that I support that right, so what are you unclear about?

What I did say is that is tactically and socially inappropriate. And I don't think the fact the another gun guy approves is any sort of proof that 99% of the population is going think nothing of it.

There is actually a difference between what you have the right to do and what is a good idea.
 
I lived in Virginia where people did it sometimes, and most people reacted like they felt unsettled.
...

I don't care who you are - a gun in a shopping mall draws your attention in that less-than-positive way that lethal weapons have always tended to.
Click to expand...

It sounds as if it is you reacting negatively, and projecting your prejudices to 'most people' in order to make you feel that your bias is correct...

Having grown up in Vermont, I can safely say that I have never found open carry to be anything but normal...

Some do it; most don't...

*shrug*
 
"Projecting"? Like when one gun guy sees another gun guy carrying and approves of it so much that he misses the fact that all the other people around him aren't also gun people with the same biases?

Small town AZ, VT, WV, TN - hey you can not only open carry without comment, you can smoke while working the counter at McDonalds. But if you walk into the hotel where the FBI conducts regional interviews in Phoenix, you might get different treatment.
 
"Projecting"? Like when one gun guy sees another gun guy carrying and approves of it so much that he misses the fact that all the other people around him aren't also gun people with the same biases?
Click to expand...

What is your "fact" based on?
 
RX-79G, I've lived my entire life in AZ, minus 3 years overseas. I've seen open carry here, and done open carry here since I was 16, and yes, it was legal then. I was asked to leave three businesses over the several years, and all three are closed...probably not a co-incidence. :)
Until 1994, when we first got CCW permits, open carry WAS normal and everyday. I would see a person open carrying at least once a week. Nobody commented on it, nobody panicked over it, nada.
After CCW permits became available, many went concealed, and public awareness dropped. Still I see people open carrying even now, with Constitutional Carry, and ya know something, I still have yet to see anyone panic, scream, yell, dirty looks, etc. I commented to one individual that I knew a company that could make him a better holster, and he write the name down. I personally rarely carry openly, but it is normal, practiced and recognized right in this state. When we quail at exercising our rights, we lose them through attrition. So, to sum up, your statement is uninformed and can be construed as insulting to those of us who lived in an open carry only state, and do live in states where open carry is recognized as a 2A right - note I do not say ALLOWED - a right is not allowed, it is recognized as a right, and our law clearly does exactly that.
This IS the West, old or new, and open carry has been both legal AND practiced in this state for over 100 years, regardless if anyone approves of it or not. :)
 
Nothing wrong with open carrry

RX-79G: You imply that open carry is not tactically sound. What gives you that feeling. In the time that you take to remove your concealed weapon and fire, you might be dead. I carry openly all the time and have NEVER had someone panic and call the cops. My wife open carries at work and has had more than one customer say that they are glad to see someone carrying open since the 'bad guys' know that someone is there than can defend themselves.
I have had people ask why I carry and I tell them I have 8 reasons. Then I name my wife, children, grandchildren and the people they are married to. Seems to answer the question.
Since your profile does not say where you are, I can only assume that you do not live in a constitutional carry state. If you don't, then you might not fully appreciate the mindset of open carry. If you do live in a open carry state, then you need to reexamine your attitude.
 
RX-79G said:
What I did say is that is tactically and socially inappropriate.
Click to expand...
I respectfully disagree on both counts.

I know from personal experience as well as having followed reports from other states that open carry does not always result in terrified soccer moms calling out the SWAT team. Yes, that does happen, generally in the more restrictive (ironically classified as "liberal") states. In most of what is still America open carry does not usually result in mass panic.

As to the tactical "advantage," it goes both ways. If you pay much attention to use of force reports, for every incident where an open carrier was targeted so as to "take him out first," you can probably find between two and five incidents in which would-be [suspected] robbers simply turned around and walked away when they saw a guy wearing a gun standing inside a convenience store.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top