What are your thoughts on open carry and why?

Are you For Open Carry or Against and Why?

  • For Open Carry

    Votes: 37 45.1%

  • Against Open Carry

    Votes: 38 46.3%

  • Undecided

    Votes: 7 8.5%
  • Total voters
    82
  • Poll closed .
It is rare to find a professional trainer that thinks OC is a good idea. Here is a typical analysis by one of the best.

http://www.activeresponsetraining.net/the-perils-of-open-carry

I dread to mention this but one also has to consider your ethnicity, a point I made in a Concealed Carry magazine article. The reaction of folks to you, dependent on this, might lead to a call to the police through implicit bias or from a overtly biased person trying to screw with you.

While I understand the legal nature, pragmatically I see no benefit for most environments. I have only OC'ed when working on a friend's ranch or hunting as a BUG.

I think you are a great negative to OC an EBR. As I said before, when we saw these guys going into Starbucks - my kid used to work in one. If I was visiting her and you stroll in with an AR - I am planning my response if that gun moves in a way that is threatening. Do you want to risk it?

Also, the time it takes to get a slung AR into action is way slower than a quick draw from a handgun. Estimates are a second or two - which is an eternity in a critical incident.
 
The reaction of folks to you, dependent on this, might lead to a call to the police through implicit bias or from a overtly biased person trying to screw with you.
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They will do it too. Down here though the big thing is to try to get the police to hassle opposition team supporters. On game day evening it is not unusual to get DUI calls on vehicle that are decked out with a team logos and flags. Often times the caller will be from an opposition team.

Calling because someone is a different race than yours and in particular color neighborhood is very normal even when the person is doing a perfectly legal activity like walking down the street.
 
O For open carry
O Against open carry
O Undecided
O X For the right to open carry, but not my personal choice

For the reasons mentioned in numerious previous posts.
 
Folks who proclaim they OC out in the boonies are really irrelevant.

Please OC on a crowded Urban subway system where you stand front to butt and get back to us.

Cheapshooter has it right.

Yeah, I OC'ed in the middle of TX nothingness. Big whoop.
 
I'm with Mr. Meyer on this one. There is too much of a difference between me casually covering (or not) a holstered revolver or pistol when I run into a village of less than 500 people to go to a hardware store where virtually everyone knows each other generationally (the staff can tell me stories about my grandfather) and someone carrying an AR15 during active protests in Dallas to really consider the two as the same thing.
 
Moonglum said:
I think it's a HELL of a way to start a fight on the Internet
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Moonglum, the responses have all been very respectful so far and people have backed up their reasons for their position on OC vs. CC. Thank you to everyone for keeping it civil! :D:D:D

It seems that quite a few people who support it rarely do it themselves and only in rural environments. This brings up an interesting point that I pointed out in another thread. There have been reports of cartel soldiers guarding trafficking routes in border towns. If you are carrying a hunting weapon, you won't look like much of a threat. If you are hiking and open carrying a weapon, you may be mistake as the authorities, especially if you are wearing "tactic-cool" gear. The 4 legged critters most likely aren't impressed with what you are packing. LOL:eek::p
 
Like everyone else, I support open carry. Around the house I'll wear my XD or S&W model 10 OWB, and occasionally Ill go out of the house and still open carry, though it's on rare occasions. One time we were expecting to stay home but wife and daughter wanted to get milkshakes, so I figured we'd just go through the drive through and thus did not switch guns. After that, though, they wanted to go to the park, so we did. Other times it's just going on quick errands, and if it's warm out I won't bother throwing a coat on over my OWB carry.

What I've noticed is when I'm open carrying I do not like being stationary. I move constantly whether it's going through the store and then quickly through self checkout, or just walking down the road.

I much prefer concealed carry and highly recommend it over open carrying.


Lee
 
Uh Oh, thinking about my post #28 I have opened carried in West Virginia. I carried a rifle and those I was with just called it hunting. :)

Ron
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moonglum
I think it's a HELL of a way to start a fight on the Internet
Moonglum, the responses have all been very respectful so far and people have backed up their reasons for their position on OC vs. CC. Thank you to everyone for keeping it civil!

It seems that quite a few people who support it rarely do it themselves and only in rural environments. This brings up an interesting point that I pointed out in another thread. There have been reports of cartel soldiers guarding trafficking routes in border towns. If you are carrying a hunting weapon, you won't look like much of a threat. If you are hiking and open carrying a weapon, you may be mistake as the authorities, especially if you are wearing "tactic-cool" gear. The 4 legged critters most likely aren't impressed with what you are packing. LOL
Click to expand...

If you come up on cartel odds are you're going to disappear regardless.
 
From the article Glen linked to:
Just because you can carry openly doesn’t mean you should. A friend summed it up perfectly when he said “It would be perfectly legal for a redneck white dude to strut around a ghetto wearing an “Obama is an idiot” T-shirt, but would it be a good idea?”
Click to expand...

I agree! OC is not for me for day to day activities
 
Given that I an not interested in activism, education, social engineering or attention, I would not Open Carry in public. The very narrow circumstances where it may offer a deterrence to criminal violence does not overcome the many other circumstances where it seems an obvious peril.
 
I vote against, but I'm fine if other do carry.

For me it's a matter of utility. I open carry when I expect to use the gun at some point while I'm carrying, eg hunting, hiking, or plinking.

I don't see the utility in open carry for self defense.
 
I voted "Undecided". Mainly because I haven't followed what the general public opinion is on such, nor have I paid attention on the positives or negatives on how nation wide Law Enforcement feels about it. It's not that such a subject disinterests me, I guess I've never seen much about it on the net or the news. Maybe that's my fault.

But two things pop into my mind on this. One, a bad guy will know 50 feet away from you that you are carrying. Could work to your advantage, and the bad guy will leave you alone. Could work to a disadvantage. He shoots you before you even know anything happens.

Second, I'm not keen on putting up with the hassles you may get from Law Enforcement. LEOs in my area are split 50/50 on guns. Town and city Cops don't seem to care for guns in the hands of private citizens. County Deputies on the other hand, encourage gun ownership by private citizens, or at least they do in my county. I know this because I work (indirectly) with many of them being that I am an EMT, CERT, and Wilderness Search & Rescue. I may be wrong about the City Cops, but I get that impression.
 
I live in a rural area, I retired last June I am on the farm or in the woods most of the time so open carry most of the time when I absolutely have to go to a city I conceal
 
Politically, I think it has been a loser in Texas. I almost never saw 30.06 sogns around Dallas; but I see the 30.07 signs much more frequently - and in some cases they are putting up 30.06 signs as well. Most of the non-gun people I know react negatively to it; and contrary to the "familarization" theory, they aren't getting any more accepting of it.

I agree it should be a right. Sadly, the people who are most insistent on using it as ambassadors for the Second Amendment don't appear to be very successful in that particular outreach effort or even all that interested in being more successful in that outreach effort as far as I can tell.

Talked with a guy I grew up with who is a cop and as solid pro-2A as you can imagine; and he just rolls his eyes whenever he has to deal with the OC crowd - and he supports OC. If he feels that way, you can imagine how the average person responds - except you don't have to as it is usually plain on their face.
 
I voted against OC but I am not against it being legal, I am simply against partaking of it as my mode of carry.

There are places that allow riding a motorcycle without a helmet, I have no beef with that.. I would simply not do it myself.
 
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