"chilling effect" on RKBA

Hello one and all! I here a lot of people prefere to carry openly to help people getting used to the fact that yes guns are legal. Well i live in central kentucky, and oddly enough i have yet to see one non-leo open-carry.

To be honest, i am wondering if it kind of has to do with a chilling effect. If i decided to try it i wouldn't be sure where i was allowed to go, and where i wasn't allowed to go. Can any place specify yes to CCW, and no to open-carry? Is there a list of general areas to avoid carrying openly in? People refere to "walking the streets" but i don't just strut down mainstreet every afternoon. I go to gas stations, wal-mart, and the post office.

Technically speaking i don't have a CCW permit yet, is this something that will be addressed in classes? And regardless if it isn't posted on a businesses door does that mean i am allowed to carry openly? Im sure there are handy websites about this kind of thing, but the most popular seems to be packing.org and i really can't find information regarding this.

Any advise anybody? It is obviously disturbing that a fundamental right has to be chilled in this sense. Isn't that why it is so difficult to make laws restricting speech? Why isn't gun ownership on the same level, since it is both a constitutionally given right? Thanks!

TRY

www.packing.org

Also, http://www.opencarry.org/

We “had” open carry in our state (actually) we still do. A few years back a bunch of numb nuts decided they would start charging people with “Armed and Terror to the Public” under common law, unfortunately in many cases the courts sided with the state.

They mainly targeted open carry in public places and vehicle gun racks. You were ok in a Vehicle as long as it was in plain view, it just couldn’t be in the gun rack (what stupidity). About the only time you see it now is around hunting season.

I've seen regular joe open carry in Paris, KY several times, which is a bit strange considering how close it is to Lexington (where you will probably be hassled by cops and/or soccer moms.)

To be honest, i am wondering if it kind of has to do with a chilling effect. If i decided to try it i wouldn't be sure where i was allowed to go, and where i wasn't allowed to go. Can any place specify yes to CCW, and no to open-carry? Is there a list of general areas to avoid carrying openly in? People refere to "walking the streets" but i don't just strut down mainstreet every afternoon. I go to gas stations, wal-mart, and the post office.
You can't carry in the post office, open or concealed. I believe there's a thread on here that discusses that question at length. (If it isn't here, then it's on Packing.org)

Actually, you CAN carry in the Post Office: http://www.thegunzone.com/rkba/rtc-usps.html

Another myth busted.

I carry openly about a third of the time in Colorado. To date—about six months, I'd say—only one person has remarked my carrying a gun, other than my fellow bullseye shooters at the range.

I carried all week on vacation a couple weeks ago. One person obviously noticed my openly carried .44 magnum, but didn't say a word about it.

I strongly support the idea of open carry. The best way to desensitize people to guns is for people to see them. For example, open carry (of Uzis!) is seen all over the place in Israel. Liberal anti-gun American Jews who go to Israel go there, see people toting Uzis and a bunch of other stuff, and don't freak out. The people who openly carry may be wearing uniforms (police, military) or may not (they're ordinary civilians). Whatever, it's so accepted that liberal Jews don't freak over it. These same Jews come back here and they do freak out about the idea of civilians carrying. Well, the same process could apply here. If people saw civilians openly carrying every day, no one would freak out, and the whole thing would seem more normal.

So open carry is a great idea. The problems with it are obvious: it's on the books in many places, but cops and sheeple have such hostility to the idea that if anyone tries it, he will experience a world of problems. I could legally opennly carry my unloaded AR-15 (grandfathered) walking down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, or down Union Street in San Francisco, but clearly, someone would call a SWAT team and I would be arrested at gunpoint in either of those two situations.

It will be a slow process to get open carry widely practiced and accepted, and I'm glad to see people having the guts to do it. Will open carry EVER be considered "normal" in NYC or urban California? Probably not, but I hope that happens everywhere as much as possible.

I love the title since the liberals are claiming that having to show an ID or proof of citizenship would have a "chilling effect" on the right to vote. It would put a crimp in their get the illegals registered to vote drives for sure.

Tactically, open carry to me is a "shoot me first" sign for the bad guys, so I'd not do it.

--wally.

Chilling effect? Open carry is entirely legal in West Virginia. There is also no question that doing so WILL get you arrested - probably not convicted, but definitely arrested. Yeah, that's chilling effect ... which nobody's willing to challenge (which would be met with "this court rules you do indeed have the right to carry openly ... and we'll rule the same way when your a$$ gets hauled back in here again ... and again ... and again ... keep 'em coming, officer").

I love the title since the liberals are claiming that having to show an ID or proof of citizenship would have a "chilling effect" on the right to vote.

Well said, wally!

In many places it has to be one slow step at at time. Concealed carry allowed us to start compiling crime reduction figures for the entire nation without alarming anyone. Now that we have a good record on teh books, it makes transitioning to open carry that much easier. But dont expect it to happen overnight anymore than the CCW revolution happened overnight.

i carry openly in AZ regularly. i see quite a few other folks doing it too. it's common enough that people don't freak out and call the cops but rare enough that you get odd looks, people ask questions sometimes and alot of folks just assume you're a cop. it's also acceptable enough that if the shtf in AZ i wouldn't feel too uncomfortable standing on my porch with my ar. i'm reasonably confident that no jbts are likely to come by and TRY to take it. 'cept maybe sheriff joe's goons.

on the tactics side, yes a determined criminal may shoot you first but more likely he'll just decide to go somewhere else. maybe, if we're lucky enough, it may jar some sense into him and he'll realize what an unhealthy activity he was about to pursue. regardless of the crook's thought process, i know it affects every person i see when i carry openly and if we can get more folks to carry there will be less crime (and fewer criminals :evil: ) so it's worth it.

I make the choice to open carry or CCW on a case by case basis based on 1) Where I am going and what the legality of CCW is at this location and 2) what is most convenient for ME at the time.

I could care less what others think. I don't care what they do therefore I could care less if they care what I do. I don't open carry to flaunt, but if I am CCW under a sweatshirt and the temp outside jumps to 80 I am taking the sweatshirt off and open carrying. Period.

Arguments that open carry makes you a target are unfounded IMO. Every situation is different - and it's just as likely that a "bad guy" will wait for those open carrying to leave the area for initiaiting their criminal act. Does anyone really think that a criminal sees a gun and suddenly thinks "Great, that guy has a gun - now is a good time to start the robbery!"

Yeah, right.

"Tactically, open carry to me is a "shoot me first" sign for the bad guys, so I'd not do it."

Has that EVER happened ever? How about one example. :banghead:

I have no problems with open carry, but as the above poster said you're marking yourself for special attention, and from many sides, from the bad guys, the cops and the do gooders. If that's good with you then open carry, it won't bother me. In fact, I'd appreciate it as it will take eyes, and attention, from me and my concealed weapon.

For those of you that think open carry used to be the norm, say back in the old west, stop watching TV and start reading or watching real history. Most western towns had ordnances against open carry and they were enforced, even back into the 1800's. Read the real report of the fight at the OK Corral. The Earps didn't have gunbelts on when they went to confront the Cowboys, their guns were either in their hands or in waistbands or coat pockets. The Cowboys were wearing guns openly and that's what the Earps were going to see them about, to confiscate their guns.

Open carry is unusual in the urban enviroment, it is now and it was then. Only in rural areas or outside of town or city limits was and is open carry regularly seen.

whats wrong with using the term chilling effect? I feel that it describes exactly what i was talking about. Plus it is a cool new term we are learning about in my criminal law class 8^)

One thing about laws is that they're never written in stone. So if it's legal to carry openly in a place where many people are frightened by guns, do it and you'll probably cause the law to be changed so that you can't carry at all.

It's a really good thing to do if you like showing people that they can't push you around because then you get a lesson in maturity. You discover that they can and will push you around. Hard. And it won't be at all difficult for them to get the laws changed. Politicians love making large groups of their constituents happy. They count numbers.

Right now we're in a time that I consider almost incredible. After a long period in which the pendulum swung towards the extreme of increasingly restrictive gun control laws it's slowed a little nationwide. In some places it's even begun to swing back just a little and maybe will swing back a little further, although I'm not optimistic about that. The general reason why there was a swing towards restrictive gun control and even towards abolition of private firearms ownership is that gun owners were perceived as dangerous lunatics without any sense of judgment. Lots of years and lots of effort went into pushing that perception back a little. Go ahead and show other people that you don't care what they think. Watch how they react. Your fun will be costly, for everyone. Maturity includes learning consideration for other people including people you don't like, don't respect, or don't agree with.