Okay - Here it is - POLL - Open Carry, Yes or No - and Why.

[Alphazulu6]

Why honestly would anyone want to open carry? I see it here in Colorado...and sometimes at Wal-Mart. Get a CC license. Its just stupid to walk around trying to look like John Wayne. But make it illegal to do so...absolutely not. Blowing your nose isnt illegal but its gross to see someone do it onto the sidewalk at the bus stop. Same thing w/ firearm open carry at the grocery store. There is just no need for it when you can get a license to carry concealed. I dont want to look at your 1911 and neither does anyone else.

 

[jrfoxx]

I Carry concealed, albeit sloppily (meaning I'm neither trying to OC or conceal intentionally) in the winter and cooler months, simply because I will be wearing some sort of jacket or open, button-up shirt over a t-shirt anyway to stay warm, so I would actually have to go out of my way to carry it open. What I do is put my gun of choice, in my OWB holster of choice, then put on my shirt or jacket I would be wearing anyway, and leave it at that.If it prints, or is partially visible, etc., oh well.In the summer, I wear the same gun in the same holster, I'm just not wearing anything over the T-shirt.I'm not really ever intentionally open-carrying or concealed carrying, I'm just wearing the same gun and holster combo OWB (which I find the most comfortable and practicle), and it either gets covered, partially covered, or not covered at all based on what I chose to wear based on my fashion choice of the day, or the weather (mostly the weather).Works out fine for me.I'm always comfortable temperature wise, and can always carry whatever I want, in the manner I feel is most comfortable and practicle, and I also like that I instinctively know without thinking where my gun is, as its always the same gun, in the same holster, in the same spot.YMMV.

 

[BobCav]

Alphazulu6 wrote:

Why honestly would anyone want to open carry? I see it here in Colorado...and sometimes at Wal-Mart. Get a CC license. Its just stupid to walk around trying to look like John Wayne. But make it illegal to do so...absolutely not. Blowing your nose isnt illegal but its gross to see someone do it onto the sidewalk at the bus stop. Same thing w/ firearm open carry at the grocery store. There is just no need for it when you can get a license to carry concealed. I dont want to look at your 1911 and neither does anyone else.

Not everyone that OC or CC's for that matter is a John Wayne wannabe. I'll guarantee you I've seen a couple OC'ers that fit that bill when they first come to OCDO but they are the exception and not the rule and most eventually see the error of their ways. I've also heard a large number of CC'ers claim that they want the tactical advantage in a gunfight as if they hope to be in one and play the hero. (IMHO that is more "John Wayne" than just OC'ing a gun. And far more dangerous.)

The best way to survive a gunfight is to not be in one, while at the same time being acutely aware and prepared for one. For me, OC does that far better than CC ever could. It keeps BG's away because 99 44/100% of the time criminals fear responsible citizens with guns.

When I walk down the street nicely dressed with my family or in a mall, store or restaurant, not only am I keeping BG's away, but I'm breaking the stereotype that the Brady Bunch would have the rest of America believe that only BG's have guns.

For me, OC is the ultimate BG repellent!

 

[Mainsail]

Its just stupid to walk around trying to look like John Wayne.

I read some similar ignorance on a ham radio forum. In that forum someone referred to anyone who wanted to carry a firearm a ‘Rambo wannabe”. It was as stupid a statement there as this one is here.

 

[anotherKevin]

Why honestly would anyone want to open carry? I see it here in Colorado...and sometimes at Wal-Mart. Get a CC license

Actually I have one, but your Democrat governor just invalidated it.

 

[tenbase]

Mainsail, lemme guess, QRZ?

 

[LaVere]

I am a Ham radio operator nearly 50 years Extra class 20 WPM type old school.
3 out of the 5 hams I have lunch with once a week all carry all of the time. I don't know what that says but there you have it.

 

[fletcher]

While I completely support the option of open carry, I don't think I would choose it as a regular carry method. I feel more comfortable having my weapon concealed, and would like to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to myself. That aside, it's a "fun" thing to do when taking a trip waaaaaay out in the sticks.

 

[wjustinen]

Nice idea for a poll, but my answers don't fit, so

Is open carry OK? yes
Is concealed carry OK? yes
Do you have a preference. yes
What is it? personal

 

[Sharps-shooter]

This is a cultural thing. It might depend on where you live.

I don't have a ccw permit. When I carry anything, I open carry. That isn't such a big deal here. I'm pretty well known around town, and nobody seems to think I'm a murderer.

I fully understand and appreciate the arguments against open carry. At the same time, I recognize that a couple decades ago, where I grew up, concealed carry was considered dishonest, underhanded, and prima facie evidence of intent to do wrong. An honest person, some believed, didn't need to carry a concealed gun. They needed, as I'm sure you've heard, a revolver the size of a canned ham. That was all pure speculation, but it was what many people thought.

Now there's this other idea, that open carry makes you the primary target of a badguy. let's see what I can say to that:

1. It would, in many situations, make you the last person a BG wants to mess with. He's waiting in the proverbial dark alley for a victim, you come along, and he can see you have a gun. He's probably not going to say, "Oh goody, an armed victim!". Unlike robin hood, most outlaws do not suffer from an excess of courage.

2. In a hostage situation, where for instance a couple BG's are robbing a bank that you happened to be in, Open carry might make you a target, if you're the only one carrying. Maybe. But so might being a big, strong looking dude, or having a millitary haircut, or any number of other factors that might make you seem threatening to them. Changing how you conduct yourself because of a possible outcome of a rare hypothetical situation like this, could be an early warning sign of cowardice.

I'm not against CC at all. It turns out to be a much better thing for society than most people 2 generations ago thought it would be. But open carry is also good.

 

[WayneConrad]

Conceal Carry is the hair-straightening tonic of the second amendment crowd...

Why in the world would anyone want to show up in town looking black? How rude. How confrontational. Get your hair straightened, and dress and talk like decent white folk, for heaven's sake. What, do you want them to make even more laws against blacks?

Good thing that we've gotten away from that kind of predjudice. Mostly.

Ain't it?

Yeah, it sucked to be the ones being jailed, beat up, maimed or killed for the offrontery to be black in public. Many suffered uselessly, having paid the cost and yet not having advanced the cause of freedom.

But for some who were lucky enough or clever enough or supported enough, being black where black was not desired was very, very important to changing the way things were into the way things ought to be.

 

[Juna]

I certainly think we should have the right to open carry. If open carry were more prevalent, people might not be so averse to the sight of a gun.

Right now, most people only see guns on TV (during which they're only being used for violence) or on the hip of a LEO. If your average Joe saw one of us with a pistol on our hip, he'd probably call the police and report a "man with a gun". More prevalent open carry might prevent things like that from happening.

 

[P5 Guy]

We need to get the sheep used to seeing firearms carried by people that they know and trust that do not wear uniforms.

 

[ProficientRifleman]

Because open carry should be the NORM. Concealed carry should be reserved for particularly dangerous and/or hazardous situations and locations.

Where you are told to go unarmed...it is best to be armed.

 

[Joey]

Open carry is a great thing under the proper circumstances. When out camping, 4 wheeling, fishing or doing any kind of outdoor activity why not.

However, open carrying in a city or other populated area is another thing. Has the person ever undergone professional training in what to do if somebody tries to take your weapon away from you? It's not very easy to keep from getting your pistol snatched out of a open holster that has no retention device.

What happens when you are standing in line at a bank & sam dirtbag who is intent on robbing that bank walks up behind you & shoots you cuz you are openly carrying a weapon & are a threat to his plan to rob the bank.

There is a reason or 2 why only uniformed police openly carry firearms & officer safety is one of them.

But some narrow minded right wing wackos do not understand and/or refuse to understand any kind of reasoning about why open carry is not the best thing since sliced bread & are doing nothing but alienating a segment of Americans by openly carrying a firearm.

Then you have to deal with public opinion and how Jane q school mom sees gun owners. If you are not clean cut with short hair and present a professional appearance you will do more harm than good. When Jane q public sees somebody in dirty blue jeans, long shaggy hair, tattoos & a gun is that really the image you are trying to convey in the court of public opinion?

But then again I'm sure those thick headed people who insist that open carry is the only way to carry a pistol will tell you that it must work, cuz nobody has ever robbed a bank (or any other place) when they were there openly carrying a firearm

However, by CCWing you avoid the vast majority of any issues & the general public only knows that you are armed IF you need to draw and use your firearm.

There is a time and place to open carry a firearm & there is a time and place to carry a firearm concealed & I live in a state that allows both

 

[springmom]

But some narrow minded right wing wackos do not understand and/or refuse to understand any kind of reasoning about why open carry is not the best thing since sliced bread & are doing nothing but alienating a segment of Americans by openly carrying a firearm.

Thread lock in 5....4....3....2......

Joey, I support open carry because concealed carry is a PITA. It's hot and uncomfortable in the summer. I have to wear clothing that covers the gun, or else put the gun in my purse where it's not as safe and not as accessible. I have to choose to carry a smaller gun than I would like in the summer because I have to conceal. Texas' "intentional failure to conceal" penalties are harsh, and even an accidental showing of the firearm can lead to charges (after all, if you'd been intentional ENOUGH you'd have worn something that would have made the accident impossible. Snort.)

Your insulting post is unsupported by evidence, contains namecalling, and is not High Road.

Springmom

 

[romma]

supposedly in CT, you can legally OC, however I wouldn't try it.

 

[Joey]

Springmom, do I not have the right to speak my mind here? I have not directed anything I sad at anybody here & have not singled out a single person on this form or anyplace else & have not lead you to believe I singled out anybody.

I did not insult you at all and nowhere have I said anything about fact base data yet you state my post is insulting post is unsupported by evidence, contains namecalling, and is not High Road. I can show you lots of posts here that are the same kind of posting only for open carry and they do not contain any evidence that open carry is better.

You point out a valid complaint about CCWing in that you might have to make a lifestyle change in how you dress or what kind of purse you carry. My wife has a purse made for CCWing and it's a extremly nice purse she can conceal a Sig 229 in it if she wants. By adapting to your area & surroundings is what defines you as a professional or an amature when it comes to carrying a firearm. Professionals adapt to their surroundings while amatures do not.

I'm sorry you missed the point of my post and hopefully you can understand that while I'm all for open carry there is a time and a place for it and personally downtown San Antonio (where I happened to get married) in the summer is not a good place to openly carry a handgun in my personal opinion.

We all have opinions and some of these opinions create emotions & feelings is us for us as gun owners this is not a good thing. We need to step back and attack the issues with logic and not emotion & we should all stand togeather instead of driving more and bigger stakes between gun owners.

United we stand, divided we fall.

 

[Justin]

The name-calling and stereotyping stops right now, or this thread will be locked.

I did not insult you at all and nowhere have I said anything about fact base data yet you state my post is insulting post is unsupported by evidence, contains namecalling, and is not High Road. I can show you lots of posts here that are the same kind of posting only for open carry and they do not contain any evidence that open carry is better.

Joey, you intimated that springmom is a right-wing whacko. Even assuming that your stereotyped insult somehow doesn't apply to THR members who choose to open carry, it's not conducive to a decent conversation.

 

[Joey]

Actually Justin i did not ever imply that anybody here was a "right wing wacko" and before springmom posted what she did had never read one of her posts and did not know she existed.

I'ts rather hard to insult somebody you did not know existed now is it not

We all know what kind of people Right wing wackos are and what kind of people Left wing wackos are & I'm sorry that peoples feathers got ruffled and will return to my lurker status so I don't offend anybody else.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Unremarkable

Lads and lasses, remember, we have not always had a soft, squishy culture.

There was a time when gun ownership was unremarkable.

Heck, there was a time when it was required.

We need to gently move our culture and society back toward gun ownership and the bearing of arms is unremarkable.

People need to see them. People need to see that the people carrying them and using them are not freaks.

I look forward to the day when the gal getting my latte remarks, "hey, you got a new gun!"

I want little Johnny's report card to have a note under his "C+" for "Practical Ballistics" where the teacher comments, "needs work; some time at the range on weekends could bring this back up to a B+ or better."

Commonplace.

Unremarkable.

Open carry.

 

[WoofersInc]

Back to topic. It depends on the situation. Open carry is legal here but I wouldn't do it anywhere in Vegas. However when traveling to the rural areas of the state I will open carry as it is more accepted.

 

[Byron Quick]

Open carry in Georgia requires the same permit necessary for CCW or being engaged in hunting or fishing with appropriate license.

Every now and then, I carry openly. Recently spent an hour or so in Walmart while carrying openly. OWB, 1911, Condition One. Far as I could tell from reactions, no one even saw the gun, no reaction from other shoppers, no reaction from staff, no reaction from the cop out in the parking lot.

Apparently,in eastern central Georgia at least, open carry is unremarkable. I open carry occasionally to do my bit to keep it that way.

 

[hso]

There are some good and reasonable arguments against OC in some situations, but ad hominems are just sloppy argument techniques even if they may not be personal insults. Pro or anti open carry arguments don't need to be underpinned by somehow implying that OC proponents are "right wing wackos" or folks who "want to look like John Wayne" and therefore OC in and of itself is bad because it's advocated by those sorts of people. All of us should be able to present a sound argument without talking down to folks that disagree.

For folks that live in rural areas CC makes no practical sense. For folks that live in rural areas and shop "in town" the burden of being forced to get a permit, purchase additional carry rigs and guns and pay fees isn't reasonable either. Add that laws that require you to carry concealed don't serve the public very well since an errant gust of wind can blow your jacket open and convert you from a law-abiding permit holding citizen to someone who has broken the law.

Are there posers who want to make a statement? Sure, but the law needs to respect the folks that live outside of town as much as those that live in apartments and suburbs.

 

[sm]

Alphazulu6 wrote:
Why honestly would anyone want to open carry?

Because they have certain inalienable rights as outlined in the Constitution of The United States is why.

Folks have Rights - Period.
And some of these rights some may not like, or agree with, still the bottom line is , the Rights that allow one to "like" something, are the same Rights that allow one to "dislike" something.

No, I cannot open carry where I am, and being honest, I prefer to conceal where I am because of my "environment" with Gangs, Armed Robberies in Fast Food Joints, Banks, Carjackings and even Paper Delivery Folks filling up newspaper machines get murdered in the wee hours here.

Out on the Property where I can Open Carry, I sometimes do, with like kind.
As accessing a gun is easier if open carried if doing some work on the Property.
Maybe rabid dogs, snakes - whatever.

Still I most times Conceal on Property.
We have folks with Meth Labs, Growing Dope on Marked Land with "No Tresspassing" signs, , running dope, landing airplanes...in areas Marked, not ,marked that will do Evil things to folks, just out and about farming, ranching, working in a barn, going for walks and even hunting.

Heck, they see "hunters" (seasons) and they wait to catch them coming and going.

Where I am- We have some gangs looking for CCWs, and they look for tactickle knives clipped to pockets, photo vests, and other CCW tell-tell signs so they can "gang up" and take that CCW away!

My environment, and I prefer to Conceal even if the Law said I could carry openly.

Now in Colorado, where things are different than here, yes I might very well carry open.

I do have Rights, no matter what anyone thinks or feels about me and my ways.