What struck me is the reactions of those who were interviewed concerning their thoughts about seeing a man at that event open carrying a rifle.
I didn't hear a single "oh it was soooo scary, I had to leave!"
To the last person, all I heard was (paraphrasing) "I thought it was a little weird but he wasn't acting dangerous so we didn't think anything of it"
Or, "Oh, he's one of THOSE guys...whatever."
Nobody ran to the police to report a man with a gun, or freaked out.
Nobody interviewed was angry at the man for open carrying and nobody said they felt endangered or frightened. In fact, there are harsher responses in this thread then there were from any of the talking heads on CNN or the witnesses they interviewed about him.
This is not only an example of how an open carry activist can act appropriately, it is an example of how large crowds of people can in fact be oblivious to open carried firearms. It's not a case of automatic panic, death, and chaos
People's attitudes can change with honest exposure.
I'm seeing a lot of anti open carry people saying "yea, I'll bet he's sorry he carried there, got himself named as a person of interest"...What I see though, Is the only person at that event other than the police who were able to defend themselves during their evacuation to safety, who then correctly identified himself and turned his gun over so as to not incur accidents or misidentification.
The fact that he was misidentified then quickly cleared wasn't his screw-up, it was the media's fault for reporting him as a suspect from a source other than official LE release, and a disorganized situation.
Yes it was a self initiating problem.
But I'd love to be able to ask him, if he is sorry he was open carrying at that event.
TBH, I'll take his experience over being unarmed during a shooting like that, If I were forced to be at an event with a shooting.