Open Carry Poll

What is your stance on Open Carry

  • I support it and would do it

    Votes: 248 51.9%
  • I support it but would not do it myself

    Votes: 96 20.1%
  • I support it but I am unsure whether it would be for me or not

    Votes: 109 22.8%
  • I do not support it

    Votes: 20 4.2%
  • I am undecided

    Votes: 5 1.0%

  • Total voters
    478
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The previous remarks are just my thoughts, nothing more. I wonder why some folks are so adamant about open carry. I've handled firearms most of my life, about 50 years. If I was out and about and observed someone openly carrying a sidearm, it would cause me to wonder about the motivation of that person.

I've handled firearms most of my life, about 50 years, too. I don't wonder about anyone else's motivation. If someone's carrying a weapon and I know about it, I know what I need to do. Since I'm naturally law-abiding anyway, no big deal.
 
ZeSpecter

Many of us who live in Northern Virginia carry openly.

I've found that most of the people with whom I come in contact don't even notice. That tells me something.

No, I won't carry in DC. Won't take a job there. Won't spend my tax dollars there. Don't cross the bridge(s) if I have to spend money - why should my tax dollars go to support suppressive regimes.

You might want to go to opencarry.org and sign up for our open-carry get together on Friday night.
 
If you're in TX and interested in legalizing Open Carry, be sure to check out the Texas Citizens Defense League. They just started out, so nowhere near as powerful yet as VCDL is in VA, but we've got to start somewhere.

See the link in my sigline, and feel free to toss it into your sigline too.

You don't necessarily have to want to OC yourself, but I think most of us can agree that banning it doesn't make much sense,

-MV
 
I am suprised by the number of people that are wanting to open carry. Seems to be around half.

I am not suprised that 5% where completely against open carry since it is something I have just opened my mind to myself.

I do have to support a couple people that question the motives of those who want to open carry. I still find myself wondering why some guys want to do this. I am sure alot of them want to do so for comfort or as a deterent (even though I think it just makes the bad guy have to be more agressive) but I still think there are alot of guys out there that somehow equate it with manhood or importance.

We all know the guy in high school that was a little too wrapped up in his gun and the "black helicopter" crap. The type that wore aviator glasses and an artillary jacket all the time. If you didn't know of that guy then chances are you were that guy. :D
 
I do have to support a couple people that question the motives of those who want to open carry. I still find myself wondering why some guys want to do this. I am sure alot of them want to do so for comfort or as a deterent (even though I think it just makes the bad guy have to be more agressive) but I still think there are alot of guys out there that somehow equate it with manhood or importance.

We all know the guy in high school that was a little too wrapped up in his gun and the "black helicopter" crap. The type that wore aviator glasses and an artillary jacket all the time. If you didn't know of that guy then chances are you were that guy.

In all fairness, that's the same snarky attitude you had towards everyone that carried when you first came here; I wouldn't be surprised if your attitude in regards to open carry will change in time. At least I hope.
 
NineseveN,

I will always wonder that about people because those people do exist. To deny that is just fooling yourself.

Just like everytime I see someone coming to an intersection I am passing through I wonder if they are going to stop at the sign. Most people do but you get the occasional horrible driver.

Am I willing to say I don't want anyone doing it because some guys are not doing it for the right reasons in my opinion?? No, of course not.
 
I still think there are alot of guys out there that somehow equate it with manhood or importance.

Well if the law allowed me to walk around with my pants down I'd just do that, but I am limited to carrying a gun for now.

No offense intended but I think what we have in your post is a failed connection. Oregon is an open carry state, the only advice I have is for you to try it yourself. Don't knock it 'till you've tried it.
 
No offense intended but I think what we have in your post is a failed connection. Oregon is an open carry state, the only advice I have is for you to try it yourself. Don't knock it 'till you've tried it.
I opened carried a pistol on my hip (thigh actually) for 8yrs. It just didn't belong to me.

I am not knocking it. I am sure most people do it for legitimate reasons but you have admit that some do it for the wrong reasons.

If a person could not admit that much I would then start to question why they are doing it since self delusion is the strongest form of denial.
 
PP, if your gonna form an opinion on a large group of people, it helps to form it based on the majority, not the minority. Sure, those people do exist, just as plenty of priests molest children, that doesn't mean that any time a discussion of the priesthood comes up, one is being disingenuous or delusional if they don't make remarks about young boys and knuckles every chance they get.
 
NineseveN,

But wouldn't you wonder if the priest was one of the ones that did do that if you were leaving your children with him?

I am not saying everyone that open carries is compensating for their feelings of inadequecy.

I am just saying that some people do and I sometimes wonder which ones are which.
 
Sure, I also wonder who wrote the book of love and whether or not they put the ram in the rama-lama-ding-dong. I try not to build my ineternal policy upon suspicious foundations...seems a little silly to me.
 
But wasn't it Socrates (or some greek dude) that said "suspicion is a foundation of reason"...when you suspect something it causes you to look into the matter and find if it is true or not true. Therefore suspicion fosters knowledge. If I suspect someones motives it might cause me to learn more about them and then actually broaden my understand. So, I will continue to allow suspicion to play a factor in my thought process if it is ok with you. :)
 
There's a difference between process and policy, that's my point. I'm suspicious of everyone, but I don't necessarily hold them accountable to my suspicions.
 
Here is something to think about using your analogy. Criminals conceal carry illegally. So everytime you suspect someone of carrying concealed do you think they are a criminal?
 
Here is something to think about using your analogy. Criminals conceal carry illegally. So everytime you suspect someone of carrying concealed do you think they are a criminal?
If they are carrying concealed then how would I even know they are carrying?

If it became obvious that someone was carrying I would then wonder...are they a legal permit holder? are they an LEO? are they going to rob the place? Then I would assess the situation and determne which I felt was most likely the correct answer.

If it is an old man filling his gas tank at a gas station with a hip holster on I would think he was probably a retired cop or at the very least a permit holder. If it was a 17 yr old looking around nervously at a convenience store with a gun in his waistband I would probably come to another conclusion.

That question does not invalidate a critical thought process. It only reinforces the significance of being able to think things through and not be blind to the possibilities.
 
Open Carry

I open carry here in Michigan when I feel like it. Never been harassed by anyone, hell I’ve had more trouble when I was in a store and my gun showed after I had to bend down to get something my son dropped on the floor, than when I open carry. I open carry because it is legal for me to do so, and I support everyone’s right to do so if the state laws say you can. If I lived in a state that didn’t support my gun rights I would move…
 
One thing I was thinking about tonight as I sit here unable to sleep at 5am, is that when I see someone with a rifle openly displayed in the rear window of their truck (you still see that sometimes in parts of Oregon) I am not bothered by it at all. I would automaticaly think of it as a defensive weapon. I think most people would feel the same way.

I wonder what it is about an openly displayed handgun that makes people a little nervous. Is it their abiity to be carried anywhere and brought to bear quickly without warning? If it is displayed then that is not a factor. Maybe it is an association of handguns with authority figures like LEO's that make people react badly. Face it, I think most people have an irrational dislike to some degree of the police.

Maybe it is just the way we were raised. The old "watch out, the bad guy has a gun" mentallity. Seems like in all the old movies the good guy was of course superior but the bad guy had a gun that the audience was aware of but the good guy wasn't.

Then again, maybe it has to do with the powerless feeling the unarmed person feels when seeing someone with the ability to defend themselves.
 
Down here on the real top of the world we don't carry, Open or otherwise.
There is a law against having any type of firearm for self defence. Only the Police and Military are allowed firearms for self defence.

Of course those polititians who are high enough on the pecking order have armed bodyguards for their defence; but that's not strictly self defence is it?

I would open cary if I could, I'd conceal carry ditto.

It's legal to open carry longarms, if one is licenced, but as the police explain, "...ony a fool would do it". There happens to be a law against wilfully causing alarm.

The Second Ammendment is the greatest piece of law in the world.

Guard it well.
 
First off, I'll admit that I read the first post, voted for "I support it but would not do it myself," and then clicked "post reply." After this post, I probably wont come back to the thread.

Now that that's out of the way:

NC has a common law about "going armed to the terror of the public." I dont know exactly what it means. Most of the LEOs I've spoke to about it dont really know either. One said, as he understood it, it was legal to carry openly untill someone called and reported you. Since its such a gray area, I do not carry openly. Even if it wasnt, I wouldnt do it often.

I will admit that while not carrying openly, I have ran out to the store in the middle of the night and didnt exactly "conceal" whatever I had on me. Most people dont notice my lazyness, however someone else that carries, or a LEO would.

I do carry openly on occasion, however I do so when on private property, normally mine, my family's, or my girlfriends family, when doing yardwork or working on a car. It hasnt been a problem, and all my neighbors seem nicer when I'm armed (except for the guy right across the street, he's always nice).
 
I wonder what it is about an openly displayed handgun that makes people a little nervous.
I dunno ... ask yourself that question, because it doesn't bother me or (apparently) most of us at all. ;)

Actually, I think that I am perhaps more relaxed around another person who is openly carrying a sidearm than if they are not.

I suppose what might bother some people is that they think that anyone openly carrying a sidearm must be a cop of some sort :uhoh:
 
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