I believe that historically the ‘right to keep and bear’, in the states that articulated the right in their constitution, viewed open carry as the honorable and normal way a sidearm was carried. If you consider the folks that carried a sidearm in their day-to-day duties; range riders, hunting guides, etc., concealing would have been impractical. Open carry was the norm at the time of the particular State’s drafting of its constitution.
Concealed carry was historically associated with deviant behavior; gamblers, robbers, organized crime, etc. Then, in the late 60s and early 70s, there was a cultural shift that occurred, where all firearms ownership was marginalized and even openly mocked by the cultural elites. Since they controlled the popular media of the time, we got cowboy movies where the hero didn’t load his six-gun; after all, he wasn’t going to use it, just point it.
The elitists got people to believe that self-protection was unnecessary, even Neanderthal, in modern society; just give the bad person what he or she wants because your life isn’t worth your wallet. The police will protect you and are just a phone call away. Women were told to submit to their attackers, resisting would only be worse. The elephant in the room they willingly chose to ignore was that if a bad person was disposed to break the written rules, the unwritten ones (submit/don’t resist) didn’t stand a chance.
There is much more I could write on this subject but for brevity let’s just remember that during the 70s and into the 80s gun ownership in a macro sense was considered shameful or dishonorable. If you grew up during that time you will likely remember it; even kids cartoons mocked the idea of firearms and hunting.
Even to this day I think there are some people who still feel that shame. They’ll tell you they don’t discuss their guns due to OPSEC, but the truth of the matter is that the stigma of firearms ownership remains in their memory. After all, if one were concerned about OPSEC, or even had a concept of what it means, they wouldn’t participate in a firearms centric forum.
During the 90s more and more people began to question the so-called fact that firearms were unnecessary, and the Courts only confirmed what many knew, but all should have known; you are responsible for your own self-protection. Because firearms were so stigmatized, and the carry thereof even more so, most people preferred to carry concealed. Then one by one States turned from shall-issue to must issue permitting and licensing schemes. The pendulum swung fully to concealed as the norm.
When I decided to get my concealed pistol license (CPL) here in Washington, I got it as insurance in case I needed to go someplace unfriendly after dark; and carried thusly. Then the Tacoma Mall shooting happened and what I should have known became finally apparent to me- the bad guys don’t respect the borders we fabricate in our thinking, whether it’s day vs night, or good side of town vs bad. So my carry became routine regardless of time or destination. The whole time I carried, however, I found myself overly concerned with absolute concealment, even to the point that I began to consider (what I believe to be less-than-effective) guns and calibers to keep it hidden. I remembered the stigma, but felt confident that it wasn’t the driver for my anxiety; I just didn’t want a run-in with Johnny Law and to lose my carry license.
Then the open carry movement began in WA, started by a man named Lonnie Wilson. You see, open carry was completely lawful in Washington, but because it wasn’t practiced, it, as a right, was somewhat lost. Again, for brevity, I’ll save you the long story of how we returned open carry to the normal and acceptable method it used to be. Today incidents where an open carrier is stopped by police are very rare.
… why various jurisdictions can allow you to carry a concealed weapon but make it illegal to have it exposed at any time?
Is it actually illegal, or simply unusual? If it’s the former, the answer would be lost somewhere in the legislative history of that place. The populace has grown accustomed to unarmed citizens, and unaccustomed to armed citizens. If it’s the latter (unusual), then the answer lies with the gun owners who remain ashamed or feel guilty somehow about their guns.
Concealed carry placates those citizens that are alarmed in the presence of a firearm. The truly disappointing thing is that many of those citizens that are alarmed at the visible presence of a privately armed citizen are gun owners themselves.
Can someone explain, in a sentence or two…
Uh, yeah, sorry about that.
EDIT: to correct some MAJOR typos.
Add to those stories, I was an avid reader of pre-WW II western novels--which were written by authors of the early 20th century who had their own histories of stories from the late 1800s.
