thoughts on open carry...

[hot head]

open carry

its easy for some one to take a gun from your side if its in the open . some of those people who have been to the big house have repeated over and over in taking guns from a officer or open carry. they are able to do this in a fraction of a sec.the less that is known is better. i think that its a problem a big problem that you will get in with the public and the local law .

 

[Janitor]

The question that I have is do you think you should be required to have a CHL to open carry? Some part of me says yes, because it assures you are not a convicted felon, etc...The other side of me says "hey, its my right to defend myself"

Your thoughts?

Nope. I keep on saying this ... the entire issue has already been covered in the constitution. I shouldn't need a license to carry open or concealed.

--
While I'm not that high on open carry, I sort of do it myself anyway. It's winter up here in the Northland. Even a light jacket covers a full sized service pistol (or K frame snubby) nicely. So in the interest of comfort, most the time in the winter I've got my sidearm in an OWB.

When I go to a restaraunt or someplace else that my jacket comes off, the normal reaction is the same every time. Either nobody there notices, or nobody there cares.

I hope it's the latter, but suspect it's simply the former.

 

[benEzra]

Where does it say the guns were snatched from their "special retention holsters"? I only see where it refers to officers killed with their own weapons. Are you adding your own agenda?

It's axiomatic that the vast majority of departments use at least Level III holsters, for officer safety and liability reasons. It may be that the officer-shot-with-own-gun statistics primarily represent the smaller percentage of officers who do not use retention holsters. But that shows that open carry may be even more dangerous for officers than the 1-in-5 figure would indicate, since it would imply that there were many more attempted snatches that did not succeed, and the only ones that succeeded were those not foiled by retention holsters. So if all officers carried in nonretention holsters (like most non-LEO's who open carry), then the officer-shot-with-own-gun total could be higher.

I'm not saying no one should open carry. I'm just saying that for me, the drawbacks and tactical disadvantages compared to discreet carry are large, and the theoretical benefit is slim to nonexistent. If you weigh the risks and benefits differently, good for you. But if you want to open carry in close contact with others, a Level III retention holster might be a very good idea.

 

[heypete]

I recently took a road trip to Arizona (visiting friends) and Nevada (went to Front Sight).

I open carried the whole time I was there, except for places where it's prohibited (restaurants, mostly).

Nobody batted an eye. Nobody did any double-takes. Nobody screamed. Nobody so much as gave me a second glance. Even in very un-gunny places like a big-name hair cutting place...they had no problems at all with it.

The only comment I got was from some other customer in Wal-Mart when we were buying ammo for desert-shooty-goodness. He was curious if I could carry on Indian Reservations. I replied that I didn't know for sure, but I was playing it safe and not going to bother going on the reservation while carrying. He nodded, made his purchase, and walked off.

I even got pulled over by the Arizona Highway Patrol for some trivial thing (the types of license plate covers I had were not legal in Arizona...no big deal, he told me to take them off when I arrived at my destination in Scottsdale). I told him "Officer, I'm carrying openly on my left hip." He replied with: "What are you carrying?" Me: "A Glock 19, sir." Him: "Hmm. Fine gun. Department of Public Safety issues us Sigs, but I've got a Glock at home. Here's your fix-it-ticket...don't need to do anything really, just take the covers off once you arrive in Scottsdale. Have a great day!" Me: "Thank you, officer. Have a nice day."

Here in California, if I were carrying openly, even in my own car, I'd be writing this message from jail.

 

[carlrodd]

i'm inspired. open carry is legal in delaware and i believe i will start.

 

[Manedwolf]

I live in VA as well, but the very northwestern part. When I was in closer to DC, there'd be NO way I'd open carry, although the law says we have to in ABC places...restaraunts.

I dunno, try it out for a week and see what happens. All they can do is call the cops on you ("man with a gun") and make you explain yourself to 6 cops at once.

Unless you get a cop with bad gun handling discipline who draws on you and fires by accident, like with that bookie they killed.

"Sir! Please stop right now!" *BANG* "Oops.."

That'd be a bad way to go.

 

[erh]

My preferance has Always been for "Nobody" to know whether or not I'm armed. In my minds eye, the less people know the better. Best of luck to you on your decision. Just my .02 cents. (erh)