i like the op thoughts on oc. i live in az as loop does and we have very liberal gun laws here so oc is very prevalent. i have caught myself being uneasy seeing some that open carry. i have never had a problem w/ leo's and carrying oc. i have been stopped w/ no less than 4 handguns on my dash, some holstered some not, twice and they were never even mentioned. i don't carry oc in town but when i'm in the on the road or in the wild, camping, fishing, hiking, riding quads, i am never alone...if you know what i mean. the reasons for this is 1. traveling: rest areas and truck stops or the unexpected vehicle break down. none of which a situation anyone should be unarmed in.
2. in the 80's i remember that a man who supposedly kidnapped his g/f and her child and took them to a local lake. there, the couple came upon a couple that were camping. they beat the man and tied him to a saguaro cactus. then the male repeatedly raped the the man's wife or g/f in front of the man tied to cactus while his own g/f and her child looked on. they kept them captive for 3 days iirc. i swore that would never happen to me or my own. 2a. my sister and her husband went camping w/ another couple. the men went on a hike, leaving the women alone at camp. my sister had a pistol but was not carrying it on her. about 10 minutes after men had left, they passed another guy walking the other way, towards their camp. it was on a main trail, so they didn't think much of it. the man walked by the camp and a conversation was had between the man and the 2 women, (1 of which was my sister). at one point my sister started feeling uneasy and retired to the tent long enough to get her pistol. she made a comment about doing target shooting to the other woman and the man left. when my bro in law came back 2 hrs later, he saw the man walking down the trail ahead and away from him. my sister told him what had happened. the guys went out to make sure area was ok and found where the guy had been sitting in some bushes w/ the only view being of the camp. there were about 15 cigs half smoked and stubbed out in a pile so he had been watching them for quite awhile. she is never unarmed in the forest anymore. 2b. was taking a back road over a mntn to a cave we had heard about. at mntn top we asked a "local", of which there were only about 20 of them, how to get to cave. he gave us directions, drive 6 miles turn left down a jeep trail and said we would have to walk the last mile. found it no problem. got out and started looking around. there was no one..anywhere. we found the trail but something wasn't right. i unsnapped my holster and seeing that, wife did the same. we got back in and as we were driving up the jeep trail, who should we see, but the guy who gave us directions. he was in the back of a pick up telling the driver where to turn..the jeep trail. by this time my glock was in my right hand at my side while i sped up and passed the truck coming in. as i drove away i looked in the rear view and saw the guy pounding his fist on top of truck and could hear him cursing the driver for being to slow! we went on down the main road and found the cave, 8 miles further along, right off the side of the road. we got out and after looking to see if any one was following, went to the edge of the trail. a man came running up the trail like he caught us doing something wrong. he explained that while he and his kids were hiking the day before. someone broke into his vehicle and stole pretty much everything they had and he thought we were them. he had run into 2 other sets of people who had also been broken into that same day. so needles to say i haven't been out of town or on a road trip w/o an oc weapon, usually 3 or 4, in 30 yrs. rick
