My opinions are, well, my opinions. I believe in the Second Amendment and support the efforts of all sane, law abiding Americans to maintain their right to own and lawfully use firearms. God knows I own more than my fair share! I do have a problem with this whole open carry thing however.
First, I am a CCDW permit holder in Kentucky. For those of you in other places, that is Concealed Carry Deadly Weapon. Here in Kentucky we have very friendly firearms and self protection laws. Common sense stuff for law abiding citizens. OC is legal here. While I support the right of a individual to self protection I also feel a responsibility to the general public. Perhaps it was my thirty years of being a teacher that makes me consider everyone's feelings and how best to compromise.
Like it or not many Americans (and most people around the world) when they see a person with a firearm on their side feel uneasy. I can't blame them for that, I have a wife that way. Some of her girlfriend are the same way. I understand, first hand, the thoughts they have on this. But, these same people feel comfortable, even safer, knowing I have a CCDW and if need be could protect them.
It is a personal thing with them and many others that they are uneasy with seeing firearms. Yet, when the firearm is out of sight the problem goes away. You will NOT re-educate these people by flashing guns at them, you will only make the situation worse. Fact is, if you constantly put public guns in front of them they would be far more likely to become anti-gun.
Sure, to us that seems silly. Read the comments here and you get this thing of "do it more and make them more comfortable as they get use to it" (wrong!) or, "its my right I don't care what they think" (Not the best way to win anyone's support!)
So, CC became the law in most places for this reason. It does not "scare" the populace. At the same time it allows us to protect ourselves, and it leaves the bad guys guessing which one of us is armed.
Some have made arguments that OC scares off the bad guys. Well, maybe. But the other side of that is that the bad guys now know where to get a nice new gun. Look at how many times bad guys have taken he guns away from police officers. Face it, if a bad guy (and his buddies) want your OC gun, they CAN take it away from you. You have just stuck it out in their face and shown them where to get it. If you think you are Superman and can outwit and overcome a group of experienced bad guys half your age and working as a team, you need a reality check.
So, I say, keep it out of sight, keep them guessing. To go with this, we don't need overly strict laws that nail us if someone just catches a glimpse of our piece showing. Again, here in Kentucky we are reasonable about that.
My best experience with CC perceptions came at a museum where I was working. We had a special meeting about what to do if a "shooter" was in the building. This was after the incident in DC where the man shot the guard and made his way inside. A police officer who specialized in this area came in and gave a very informative presentation on mass shootings. I could write a lot about that, but that is for another day. Anyway, the talk was about how to spot a possible shooter. Long coat, lumps in clothing, etc. trying to hide a firearm.
One of our security guards brought up that there might already be armed people in the building (to the shock of some in the group) as we had CCDW in Kentucky. He then went on to say that these were good, law abiding citizens who would actually an asset in a shooting situation. But the best part was when he told them not to worry, if they were truly CCDW permit holders the staff would never know it when they came in as, "their weapons would be out of sight". His point was, a good CCDW person would not want to alarm you as to their weapon yet would be there is trouble reared its ugly head.
I know there are many here who will argue that they have a God given and constitutional right to carry a weapon. I don't disagree. But I will say, that for me and many others, we are better off from a public relations standpoint if we just keep it handy but out of sight. It just makes people feel better and wins us more support in the court of public opinion. And me, I don't want to advertise to all the young punks out there that I have a nice, well maintained firearm on my side that they can help themselves to. Some crazy out there would just put a bullet in the back of your head and take it from you if they wanted it. Why show them ahead of time what you have worth taking?
Like I said at the beginning, this is my opinion and I know some will agree and others disagree.