Interesting perspective. Do you open carry or are you in an area where its frequently encountered?
As someone who does open carry frequently in an urban/suburban setting my personal experience has been vastly different. My experience: the majority of people don’t notice. For those who do notice, most don’t seem to care or assume I’m a cop. For the very small number who notice and ask if I’m LEO my stock response is God no, it doesn’t pay enough!
And the very small number who ask is in the 2 or 3 a year category.
Virginia is open-carry just about anywhere you want. In the last 5 yrs, I have only seen one person carrying a sidearm, none with long gun. Once or twice a year, the issue may come up during a town event when someone sees a gun and makes a fuss. We can carry a loaded weapon in our glove box or console without it being locked.