You mention “fog of war” so allow me to introduce the concept that the war we are fighting occurs at multiple levels. Yes there is the tactical one on one or street level where displaying your firearm MAY make you a high priority target. It also has the possibility of deterrent as most criminals are looking for easy victims.
There is also a higher level more strategic “war” that deals with the psychology of arms where the vast majority of the public has been trained by the liberals to be terrified of any and all firearms. This means that the liberals are in a power position when they go to seek further restrictions against gun owners. That needs to change.
The much more desirable position is for the population to NOT be afraid of the private ownership of and carrying of firearms. One of the paths to get to that level of perception is to provoke discussion with the public. By open carrying, it shows that portion of the public that is not violently opposed to the 2nd Amendment, that the People can be trusted with firearms and it is not limited to Police.
If we can reverse the liberal push to make the People afraid of firearms, then we can start to remove some of the ridiculous gun laws that they have pushed. It will also move the population to be more self reliant as it will chip away at the reliance on the police for their self defense. This attitude of self reliance works to reduce the socialist agenda of the left.
I agree with most of what you said. The perception of fear factor by the good, law-abiding public, is shameful and needs to be corrected. Hard to do that when you have 110% of the media behind the idea of “gun control” and a literal wave of evil enveloping our entire society, with guns being the tools used in those murders.
I honestly wish every state had open carry laws and permit holders had those holsters proudly displayed on my frequent grocery trips. The more the merrier and it would deter the evil SOB thugs from even pondering violence.
Currently, the climate just isn’t right for it—IMHO.
Had a friend who open-carried all the time. Guy came up to him once and asked him if he was a cop, he replied “no, are you a criminal?”. He did say that the usual suspect thugs kept their distance from him when he was strolling about minding his own business.
Well said and true.