“You’re walking down a City street at night with your wife/girlfriend/so; around the corner comes two gang aged Utes, talking among themselves..”
Your argument that open carry is an effective deterrence is refuted by the fact that no one of any repute recommends open carrying an empty gun or open carrying an air-soft gun. My guess is that you yourself would always choose to conceal carry a loaded gun over open carrying an unloaded one because you know that the mere presence of a gun is not adequate.
Nice opinion... Do you have any evidence whatsoever to back it up?
I submit that every police officer and military member who go armed in the performance of their duty may accurately be described as being “of repute”, and they open carry.
The lack of data regarding airsoft carry or toothless carry only indicates that it is stupid and untried, not that it’s ineffective.