I think some of the open-carry advocates are taking things to an extreme, and it might backfire. There typically is no urban threat that makes it necessary to carry a rifle with you like Lucas McCain when you go into town. If such a threat was present, you probably shouldn’t bother going into town.
Open-carry advocates who do so are trying to focus attention on a political agenda, at the expense of the business they use for these demonstrations. Coffee shops and restaurants just want to serve coffee and food; they don’t necessarily want to become a focal point for 2nd Amendment politics.
I can’t stomach the liberal group “Moms Demand Action”. But I don’t blame these businesses for taking a somewhat neutral stance, trying to keep the majority of their customers happy.
If everyone who would open carry decides not to do so, then how would a business know what keeps the majority of their customers happy?
Do you really think that a majority contacted management and said they were not happy? Or was this the weak-kneed minority who are too squeamish to defend themselves and expect jack-booted thugs to do it for them?
Obviously, the majority of Americans do not support any further gun control. There is no other possible explanation for the recent failure in a Democrat Senate to pass gun control.
Yet the anti-gunners assure us that the Senate is failing to do the will of the people.
Here in Kalifornia we await clarification of the Peruta court decision which recognizes that Kalifornia's recent ban on open carry must mean that they prefer concealed as the only legal way to bear arms.
The problem is that one cannot conceal a rifle. And yet who in their right mind can claim that our Founders were only protecting the right of the people to bear handguns.
We have a long way to go but I think now that we may get there. It's not helpful to have our side failing to recognize the RIGHT to keep and bear arms. To discourage those who would open carry is to join those who don't like the right and who would "discourage" it at every turn.