Open carry is most certainly a political statement. But large numbers of people open carry all the time. The number of police that are shot and killed with their own guns has averaged a bit over 2 per year for the last decade.
There have been several cases where open carry has deterred criminals from attacking. Most criminals would rather not go against an armed man.
The more desperate the situation, the more open carry makes people a target. Open carry in a war zone is an invitation to be shot by a sniper. In Venenzuela, Police are murdered to get their guns.
In this case, deterrence did not work. Hard to say if it was because they did not know he was carrying, or if they had scoped him out before hand and decided to go for it.
I notice that nothing was mentioned about taking a wallet or cell phone. Maybe they got spooked by the gun, grabbed it and ran.
This is true. Open carry is a deterrent in MOST situations. Thugs for the most part want easy money, they don’t want to risk being in a gunfight they might lose. While I choose to still carry concealed here in Texas, I can see a few advantages to open carry. Certain precautions should be taken, though. A good retention holster could be considered, and if suspicious looking characters approach maybe putting a hand on the grip.
One of the advantages of open carry that can hardly be denied is the speed of deployment.