I'm with you on the "everyone should carry", but "openly" is not a good idea for most people most of the time. Open carry is appropriate for security and law enforcement personnel, who are presumably focused on their duties, and thus maintaining constant awareness of their firearms. However, for example, a parent going back-to-school shopping with 2 or more children in tow, is going to be focused primarily on other things, and that gives too much opportunity to the criminals to see where the gun is and then look for an opportunity to grab it when the carrier is distracted. Same for people attending a social gathering or a spectator event. I really wouldn't be impressed by seeing an open-carrying mom in a shopping center parking lot, as she fiddles with the toddler's carseat, while imploring the older kids to quit hitting each other. That's just an invitation to a criminal, and the mom would be just as well protected by carrying concealed in an easy-to-access way.
I agree 100%. Further the purpose of concealed carry is to keep the bad guys in the dark as to just who is armed. This fear of the unknown thereby allows one armed citizen to "protect" hundreds of others by proxy so to speak.
I used to be a State Probation and Parole Officer, here on the mean streets of Miami FL. I used to ask my guys what the effect of armed citizens had on their "trade." Their reply was almost universal: Heck, a cop's job is to arrest you and that is just a cost of doin' business. But a citizen, afraid for his life? Or the lives of his family? That guy will kill you dead and ain't NONE of us in this business to get killed! If I even think my target is packing, I'll go somewhere else.
Once I was with my wife at a downtown social event (fund raiser for charity she helped to organize) and it was held in a building with a huge dark parking garage and it was near midnight when dinner was finally served. I was wearing a tux with a yaqui slide holster and an Colt Officer's model .45. I was sitting into my chair when the arm of the chair pushed against the barrel and the whole gun hit the wood floor with a thunk! I have NEVER again used that holster! So the gun hit the floor and everybody turned and just stared. The chief of police was there and the mayor and lots of other folks. I calmly retrieved the weapon and reholstered without so much as a word. The whole room was dead silent and then everybody dug into the food. But when we got ready to leave about a third of the folks at the party wanted me to "escort" them to their cars. I spent almost 90 min doing this. Still I handed out a ton of my business cards and got a ton of CCW classes out of it, so I guess it was worth the wear on my feet.
All of the research by Lott, Fleck, etc. is regarding concealed carry. There is no research on the deterrent effect of open carry. We DO know that concealed carry deters crime.
I believe open carry is problematic unless you're on your own property, hunting or at a range. The wearer would have to be hypervigilant, always worried that someone might try to steal the weapon. Concealed carry makes more sense.