Posted on 04/29/2010 10:38:21 AM PDT by AJKauf
Open carry advocates, as a gun rights subgroup, are the continuing negligent political discharge of the shooting community. Their disastrous nationwide campaign to normalize the open carrying of firearms alienates Americans from coast to coast, even among those who champion the concealed carry of weapons.
You only need to look at examples of the media incompetence of these groups in the past year to understand how this theoretically pro-gun movement has managed to cause the public to recoil in horror and actually set the movement back on its heels. It is enough to make you wonder if the group isn’t the operation that “Crash the Tea Party” wanted to be, executed by the otherwise inept anti-gun harpies.
Other than small-scale displays primarily consumed by the local news, the open carry movement is known to most people for precisely two awkward public displays: an August 17, 2009, protest in Phoenix and one this past Sunday on the Potomac’s Virginia shores....
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
“If you’re aware of any going back several years, please enlighten me”
I believe they had one down at the Statehouse in Columbus OH several years back.. I hear it was credited with helping concealed carry pass.
I think I read about one in NH just this year too.
Absolutely, I have no desire to stand out in a crowd because I’m or while wearing a weapon. That is why I am for concealed carry without a permit.
A holstered pistol or a slung rifle or shotgun is not being "brandished". It's being borne.
Main Entry: 1bran·dish
Pronunciation: \ˈbran-dish\
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Middle English braundisshen, from Anglo-French brandiss-, stem of brandir, from brant, braund sword, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English brand
Date: 14th century
1 : to shake or wave (as a weapon) menacingly
2 : to exhibit in an ostentatious or aggressive manner
Now that said, I do agree about the advantages of concealed over open carry... most of the time, and in most circumstances. But those other times it should not be prohibited. Plus there are issues with "failure to conceal", or concealing when one is dressed too lightly to effectively conceal a large enough weapon for the circumstances. (Or persons like myself. I have too much of me in my clothing to find a place much anything bigger than one of the newer downsized .380s)
Your idea of bowing down to what the majority may believe (though I feel this is a false premise) is contrary to how I feel we take back the country.
It sounds like a page from the RINO playbook saying we must "compromise" to win favor of the public.
I'm sorry, but I refuse. Rallies bring the attention to its legality, and it needs to be followed up with many ordinary people going about their business open carrying. Enter Starbucks, enter Walmart, enter Home Depot while open carrying. Let these people finally learn that responsible people owning guns is a plus. Give them a realization of how many people really do own firearms. It's not a couple of loons anymore, it's ordinary Americans that support the RKBA.
And I totally respect that mindset. Personally, do what's right for you. What worries me is the mindset of the author, and some of the posters, who think that Open Carry sets the movement back, because they assume guns frighten people, and there is no possible way to convince these people otherwise.
I respectfully disagree with this article’s headline and overall message.
There is more than one issue behind Open Carry. For some, it is the only legal way they are allowed to carry. For many, it is about being able to carry and exercise their 2nd Amendment right without government requiring them to have a government permit to carry (ie govt having ability to revoke their carry right). FOr many, it also is about being able to carry the way they want to carry, to use their own intellect to determine if they want to carry in the open, just like police officers do (without freaking the same people out), and no criminal does.
I’d be all for concealed carry only if I didn’t need a license to do it. The government has no problem with me exercising my right to carry in the open where I am, and in fact it’s the only way they allow me to, but I will be damned if I will trade in my right to open carry without a permit, for concealed carry that can be taken away with a permit the government can take away whenever they want. I should be able to determine for myself, given at any point in time, what makes more sense for me to do at that moment, either carry concealed or out in the open - without permits. If I have the right, I have the right and don’t need a license to exercise the right.
How many of these people wet their pants when officer speedtrap comes up to them open carrying?
Thug criminals also aren’t the kinds of people that walk around open carrying. They all conceal carry, they don’t want the attention or lose the element of surprise to an impending victim.
The questions open carry people get from sheep who see them open carrying is “Are you a cop (good guy)?” never “Are you a criminal (bad guy)?”
.22? Several of my high school classmates and I road down a main arterial street, in the state's second largest city (then about 125,000, now more like 175,000, IIRC) , if a somewhat older part of it, with 12 and 20 gauge shotguns accross the handlebars of our bicycles. We were on our way to do a little pheasant hunting, just outside of town. No one even tooted their horn at us. :)
Some years earlier I was talked to by a police officer on foot patrol in our little business district. He wanted to know where I was going with that BB gun, and what I planned to do with it. I told him I was headed to my Great Uncle's place just accross the highway, which I was. He said, fine, be careful, and have fun.
I totally agree. Well said.
The proponents of Open Carry fail to understand that the purpose of any political movement is to get the public on your side.
Public opinion eventually decides all issues. On every issue you have about 40% who see it one one, 40% see it the other way, and about 20% are undecided. The trick is to get the 20% undecided on yours side, not offend or scare them.
Open Carry supporters may make themselves feel good openly carrying their weapons, but their actions simply scare the undecided and drive them into the other camp.
A classic example was the anti-abortion protester who put huge pictures of aborted fetuses on the side of his truck and drove all over Florida. It offended huge numbers of people and swung public opinion against the Pro-Life movement for a decade.
It's the same sort of idiocy here. Remember, all we need to do (or do for the Dems) is to scare enough people into voting Dem so they can avoid all those “crazies with guns.”
Enough Dems and we get a SCOTUS that accepts the “Militia Requirement”, and the 2d Amendment is gone forever.
Carrying openly might be legal. So is dressing up in only a diaper and rolling around in squashed grapefruit and chocolate sauce in a public park.
Just because something may be legal does not make it smart.
I have to admit that my friends that do not have an affinity for guns like I do, do not speak very well of those that do carry open. They all want to know why those people feel the need to open carry, and I don’t think it really does any good.
That sounds like about 2% of criminals, and the stupidest ones at that.
Just saying that in some places I've been to in the last few years (Iraq, Nigeria, Angola) that having an openly carried arm keeps all but the most hardened criminals at bay and those type look for better targets.
I'd rather everyone have the choice to carry openly or concealed than for the government to make that choice of them.
I walked into a stop n shop type store one day, and a man was buying a black nylon holster for his .38. I noticed it because it looked a lot like mine, except mine has a pink handle. The clerk looked at me nervously and said, “I’m going to wait on him first, he’s armed.”
I said, “Is that a problem?” The guy looked at me and grinned. I mean, just looking at him, anyone could tell he was nicely dressed, past middle age, had a beautiful big truck outside, not your average tweaker or drunk.
I had my weapon in my car, otherwise I could have bought a nylon holster too. If it came in pink. :-D
Bingo. Criminals conceal carry. I have been asked the former as early as last week, but it was from a TSA agent when I was checking my luggage with a pistol locked inside. "Nope," I replied, and his response was, "Have a nice day!"
I agree. We shouldn’t have to have a permit to carry concealed, if none is needed for open carry. I used to have a permit when I lived in FL, but since moving to VA and working on a military base, I didn’t get one for here, besides, it’s just one more database that I choose not to be in.
So what you're saying is that to your regret, Open Carry is legal. In your perfect world, it would not be.
I refuse to believe, as some here do, that people look at open carry in a negative light and cannot be swayed. Public opinion was against slavery once, too.
That you describe open carry as equivalent to driving around with a murdered child on your truck, or "rolling around in squashed grapefruit and chocolate sauce in a public park," means you're a lost cause. I'll focus on the Americans who see guns in a positive light, as a deterrence to crime.
So they wouldn't be on our side regardless, correct? I bet the ones who "don't have an affinity for guns" aren't necessarily on the front lines fighting for Constitutional Carry, Shall Issue or even CCW.
One should be able to practice one constitutional right to bear arms any damn way he chooses!
Nice! Sounds like the clerk needs a little more exposure to folks who responsibly carry firearms without incident, which is what we OC advocates aim to do.
Another point to all of this - I don't aim to alarm people when I OC. My goal will be achieved when everywhere I go, anyone I meet sees my gun and thinks nothing of it (unless you were originally planning on robbing me).
Hardly a comparison to the shock-jock comparisons you give.
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