Unfettered Might
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I can relate on all points, well except for the military part.....and the wife part...:laugh:
The Open Carry Argument
- Thread starter Mainsail
- Start date
I can relate on all points, well except for the military part.....and the wife part...:laugh:
Big Gay Al
New member
I have a Concealed Pistol License, so I can exercise my "privilege" granted to me by the state, to carry concealed. Carrying openly is my right. No license needed for that.
Unfettered Might
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Nope, my record is squeaky clean. I even went and took the class, just never got around to going to the Sheriff's office to turn it in. Now my state is seriously considering CC without a license so I think I'll save the other 60 bucks. But even then, I'll still OC.
Golden Eagle
New member
Don't worry your not, my parade is up wind
I open carry. Got my CPL before I know oc was legal. As you know loaded car carry is illegal in MIch without a CPL here so I keep renewing it.
I have my WA state CPL so that I can exercise the privilege the state extends to me to carry a loaded handgun in a vehicle with it. I also have a Top Secret military clearance. Thank you for playing.
PaxMentis
New member
I'd say probably darn few. In most "shall issue" states anyone who can legally buy a gun can get a CHL...they certainly can in my state.
I am far from a "hard core" OC guy though...I am a CCer who will sometimes take off his cover garment if weather or activities make it more comfortable.
Big Gay Al
New member
I for one, do not consider myself to be "hardcore" when it comes to OC. I don't go the direction of the wind either, but I OC mostly when the weather and/or situation permits.
In the Winter time, when I'm outdoors, my pistol is usually concealed. When I'm indoors, I OC. For me, it's a choice I make, since I have a CPL, so concealed is a legal option for me. It also helps since with my CPL, I don't have to worry about that stupid Federal Gun Free School Zones act. At least not in my own state. :sarcastic:
In the Winter time, when I'm outdoors, my pistol is usually concealed. When I'm indoors, I OC. For me, it's a choice I make, since I have a CPL, so concealed is a legal option for me. It also helps since with my CPL, I don't have to worry about that stupid Federal Gun Free School Zones act. At least not in my own state. :sarcastic:
Nightmare45
NRA LIFE MEMBER
I live in Texas they do not have open carry hopefully it will pass soon, Al mentioned federal gun free zones, since I can carry in Texas I do. PS: If you read the federal law it also impacts LEO'S, unless they are on duty, they may not carry in the zones, and LEO'S from out of state may not carry same as lawful citizens from out of state.
Unfettered Might
Μολών λαβ&
Honestly, I don't think local LE (at least in Kentucky) gives a hoot about the gun free zone unless your actually on school grounds and not even then if your within the state law limitation.
H
handgonnetoter
Guest
Even if a cop from out of state is carrying in these places, I doubt they would get in any real trouble. Usually the police, no matter where they are from, look out for each other. Us on the other hand...
Grognard Gunny
New member
Yeah, the whole "gun free zone" facade.... nothing more than knee jerk reaction to incidents where just one potential victim that had been carrying might have changed the body count considerably.
Thus, for the law abiding citizens, we worry about skirting around our 1000 foot zones in the hopes that we won't get "caught out" if we accidently happened into those areas.
For the bad guys, it's a place wherein they can "go postal" without fear of immediate retaliation.
Sorry, but the "logic" escapes me.
Even a better one, how about the "moving" 1000 foot Congresscritter safety zone proposed just recently? (...and, will, hopefully, go nowhere except in the deepest bottom drawer of the committee it gets assigned to, there to wither and yellow to dust.)
Only in America can such illogical Laws (or potential laws) be thought up. No wonder we have more Lawyers than Police officers in this Nation. :wacko:
GG
Thus, for the law abiding citizens, we worry about skirting around our 1000 foot zones in the hopes that we won't get "caught out" if we accidently happened into those areas.
For the bad guys, it's a place wherein they can "go postal" without fear of immediate retaliation.
Sorry, but the "logic" escapes me.
Even a better one, how about the "moving" 1000 foot Congresscritter safety zone proposed just recently? (...and, will, hopefully, go nowhere except in the deepest bottom drawer of the committee it gets assigned to, there to wither and yellow to dust.)
Only in America can such illogical Laws (or potential laws) be thought up. No wonder we have more Lawyers than Police officers in this Nation. :wacko:
GG
Hawthorne2k
New member
I've been asked to weigh in on this discussion by the personal invitation of Robb ("Free Drama Llama rides for the kiddies with the purchase of a disrobed iguana") Allen.
A little background.
I'm Canadian, which means I grew up in a handgun-free (but not gun-free) environment, but I've lived in Arizona for most of my life. The first pistol I saw outside of a museum was when I was 19 and a customer walked into the hobby store I was working in with a hog-leg revolver strapped to the waist.
That was my "Toto, we're not in Alberta anymore" moment.
I'd always shot guns (gophers see me and run in fear), but not handguns. This soon changed, and now I'm known as "that gun guy" to my friends and family. I've married a woman who's a better shot than I am (not that hard of a task, if I'm honest...), had two sons, shoot USPSA, IDPA, and 3 gun and I'm an NRA member and pistol/PPIH instructor.
And I chose to go about my life with a concealed firearm, rather than openly carry.
Why? Because a firearm is a potentially lethal weapon, there is just no getting around that, and the open display of a lethal weapon affects a few (but, thankfully, not most) people. It's not a gun thing: If swords were the norm and not guns, I'd carry a sword cane and not the ancestral claidheamh mòr. I want people to react to me as a person, and I don't want my firearm to be an impediment to the few who might take exception. Guns come and guns go, who I am will not change.
An openly carried firearm changes things: Knowing that a person is carrying affects how I react to them, because it means if things go bad with them and things get violent, things can go very wrong. I am trusting them not to be a jerk, and if they are a jerk, they're a jerk with a pistol. This is a BAD thing.
Not that I am expecting this to happen. I can count the number of fights I've been in since grade school on one hand and still be able to hold a fork while doing so, but that does not change the fact that a loud, aggressive person with an openly carried firearm is MUCH bigger problem (at least on the surface) than one without a visible firearm.
This is why it is so vital, so unbelievably vital, that if you carry openly, you exceed the standards of polite behaviour for your community and not just act like everybody else. Carrying an openly displayed firearm means you are doing something very few people (even in Arizona) do, and by doing so, you become the standard by which the rest of us gun nuts, err...., firearms enthusiasts are judged by.
It's also 100% true that an open display of a firearm is a deterrent to potential violent criminals, but to me, the best way to not be a victim is to reduce my time spent in locations where there might be violent criminals. As much as I love la autentíca carne asada, I don't go out to dinner at my favourite west-side carnicería at 11pm on a Saturday night.
Now, with all of that being said (and the blood pressure of many of you rising to dangerously high levels), I support open carry completely and fully.
And if you haven't had an aneurysm by now, that last sentence was probably enough to pop a vein.
leasantry:
We now have constitutional carry in Arizona because enough legislators here realized it was pretty silly to issue permits for people to cover up a gun that is legal for them to carry without a cover garment. This is a good thing, because it normalizes all of firearms throughout Arizona. We have sites like TrainMeAZ because Arizona is leading the way in restoring 2nd Amendment rights to its citizens. This is fantastic, and it's due, in large part, to the past behaviour of the people here who open carry.
While I don't open carry, I support those who do, and I support open carry for all of the U.S. (and maybe one day, my native Canada. Hey, a guy can dream, right?) because proper (non-jerk) open carry takes something that is scary into something that nice people have with them all the time.
The bottom line is, what a gun actually does is determined by the person who owns it. We in the firearms community tell the same thing to ourselves when we say, "It's not the Glock/1911/9mm/.45" that will save your life, it's you and your training." In other words, it's not the gun, it's who you are and how you act.
Why do we expect people outside our community to think differently?
A nice person with a gun makes guns nice for everybody. A jerk with a gun helps nobody, not even himself.
A little background.
I'm Canadian, which means I grew up in a handgun-free (but not gun-free) environment, but I've lived in Arizona for most of my life. The first pistol I saw outside of a museum was when I was 19 and a customer walked into the hobby store I was working in with a hog-leg revolver strapped to the waist.
That was my "Toto, we're not in Alberta anymore" moment.
I'd always shot guns (gophers see me and run in fear), but not handguns. This soon changed, and now I'm known as "that gun guy" to my friends and family. I've married a woman who's a better shot than I am (not that hard of a task, if I'm honest...), had two sons, shoot USPSA, IDPA, and 3 gun and I'm an NRA member and pistol/PPIH instructor.
And I chose to go about my life with a concealed firearm, rather than openly carry.
Why? Because a firearm is a potentially lethal weapon, there is just no getting around that, and the open display of a lethal weapon affects a few (but, thankfully, not most) people. It's not a gun thing: If swords were the norm and not guns, I'd carry a sword cane and not the ancestral claidheamh mòr. I want people to react to me as a person, and I don't want my firearm to be an impediment to the few who might take exception. Guns come and guns go, who I am will not change.
An openly carried firearm changes things: Knowing that a person is carrying affects how I react to them, because it means if things go bad with them and things get violent, things can go very wrong. I am trusting them not to be a jerk, and if they are a jerk, they're a jerk with a pistol. This is a BAD thing.
Not that I am expecting this to happen. I can count the number of fights I've been in since grade school on one hand and still be able to hold a fork while doing so, but that does not change the fact that a loud, aggressive person with an openly carried firearm is MUCH bigger problem (at least on the surface) than one without a visible firearm.
This is why it is so vital, so unbelievably vital, that if you carry openly, you exceed the standards of polite behaviour for your community and not just act like everybody else. Carrying an openly displayed firearm means you are doing something very few people (even in Arizona) do, and by doing so, you become the standard by which the rest of us gun nuts, err...., firearms enthusiasts are judged by.
It's also 100% true that an open display of a firearm is a deterrent to potential violent criminals, but to me, the best way to not be a victim is to reduce my time spent in locations where there might be violent criminals. As much as I love la autentíca carne asada, I don't go out to dinner at my favourite west-side carnicería at 11pm on a Saturday night.
Now, with all of that being said (and the blood pressure of many of you rising to dangerously high levels), I support open carry completely and fully.
And if you haven't had an aneurysm by now, that last sentence was probably enough to pop a vein.
leasantry:We now have constitutional carry in Arizona because enough legislators here realized it was pretty silly to issue permits for people to cover up a gun that is legal for them to carry without a cover garment. This is a good thing, because it normalizes all of firearms throughout Arizona. We have sites like TrainMeAZ because Arizona is leading the way in restoring 2nd Amendment rights to its citizens. This is fantastic, and it's due, in large part, to the past behaviour of the people here who open carry.
While I don't open carry, I support those who do, and I support open carry for all of the U.S. (and maybe one day, my native Canada. Hey, a guy can dream, right?) because proper (non-jerk) open carry takes something that is scary into something that nice people have with them all the time.
The bottom line is, what a gun actually does is determined by the person who owns it. We in the firearms community tell the same thing to ourselves when we say, "It's not the Glock/1911/9mm/.45" that will save your life, it's you and your training." In other words, it's not the gun, it's who you are and how you act.
Why do we expect people outside our community to think differently?
A nice person with a gun makes guns nice for everybody. A jerk with a gun helps nobody, not even himself.
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Unfettered Might
Μολών λαβ&
I completely and wholeheartedly agree with that statement. I do make the effort to be extra nice and extra polite because I want the image of a man with a gun to be a good memory for someone on the street.
It's not the best idea to be a short tempered person throwing a fit with a sidearm on period, much less in the open. Even if you wouldn't in a million years use it in anger, It is common sense to say that your gonna scare the crap out of everyone around you if you act that way.
To all my fellow OCer's, he is right and I hope that ALL of you do hold yourself to a higher interpersonal standard. I will say that any that I have met here in Kentucky so far do.
I personally believe that concealed carry is best in my situation. I have open-carried a few times but have decided that cc is best for me. It seems that all the arguements have been made and each side has its points. However I will support any legislation strengthing the RIGHT of every law abiding citizen to carry a gun however he or she sees fit. leasantry:
leasantry:Ruger357SP101
Banned
Actually, I'll have to track down the link again, but I did cross a story where a gun who was carrying openly was targeted and his gun was stolen from him right out of his holster.
Had the gun been concealed the bad guy wouldnt have known it was there.
I'll try to find the story again and post it when I do.
Ruger357SP101
Banned
+1I personally believe that concealed carry is best in my situation. I have open-carried a few times but have decided that cc is best for me. It seems that all the arguements have been made and each side has its points. However I will support any legislation strengthing the RIGHT of every law abiding citizen to carry a gun however he or she sees fit.
Our rights are paramount.
how each of us chooses to exercise our rights is up to us individually and everyone else should just keep their nose out of it.
Jarheadcool
New member
LT are you still in the Navy? And do you still have that clearance?
I am still in the Navy. I am no longer in the position which requires the clearance.
Seriously, it's common knowledge...it's not that big of a deal. Just a minute, I have to see what those guys in suits that just got out of the black SUV knocking at my door want...
