If it's someone hanging out on the street corner trying to make a statement with a "Deadly Assault Rifle Oh My!" all the antis will see is the gun. On the other hand, a normal guy going about his business with a firearm on his hip... that's where the right to bear arms gets across. -snip-
Please allow me to give a different perspective based upon years of personal open carry here in Michigan... and on the very recent History of open carry in Michigan.
About 7 or 8 years ago open carry was largely unheard of in Michigan. Sure folks carried their rifles/shotguns/pistols in or near the woods during hunting season but to have someone walk down the street and/or go shopping wearing a sidearm was as rare as hen's teeth. And then a few folks decided to start open carrying during their ordinary day but to also "make the statement that open carry has been legal in Michigan since 1837" by having open carry picnics/dinners where attendees had a picnic or a dinner while wearing a pistol in plain sight in public.
Well guess what? All the anti's saw was.... THE GUN! Even when those folks were just doing normal everyday things the public (and some LE) could only focus on the pistol in plain sight right there "in their faces".
Ok... now today in Michigan.. after a few illegal arrests and some lawsuits that the open carriers won along with the media trying to sensationalize it all that had the unintended consequence of educating the public about open carry being legal..
and a very recent Michigan Supreme Court decision that upheld a lower court's decision in favor of the right to bear arms all over the State... the public has largely become accustomed to seeing ordinary people wearing guns as they walk around/shopping/having a picnic or gathering in a park. Even the anti's have come to understand that it doesn't matter if they don't like it... open carry is still legal and most of the population just doesn't much shive a git about it anymore.
And the reason all that happened is because... in the beginning folks don't realize they were witnessing the right to bear arms in action.... all they saw was the gun. But after a while folks got used to seeing the right to bear arms embodied in the gun that they see ordinary people wearing in plain sight.
As a purely personal experience aside... quite often I am approached by total strangers who either ask if they can carry a gun like I am... or they thank me for exercising my rights. Imagine that... people went from being wary/fearful about seeing guns to being so desensitized, so used to it,
so accepting, that they will approach and initiate a conversation with a total stranger who is wearing a gun. All in just 7 or 8 years of seeing people wearing guns.
And I find the idea that there is a difference between desensitizing folks to seeing pistols and desensitizing folks to seeing rifles/shotguns a bit odd because, just like pistols, if folks don't see long guns then they will not become used to seeing... long guns. It is after the dust settles from illegal arrests/lawsuits/and the sensationalized media circus that only ends up educating people about the right to bear arms that folks accept that there is a right to bear arms and that guy with the pistol/rifle/shotgun isn't doing anything wrong... he is just exercising his right to bear arms.
Oh.... and the very exact same things that are being said now about openly carrying long guns being a bad thing.... were said in the beginning about openly carrying pistols too.
One other thing I'd like to say... Many men and women died (and are still dying!) on many battlefields to protect our country and our ability to exercise our rights. And when they died to protect the right to bear arms they didn't die just to protect the right to carry a pistol. Well... right now we all are in yet another battle to protect the right to bear arms. So... will we only protect pistols? Or will we fight to protect the right to bear ARMS?
