Open Carry vs Concealed Carry
I prefer to Open Carry my handgun often, but just because I can doesn’t mean that I should. Prudence should be the rule. 17,523 crimes against persons occurred in Idaho in 2012, so when I leave my home, it is my intent to go about peaceably and return home safely without shooting anyone, ever.
Concealed Carrying (which I am forced to practice regularly) presents me as unarmed in the eyes of an attacker searching for a victim.
There are some people I’ve spoken with who have admitted to wanting to be a victim and are looking forward to providing an element of surprise to the attacker.
Why would anyone want to try to fight their way out of a bad situation, jeopardizing themselves and anyone with or around them when the bad situation can be avoided entirely by Open Carrying?
Let me tell you, if someone is going to be surprised, it is you.
The likelihood of you surprising a bad guy is about 1 out of 100 attacks and the likelihood of the bad guy getting the drop on you is 99%.
You seldom know that you are going to be a victim until you are face to face with someone else pointing a gun at you.
You have no time to quick draw or do anything but comply.
Surprise as a defensive tactic is often based on unrealistic or ill thought out scenarios.
Open Carriers not only create a deterrent circle around themselves, they create a circle of deterrence for everyone in their vicinity.
Every study shows that criminals avoid armed citizens. Open Carry provides the bad guy the opportunity to make an informed decision. Anyone who claims that they want t to be surprised and then try to “fix” the situation and fight their way out has probably never been in that situation.
On a regular basis you hear about Concealed Carriers shooting people. I’ve never heard of an Open Carrier shooting anyone or even drawing their gun. They don’t have to, the bad guys, if given a choice, avoid them (unless they are on drugs or mentally ill).
Open Carry deters criminals; Concealed Carry portrays you as unarmed and your probability of being a victim of a crime is totally unchanged and then, when victimized, you have a life or death decision to make; either way you lose.
Some critics of Open Carry claim that an Open Carrier will be the first one to be shot when a robber walks into a 7-11. There is no evidence that this has ever occurred. Show me the body!
When a robber sees an Open Carrier, they change their plans.
In most cases, he is not prepared to commit murder or jeopardize his life when all he wanted to do was to get some cash.
Self preservation demands that he abort and find a less risky victim.
Another common criticism of Open Carry is that the firearm itself will be the target of theft, prompting a criminal attack simply to get your gun away from you. With only two exceptions, where one man in a convenience store did not have a retention holster and was not maintaining situational awareness, had his stolen; the other occurred in N/E Milwaukee in an area where crime was skyrocketing and the guy was targeted.
You should never open carry in high crime areas. Lions don’t walk into a den of hyenas, neither should anyone open carry in areas dominated by criminals. Other than these two instances where the individuals didn’t use wisdom and prudence, there is no evidence that an Open Carrier has ever been targeted just to rob him of his gun.
Tony Snesko, founder
Idaho Carry, Open & Concealed
[email protected]
