A little background: I've been mulling over the open carry vs. concealed carry for a long time. I've finally come to my own conclusion on the pros and cons. I must admit I'm writing this because of the outrage over the Starbucks letter.
I've always carried concealed, because I don't want to garner attention, yet I feel the need to exercise my rights and protect myself. In my opinion, open carry just doesn't have a place in this time and age. Besides all the shootings making headlines across America, some of the top negative stories regarding firearms stem from people open carrying.
So, what's the point of open carry? I've seen the responses about creating awareness, exercising our rights and changing laws. However, I've also seen how it leads to freaked out people and a lot of negative response. There are more people that are scared at the sight of a gun than there are gun owners. That's just the way it is now. People didn't freak out way back when, because it was the norm. It's not now.
I'm also a believer in "silent" wars. If they see you coming, packing heat, they'll freak out, and so will the government. If we sneak up on them silently, behind the scenes, without them knowing, that's where we'll make a difference and begin to really change the laws. I believe we can carry silently and win the war. I'm afraid that, if we don't, we're only going to keep losing ground.
Here in Oklahoma we are an open carry state. i moved here from Indiana in Feb. since then I have only seen 1 person OCing and that was in Walmart here in Edmond. Personally I don't. It is your choice.
Some of my response is within your post in blue.A little background: I've been mulling over the open carry vs. concealed carry for a long time. I've finally come to my own conclusion on the pros and cons. I must admit I'm writing this because of the outrage over the Starbucks letter.
I've always carried concealed, because I don't want to garner attention, yet I feel the need to exercise my rights and protect myself.
If you are referring to carrying concealed with the government's permission slip called a "permit" then you are NOT exercising your rights... you only have the government's permission to engage in a government controlled... privilege.
In my opinion, open carry just doesn't have a place in this time and age.
Let me see... if you feel the need to exercise your "rights" but don't think open carry has a place in this time and age... and a government controlled permit is required for the privilege of concealed carry... exactly how will you exercise your "rights"?
Besides all the shootings making headlines across America, some of the top negative stories regarding firearms stem from people open carrying.
So, what's the point of open carry? I've seen the responses about creating awareness, exercising our rights and changing laws. However, I've also seen how it leads to freaked out people and a lot of negative response. There are more people that are scared at the sight of a gun than there are gun owners. That's just the way it is now.
Do you have cites and/or links to facts that state more people are scared at the sight of a gun than there are gun owners? Or are you just stating what you THINK the ratio is?
People didn't freak out way back when, because it was the norm. It's not now.
Know what would be a good way to make open carry become the norm again? Lots of people doing it would be a great start..
I'm also a believer in "silent" wars. If they see you coming, packing heat, they'll freak out, and so will the government.
Judging by the advances made by open carriers, and my own open carry experiences (I have video and audio recordings of every moment I open carried outside my property for the last couple of years) including one instance where the police were called and the officer proceeded to inform the person who called that I was in the right and they were in the wrong..... and all of the things that I gave links to below... I'd say neither folks, nor the government, "freak out" as much as folks are afraid they will.
If we sneak up on them silently, behind the scenes, without them knowing, that's where we'll make a difference and begin to really change the laws. I believe we can carry silently and win the war. I'm afraid that, if we don't, we're only going to keep losing ground.
OC is why starbucks has now officially requested, but not yet put up GFZ sign's in their store. The question remains, will the OC crowd honor this, or will they flaunt their right by OC'ing into starbucks (who say they will still serve OC'ers).
Personally, I can't honor or protest starbucks request, cause I wouldn't drink a cup of their swill if it were free. My favorite coffee comes out of my coffee maker at home, and I can buy a great craft beer at the brewery for much less cost and calories than that yuppie swill.
There are more people that are scared at the sight of a gun than there are gun owners. That's just the way it is now.
We could post 100's of posts every day on this forum where we open carried all day long and either got a positive comment, or absolutely nothing unusual happened. Maybe that's what we need to do to add to all the "I got stopped today by a cop and he was nice to me" threads.
Let's do it. A new post for each day. Or will that be considered shoving our firearms in the faces of the concealed carriers on this forum?
So how many of the OC'ers here walk down the street in a city with an AR-15 ?
We just had two do it here. They were detained, questioned, released.
It did prompt several 911 calls.
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