https://www.tridentconcepts.com/open-carry-vs-concealed-carry/ I asked the question on the premise of being in an urban/residential setting. A grocery store, a restaurant, a work place, etc. This is not referring to outdoor settings such as hunting, or fishing, or things of that nature. For the ease of hiking, I do open carry. My inside the waistband holster is a little sketchy (the Old Faithful Holsters are low cost... and after a while it shows), and long treks leave blisters. On my butt. Time for a new holster. A better one. Without steel nuts to dig into flesh. On the premise of the question, I see absolutely no use for open carry. If you carry a gun into a public space, you draw attention to yourself. I do not see it as a deterrent as we all have a blind spot, and those who are the initiating violence will have the upper hand. And really, if someone draws on an open carrier first, the odds of the open carrier effectively responding on slim. Open carry is not a deterrent, it is a target on your back. Usually the mentality behind open carry is: 1. No one is going to mess with an armed person. 2. I can draw before anyone else. 3. It is too hard to conceal this gun. 4. People are polite when I carry a firearm. All of which are negated by: 1. Yes, armed people can by a target. As described above. 2. Doubt it. I out shoot most of my friends and family (not so much with shotguns), and I do not believe I could out draw someone who has an intent and time advantage. 3. Sell it and purchase a more appropriately sized firearm. At the moment I have a fullsize M&P45 for competition and go to gun, and a M&P9C for concealed carry. Granted some people simply not afford to do so, in which case, I am not critical. 4. That is just stupid. As stated in the cited article, the most effective means of preventing violence is to blend in. You are no more special or threatening than anyone else. Just another nameless face. That is the beauty of concealed carry, you are able to do your business, get it done, and move on, without hassle. I can go into Guitar Center, pick up a microphone. Do my monthly shopping. Maybe have some Chinese food at a restaurant. Those are things that I do believe would be more much more difficult with open carry.
My two cents...It is a much different view to a wanna be bad guy who walks into a room FULL of open carry citizens than it is to walk into a room with one or two. It's all a matter of perspective. My opinion is that enough open carry citizens in an area will be too many targets for even the most opportunistic criminal and will provide for a much more civilized society.
Though increased in recent years, people with a carry license where one is required still amount to a minority of people and even many of those do not carry every day or at all. I do believe you could draw faster OC, I can, but I doubt that giving yourself away with a visible gun will help. I live downtown in a very liberal area and all it would do is bother the police with "man with a gun" calls. They have to respond and it is a waste of their time and mine.
I agree that it is a minority of people, my point was that single focus thinking elicits singular thinking responses. If more people would open carry the options would be much broader. Again many people carrying openly would negate the "giving yourself away with a visible gun" The drawback is the stigma liberals attach to the thought process. I live in a rural area....open carry is common and not given a second thought. Maybe in very liberal areas they need to become as accustomed to open carry as they do about lil gang bangers blasting away in drive buys or gang violence. After all it's nothing more than a mindset.
I'm a proponent of open carry, but until it becomes common, being the only guy in the room openly carrying becomes a "shoot me first" sign.
I understand the sentiment and it is usually the younger that are willing to go through the hassle to prove a point. I just don't need or want the attention.
One of our area convenience stores used to get robbed a lot which is what happens when you are located next to cracktown. After one incident in which the clerk was shot at, the clerk started open carrying. The store hasn't been robbed since. It probably did make a difference for them. I doubt she would have time to draw on them if they came through the doors with gun in hand, but people looking to rob usually are looking for the path of least resistance. A hole is still in the wall where the bullet went through the night she was shot at as the po-po only needed one for the ballistics and didn't rip out the wall to get the other round.
I agree that OC only notifies the bad guys that I need to be the focus of attention, and therefore eliminated first. I've thought long and hard on this. In my job, I deal with random people all day, and I'm not allowed to carry any kind of armament at all. Rule #1, as I have learned, is to NEVER act like a victim. Armed or not, you need to always have an escape plan. Bad guys perceive this. If they don't "smell fear", they're not nearly as confident. When I'm out of town, in the boonies is where I've had my bad experiences. I do OC out there, and there have been several times when I've had to "shoot to discourage" to make that point. It's true that if more people would OC, the bad guys would just avoid that crowd.
in a society that allows open-carry, the folks who are not carrying guns become targets..as its assumed that have no firearm. concealed carry is best as ANYONE may be carrying.
Great points so far. If alone, you can't "blend in" and become that grey man, and if in a group, just don't be the only one open carrying. BTW, open carry seems to work just fine for police.
Good points but I disagree that OC is not effective. As others have pointed out, its also numbers. One OC might not be wise, but a large number of people is a deterent. And sometimes the purpose of OC is to draw attention. A few gun clubs (several in Florida, and one in Salt Lake City, probably others I don't know about) have OC days just to get the public accumstomed to the sight of firearms. Salt Lake City is trending socialist, and the club goes into the city usually on a Saturday afternoon and shops and eats in the same general area. Families go so there are children of various ages. The purpose is to show the store owners that pro-gun people are a big part of their business, and to show people that might not have any exposure to firearms (except on tv) that guns and gun owners are not evil. Florida is not OC, but there is an exception for fishing and hunting (although its wise for the club to inform & educate the local cops beforehand so nobody is surprised and acts stupidly). In some areas, gun clubs will meet on a fishing pier and do some fishing. There is also a lot of inquisitive non-gun owners to talk to.
I agree with most here and don't want the attention that open carry brings. I am all for open carry for those who want to and can do so legally. I prefer to blend in and not be a target (or a victim) with my concealed carry. I can see open carry discouraging crime if several people are open carrying. If you have 2 or 3 people carrying a gun while working in a convenience store, I don't see many people wanting to risk robbing the place. I don't know how much good the open carry of long gun protesters do to encourage public support for open handgun carry in Texas, but I would like to see open carry happen in Texas just to take peoples' fear of guns down a notch and make me worry less about accidentally being "discovered" when I'm out.
I do applaud those who openly exercise their 2A rights. Personally I prefer to fly under the radar. I live in Las Vegas where open carry is legal but still fairly uncommon. We are a melting pot where almost everyone is from somewhere else. Many don't have a clue about gun rights and the old west libertarian heritage of our state laws. It was different in my younger years when I wouldn't hesitate to go out of my way just to prove a point. I guess I'm just more practical now.
Huge deterent. I would never assualt or screw around with a guy I saw carrying a gun. Unless I had a gun, but then it's still risky.
