I too live in an open carry state, and I open carry when I'm in the forest. If I happen to have my sidearm when I run into a store....no sweat. However it is not my intention. When I see someone @ walmart pushing a cart and wearing a big gun, can't help thinking he must intimidate others. Precisely why I don't do it I do feel safer knowing that if trouble ever arises we all know there will be some concealed weapons carried by good people to the rescue!
Its a regional thing. I can carry *here* and cops dont even notice. An hours drive south I would get questioned, west I might get SWAT'd.
Its all based on exposure. In states where open carry is common, LE doesn't care. In many parts of Alaska, almost everyone has a visible firearm, firearms are everywhere, people don't think twice about it. In Salt Lake City, open carry is legal but its become less common. As a result, gun clubs in that area have "open carry days" where they all meet in Salt Lake City, its a family day, they shop, have lunch, walk around, just to desensitize people to the sight of firearms. At first (years ago), the occasional shop employee would get nervous or some other person would call the cops, but no longer. I support open carry, its a great way to gain support and debunk gun banner propaganda. But like many things, changing culture it takes some time and thought. In areas where open carry is not common, the gun community should ease into open carry and do it intelligently.
Interesting comment on the Walmart situation. I guess it's in the eye of the beholder. When I see normal looking men with an OC in Walmart it makes me feel a bit safer, almost like seeing a cop doing some shopping.
You know, I guess it is my own prejudice....but sometimes it seems the ones carrying openly are very defensive. I'd hate to accidentally bump into one of them.
Antifa did a big display like this in Phoenix. I don't like it. I'd rather keep the bad guys guessing than to intimidate people just out for a cup of coffee.
I have always gotten along well with coyotes. But feral dogs are essentially wolves, and wolves will kill humans if the situation is right.
A pack can become a mob. While I had heard of feral packs, it was the first I had seen of one. It would appear to me most dogs in the city or country are not likely to leave their homes, so makes me wonder how one would form... no clue.
Hence why My sidearm is on my hip, a constant companion, not subject to State Law, thank goodness. Ran into / crossed paths with a rabid dog, while walking on a country road. Had I not been Armed, it likely had bitten me.
I have carried for 9 years. I only open carry at the gas pump when I fill up in the middle of the night. My wife just got her first gun. I'll teach her to shoot it next weekend and soon she plans to get her LTC. I think Las Vegas triggered a desire to be armed. She wanted a semi auto with a full 3 finger grip and as small of a recoil as possible. She also wanted a manual safety. We ended up getting her a Bersa Thunder .380 Plus with tacky rubber grips. It holds 15+1 and is not too big to carry, but is big enough to limit recoil.
This is fairly common in Mexico. Abandoned pets become feral and their pups return to completely wild.
All domesticated dogs descend from wolves (or 'wolf-like creatures' from dozens of millenia ago, according to some biologoists) and sans human involvement, they'll return to such quickly. In fact, all dogs are close enough to wolves to be genetically compatible with them. The 'domesticated' gene presents rarely in wolves, and manifests as an ability to 'read' human emotions in scent and body language much as they do within their own pack. Long ago, man was able to tame wolf by selecting a few that had this gene and selectively breeding them for various purposes. Anyway, when dogs are left to their own, they return to a wild state. They still have the 'domesticated' gene, but they're also still wolves, and they return to the 'wolf' preset without human interaction. What you encountered was, effectively, a pack of wolves.
We don't worry too much about feral dogs, though what you say is true. In Arizona, the tree huggers are introducing real wolves once again. They were eradicated for a reason.
My bet is that more feral dogs kill people than do wolves. There have been only ten people killed by wolves in the U.S. (including Alaska) since 1900. Two of those were captive wolves, two were rabid wolves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wolf_attacks_in_North_America
I am CCW at the present moment as we speak. Today is my day off. I'm heading over to McDonalds for a fish sandwich for lunch. The rest of the week I am an O/C armed guard. Even when I am O/C on duty I still wear a windbreaker over the Glock to protect it from prying eyes. My CCW weapon is a CZ 45ACP not Glock.
