Why open carry is bad.

[fjolnirsson]

So, it seems as though around 19% of the THR general gun posters feel that open carry is bad. Why do you feel that way? Scaring the soccer moms? targeted first for crime?

(edited to add)Those of you who feel open carry is a good thing, please see my recent poll on open carry. This poll is for those who don't agree with it.
(Edited for PC)

 

[cdbeaver]

I live in a state where open carry is the only option. Concealed carry is illegal for every one except LEO.

Open carry is very legal, yet I never see any one carrying in public areas. In rural sites it might be done, but certainly not at the malls, restaurants, etc.

The reason I don't carry is that I don't need the hassle from the cops. In Omaha, largest city in the state, local ordinance requires a permit to carry, even in the open. So far as I know, that's the only municipality that has such a law.

While it is legal elsewhere, law enforcement people might easily arrrest you for "brandishing" a weapon merely because it is visible. You might have a right to carry openly in this state, but LE doesn't want you to do it.

 

[Shovelhead]

Need an "All of the above" choice.

Shovelhead

 

[BeLikeTrey]

add one please

My reason, so you never know exactly who's carrying. Could be me could be her. If it's open carry only, and you see no gun your chances are good they aren't LEO. So rob 'em. with concealed.... who knows... so better not try to rob anyone. My .02$.

 

[SapperLeader]

I need a none of these reasons option.

My main reason is not one of concern, but hassle factor. With the exception of my two siblings, none of my family knows i carry, and would annoy the crap out of me with all their questions on why. Also, most of the big stores around me will ask you to leave if you open carry, but dont know if your concealed.. I work or go to school 6.5 days a week, and when i have time to run a errand, i dont want to get into a discussion of my 2nd ammendment beliefs.
I do think open carry has a lot going for it, less paperwork hassle, and a little more comfortable. It would be real nice to not worry about a cover garment this summer when it gets over 110 degrees or warmer.

 

[Viking6]

I don't think open carry is bad but for me as I've said on other threads, it's a privacy issue. It's my right to bear arms; but I prefer to exercise that right in privacy. In honesty, there probably is an element of not wanting to freak out folks. I'm kinda old school in my thinking, in that I prefer to move through life without making waves cuz I made enough of those in my youth. If open carry was the only way to guarantee our 2nd Amendment rights, then I might change my mind.

 

[gggman]

Would you put a sign on your house....."Yes, this house contains guns", or "NO, this house contains no guns". ???
That woud certainly let the criminals know which houses to rob or not rob.
It's the same with my person. Does a potential mugger know I'm carrying, or do I look like an easy target?
Keep the muggers and rapists guessing.

 

[Soap]

It depends. If I'm open carrying I'm most likely going from my home directly to the range, and back. A few more instances where I would open carry would be in the privacy of my home, while hunting, in the wilderness, or if I were far into a rural area. If I expect to encounter any other people I always conceal.

 

[d-mac]

I think the pool needed to incluse the I don't agree with it being bad.

If you are going to put up a poll, there should be the ability to answer it. And Since I agree with it, there is no option to choose.

You should have the ability to reflect all and not steer a question for lack of needed selections.

JMHO

 

[Wildalaska]

I dont like it ergo I must be a "sheeple"

I find that term to be childish and offensive with no place on this Board.



WildgonnaeradicatehttatermAlaska

 

[fjolnirsson]

If you are going to put up a poll, there should be the ability to answer it. And Since I agree with it, there is no option to choose.

Already had that poll. Just a couple days ago. Check back a page or so, or do a search, you'll find it.
I wanted clarification from people who had already answered that one.

BTW, welcome to THR!

Wild Alaska,

I dont like it ergo I must be a "sheeple"

Thanks for pointing that out. I had actually decided not to use that word, and simply included it out of habit, I suppose. It's been fixed. I didn't mean to imply that anyone was a sheeple, it's just one of those things lodged in my mind that's gonna take a while to stop using.

 

[jdege]

Weapons retention.

Open carry requires more care.

20% of cops who are killed are killed with their own guns.

I occasionally stand in check-out lines at the grocery store. No always do I know everyone else in line.

If I were to carry openly, the guy standing behind me would know that I was carrying, and would be able to grab my gun unless I took precautions to prevent it.

Concealed, it's not an issue.

 

[gulogulo1970]

I think if a state has a carry provision it should be both. If you want to carry concealed do it, same with open carry. Choose your poison, whatever is best for your needs at the time.

 

[2nd Amendment]

Sheeple

I find that term to be childish and offensive with no place on this Board.

I find it to be a highly accurate and descriptive term, generally in reference to fence-sitting moderates and leftists, that should have a mandatory place anywhere reasoning people discuss the preservation of rights.

 

[Atticus]

Personally, I just don't like calling attention to myself. What I "am" or what I believe in, are my business only. I've never felt the need to broadcast my inner thoughts to the world - or at least to those within touching distance.

 

[Wildalaska]

I find it to be a highly accurate and descriptive term, generally in reference to fence-sitting moderates and leftists, that should have a mandatory place anywhere reasoning people discuss the preservation of rights.

Epithets like that generally "turn off" fence sitting moderates (which I am dying to see defined)..

Reasoning people dont resort to epithets by the way..

I dont believe that the second am gives anyone the right to carry any gun they want in any fashion at any time. I dont think the Brady bill is violative of the 2nd Am..I dont even believe that even in well established contsitutional tems the so called Assault weapons ban (as to cosmetic features only) would violate the most expansive reading of the 2nd (stupid and misguided as it is)..

Guess that makes me a sheeple



WildmoderateAlaska

 

[spacemanspiff]

wildalaska, if congress banned the Helvetica Type Font because its too difficult to read, would that be an infringement of the 1st amendment?

probably not, but its just as useless.

 

[Wildalaska]

Excellent analogy and quite correct spiffy me lad..

Congrats...you might very well be a sheeple too...

WildbaaaaaAlaska

 

[MeekandMild]

None of the above. Open carry is inpolite and rude.

You don't wear your muddy boots in the house nor your Red Man hat at the dinner table.
You don't clean fish in Mama's sink.
You don't cut in front of traffic and weave between lanes.
You don't walk to the mailbox in your skivvies.
You don't kiss other folk's girls.

So why the tarnation do you want to open carry?

 

[Triad]

Impolite and rude? Explain that.

 

[carpettbaggerr]

Awful lot of impolite, rude cops around.

 

[Carlos Cabeza]

M&M, Item number 4 could be debated.

 

[Werewolf]

2nd Amendment's take on the term Sheeple was succinctly stated thusly:

I find it to be a highly accurate and descriptive term, generally in reference to fence-sitting moderates and leftists, that should have a mandatory place anywhere reasoning people discuss the preservation of rights.

Agreed! And though some may find the term Sheeple offensive so what? Where is the right not to be offended enumerated? No where that I'm aware of.

The term defines those that gather in herds, think like everyone else simply because that's the way everyone else thinks and do it without any other rational reason than wanting to fit in and be like everyone else. What a sad way to live one's life and IMO it's the reason the USA today is less free than it was 100 or even 50 years ago. Conformance is and always will be the bane of liberty.

What is more offensive than the term Sheeple is the fact that there are those here who have donned the badge of the thought police and find it necessary to pull their politically correct guns and shoot the rest of us with them.

Disgusting - especially here in this conclave of those who claim to love and fight for freedom.

 

[Valkman]

I think in 90% of Nevada open carry would be great, and if I didn't have a CCW I might do it. But there's no way I'd try it in Vegas, and I have a CCW so I wouldn't do it anyway. I don't really want to advertise to the BG casing the place that I'm target #1.

 

[atek3]

Its a prejudice thing. In the 1950's south, no African-American people used the white drinking fountain, or sat near the front of the bus. When ignorant white folks saw just that happening they became shocked and offended. However, after fourty years of seeing that behavior everyday, only the most dumb rednecks, "want them to go to the back of the bus." So it is with Open Carry, when you are the first one, naturally people who've never seen that civil right excercized get mighty antsy, tending to call 911. However, if many more people open carried, people would get over it, except for a few hoplophobic holdouts.

atek3