{"id":3092,"date":"2015-03-10T22:01:53","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T02:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=3092"},"modified":"2015-03-10T22:01:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-11T02:01:53","slug":"open-carry-whats-your-take","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/open-carry-whats-your-take\/","title":{"rendered":"OPEN CARRY: WHAT\u2019S YOUR TAKE?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open carry is the practice of wearing a presumably loaded firearm, visibly.\u00a0 It normally takes the form of a holstered handgun.\u00a0 It occasionally takes the form of someone carrying a rifle or shotgun into a restaurant, which has a history of causing restaurant chains to ban or at least decry the practice. There is also what gun writer and blogger Tam Keel<\/a>\u00a0 calls \u201cOpen carrying at <\/em>people,\u201d which I think is the province of those colloquially known as \u201cattention whores.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years ago, Mark Walters hosted a three-way debate on the topic on his show \u201cArmed American Radio<\/a>.\u201d The \u201cpro\u201d speaker came, IIRC, from Georgia Carry.\u00a0 The \u201canti-open carry\u201d speaker was a cop from the Midwest who, though generally pro-armed citizen, thought open carry was counterproductive to both the public peace and the Second Amendment cause. I took the middle ground, which I still hold. One the one hand, I would like for every state to allow any citizen who has a clean record and hasn\u2019t been adjudicated mentally incompetent to be allowed to open carry a holstered, loaded handgun. First, because there are some jurisdictions where if the wind blows your coat open and reveals the gun you are legally carrying concealed, a genuinely frightened citizen or vindictive anti-gunner can combine with an anti-gun prosecutor to create a perfect storm of criminal charges for illegal open carry. Second, because if a good person suddenly becomes a stalking victim or the target of death threats, I don\u2019t want them to have to wait up to 90 days (gun-friendly Florida) or six months (the time it takes before a new resident can even apply for a concealed carry permit in California, which for the most part is decidedly non-gun-friendly).\u00a0 But on the other hand, I don\u2019t think we win any friends for gun owners\u2019 civil rights by flaunting deadly weapons in the face of a general public conditioned to fear guns and their owners by generations of anti-gun media and political prejudice.<\/p>\n

I do open carry a few times a year in public, just to gauge typical response, and have done so in jurisdictions from New Hampshire and Connecticut to Washington State. Most folks don\u2019t even notice.\u00a0\u00a0 I just got back from a class in Tucson, hosted by Dan Southard and his Gator Farm Tactical<\/a> training group.\u00a0 There is no more open-carry-friendly state than Arizona, though Tucson is pretty much \u201cblue yuppie central\u201d on firearms issues.\u00a0 At the airport hotel, about a fifth of the students open carried, while a majority of the rest were packing concealed.\u00a0 There were no incidents or complaints.\u00a0 Interestingly, if you look at the class photo below, you\u2019ll be hard put to spot even the openly carried handguns, including the Glock on my own hip.\u00a0 Yes, open carry can be discreetly performed.<\/p>\n

\"MAG20C_AZ03_15W\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, contrast that with this YouTube video, taken by a true attention whore and cop-baiter.\u00a0 Ask yourself just how much of an ambassador this guy, trolling a school while wearing an openly carried handgun AND a slung long gun, is for the cause of responsible armed citizens. Note that at the end, he and his flaunted guns walk right up to the door of the school, doing a remarkable imitation of Adam Lanza approaching Sandy Hook Elementary School. Note that it was the Bloomberg anti-gun-owner forces who made it go viral.<\/p>\n