I see more and more they days idiots that want to express standing on the street corner with a slung M4 rifle. My question is why? What is y’alls take in this and what would you do. Remember the activist is standing in plain sight. Rifle is slung over his back you see a magazine in the rifle. But his hands are in his pockets and his stance is non aggressive.
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These types abound unfortunately. We had a jerk sling his AR and come to a parade in my town. My feeling is this; many Americans think gun enthusiasts are all crazy and jerks that act like this help make their point. I’m 100% for C/C…open carry bothers me because I feel it places undue stress and anxiety on some folks. I’ll carry wherever it’s legal, but nobody will know.
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If I could open carry in Illinois, my statement would be on the 2nd of each month. I would open carry a “normal” firearm. As it is now, I wear a shirt that is 2nd Amendment oriented. It does, every now and then, spark a conversation. I would not be on a street corner with a long gun. I feel that projects the wrong image of us law abiding gun owners.
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I agree. Walking around with a rifle slung over your shoulder sends the wrong message. If i recall seeing the news on the El Paso shooting, that is how he walked in to the Walmart.
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Nothing to worry about. I’ve seen guns everywhere in society. Being an OTR driver 20 years, the security guards at hunts point market in NYC walk the walls with ARs in plain sight. Like a penitentiary. Being raised in a rural setting we always had rifles handy. Feelings are not a point of legal importance. Being situationally aware is key. If you are aware, There’s no need to worry about a non threat. As high school kids we often brought rifles and shotguns to school in order to go hunting or shooting after. Never had an issue. The narrative these days is to use emotion to guide the narrative to hyper sensitize the public to the big bad gun… I refuse to cop to it…
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I open carry every day here in Idaho. But a rifle is a bit much.
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Welcome to the group @Samuel11.
Do you see lots of folks open carry there, or are you unusual?
My hubby OCs pretty much all the time in MO. But we dont see a huge number of folks doing so.
Lots of people carry here, but I’d say only 1-2% open carry. Unfortunately, even gun people have been brainwashed that guns are ‘scary’ and should be kept hidden. Also, it has become a common myth that open carry makes you a target. After almost 10 years of studying crime and self-defense statistics, I have found no evidence to support that, but I have found lots of evidence that guns in the right hands are potent crime deterrents. Open carry has the added benefit of making liberals cross to the other side of the street.
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Yeah, I can’t find data to support that idea either. I can see where there are some circumstances that it might make you a target, but many where it would make a bad buy pick someone else. … and no stats to prove anything either way…
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If you look at the few incidental cases where it at least appears someone was targeted for open carrying, you will usually find that the victim was not practicing good situational awareness and/or was somewhere he probably shouldn’t have been.
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Here’s the point, your opinion doesn’t reflect the truth about the law and freedom acknowledged by the 2A. For too long the “in the interests of public safety” narrative has dominated the issue causing undue politically driven opinion. Copping to that narrative only serves to embolden the anti gun crowd to push for more “control” in the interests of public safety. Causing you therefore to compromise the right. And further the cause for the illusion of control. Your opinion is your right, it however is not the law. Since the 1934 NFA they’ve infringed on it. I’m not one to carry a long gun in public either, but I do recognize others right to do so, and wouldn’t serve the auspices of the gun control narrative.
Melvin I agree that my opinion does not reflect the letter of the law. However, I’m a practical person who has carried all my adult life. When I was in the AF we traveled daily to a range North of Las Vegas. All of us were armed and about half of us had long guns. We would stop at a mom and pop quick stop to buy our goodies and never once had an issue with other customers. Put that same group in civilian clothes and go into the same store armed the same way and the reaction would be significantly different. My point is this. If we want to protect our rights we must be sensitive to the opinion of the larger public. In the end public opinion affects how lawmakers vote. I respect those who want to carry anything anywhere but, as we saw in Springfield Missouri recently, it doesn’t go over well with the folks who don’t love firearms like we do.
I might add one illustration. We all have a 1A right to free speech. However, as we’ve heard many times, you cannot yell FIRE in a crowded theater. Why, because it causes people to panic and can result in someone getting trampled to death. The same logic could easily be applied to open carry in today’s hyper sensitive environment.
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I’m going to say that the dolt in Springfield MO, while technically right, was pretty foolish and broke an essential Missouri social rule… “Don’t be a jerk”.
He dressed for maximum distress, and he did it at a time when the generally sensible Missourian would have demurred.
Had he been in camo pants and a tshirt, and had it slung across his back like someone going hunting, instead of being fully tacticaled-out with plates and molle everything, battle-rifle dangling from a single point harness in front, operator-wannabe style, things would have gone very differently.
Regardless of his claim that he was just doing a “2A check”, he set the stage to scare people. It worked.
We can, and I think must, set the same stage… but to show people that calm, sensible, polite people who are not jerks, can and do carry firearms and nothing bad happens. This is why my hubby OCs always, and why, when I’m home in Missouri, I sometimes do. We don’t generally carry long guns, but we mostly don’t shoot long guns either.
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First, Welcome Home Sir, and thank you. Both my father and brother served. We agree that it didn’t go over well, but that’s the point isn’t it? Allowing emotional perception to drive the narrative over truth has gotten us to this point where we deny our own rights to coddle the few that can’t deal with it?( 1934 NFA) Something I know you are aware of as you’ve likely experienced the loss of fellow servicemen through the oath that you took likely brings the truth of our rights to a very personal level. Infringement on these rights because of the few isn’t my idea of honoring that oath. It rather insults it in my view. With my family’s and your service in mind, I’d rather speak blunt truth and maybe scuff a few shiny shoes than allow them to step on the constitution through open espousal of confiscation, repeal of the 2A, or executive action, all illegal according to scotus ruling in concept and intent.
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Chet knows and I know that there may be a couple of counties that become pro second amendment counties I mean by that so-called “Sanctuary Counties” but Here in the People’s Republic of Illinois with Chicago we will never have open carry. It would work like LaQuan McDonald on steroids. CPD Chicago PD there just not enough refrigeration at Cook Co. and every other county Medical Examiners to store that many bodies.
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Open carry has the added benefit of making liberals cross to the other side of the street.
I love this line…
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This is a good topic!
While in my opinion, I would not advise walking around with an AR-15 slung to my back for obvious reasons.
While it may be one’s right to do so, it’s not wise.
There are many ways an American can practice their Second Amendment such as carrying a sidearm for self-protection. Lastly, in my opinion those individuals doing this are honestly just asking for two things:
(1) Attention (They got that…trust me)
(2) Trouble (And there is plenty of that to go around as well.)
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I open carry around my property at home. When I walk or drive downtown, I throw on a jacket or other cover garment, depending on the weather, as I have an NM CCL. While I believe the jerk in ‘tacticool’ carrying an AR has the right to do so, I believe that it is NOT wise, and does not help the pro-2A community one bit.
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I do not practice open carry. I’ve seen folk open carrying handguns around here. To each his own… Imagery is extremely important. Unfortunately, the most prevalent images of black men with guns are usually in the commission of some crime. So, until perceptions shift, I do not see open carry as prudent. 
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@DLVick38 do you mind if I ask you a different-experiences question? I don’t know what sort of community you live in, but does that also apply in largely black communities? I don’t mean with interactions with law enforcement, but with average folk?
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