It’s a 2019 article, not not really new.
I’m not opposed to open carry, but I can understand why some businesses don’t want it. It makes a significant part of the population nervous. There’s are reasons I carry concealed.
Personal opinions follow:
I have no problem with Walmart, or any other private entity, banning open carry. I totally get where they are coming from and can see it as a nice middle ground of have your cake and eat it too. Don’t ban concealed carry, don’t say that lawful carriers can not be armed so that you don’t get their full wrath, but also, don’t take the full wrath of the banners since they now don’t have to know that the person in line behind them has a gun. I get it.
What I do have a problem with, is when private entities speak out and request the government pass more restrictive control laws. Walmart did this. They also pulled way back on firearm and ammo sales with public virtue signalling statements. This I have a problem with.
I stopped going to Walmart in 2019 for the second paragraph reasons above.
/personal opinion
I don’t think I would take any legal or firearms advice from the lawyer who wrote the linked 2019 article. In the middle of the article he wrote,
Nope! Constitutional carry refers to carry of a weapon without requiring a license or permit from the government. The concept does not distinguish between open or concealed carry; it is only about the ability to be armed.
When anyone makes such a fundamental error in a topic they claim to be expert, or at least knowledgeable, in, I write off all of their blather as nothing more than uninformed opinion.
Yes, I had a similar reaction to his definition of Constitutional Carry. His opinion was definitely like some of our reps that state “I am a gunowner, but…” His comment, “If you really do need it, you need it all the time. If you don’t need it all the time, you have to ask yourself whether you really need it at all”, I also had issues with. How does he know he will never need it? Granted, I am probably less likely, and even for most people, the “need” is likely quite low, but to “never” need it? I surely hope not, but like the rest of us, we know that we carry with the hope that we do never need it.
Yes, that was a hit piece from 2019, but we are still dealing with the same issues now, as then. Some people are waking-up, but we have a long way to travel. Thankfully, we now have a few more states that have passed Constitutional Carry. Now, if they could just eliminate GFZs and allow non-residents the same permitless carry, we could state our rights are no longer on life-support.
I haven’t been to WM in years. I also don’t go to Jareds and other anti-gun stores.
Oddly enough, the only place I do go that is not carry-friendly is to gun shows. Go figure. At some point the leftist media is going to pick up on this and use it against us.
A few years ago I asked about the no-loaded-guns policy speaking with the owner of the gun show company that sets up six times a year in Chantilly, Virginia (only a few miles from NRA Headquarters). She told me it is a requirement of her insurance company. I imagine it is the same for all other gun shows around the country.
I don’t carry all the time, but sometimes I need to.
I know that’s an unpopular position on this forum, but his argument makes absolutely no sense to me. And frankly, it’s a pretty easy argument to tear apart.
What gun shows are not carry-friendly? If you mean that you cannot carry a loaded firearm, I could agree with that statement. However, there are very good reasons for that. One is past experience; two is insurance issues; and the third is just general firearm safety. Also, many are there to get holsters for their newly acquired firearms. You do not want to be handling a loaded firearm while fitting a holster.
I assisted as a volunteer for a rights group at a gun show this past weekend - I typically OC at gun shows.
I also saw others OC, too. Better to carry it than leave it in a vehicle. I saw one that carried his handgun in his hand, with his finger properly indexed. I asked if he was holster shopping. He replied, yes, that he just got a rail light and needed to get a holster that fit. I saw a number of new(?) firearm owners bringing in their firearms also without holsters also to go holster shopping. Many had them in one of their pants pockets, fewer carried them in their hands - the ones I saw were all unloaded.
I am not bothered by the rules against loaded guns at gun shows.
So much gun handling, so few safe directions, so many guns present, avoiding a mix of loaded and unloaded guns seems like a wise decision.
I suspect any given gun show has a significant number of people who have both a gun and a magazine for said gun, who could load and make ready very quickly if needed…and that anybody with violent intentions suspects the same.
United States Open Carry Association (USOCA)
Is that a thing? 
There’s a local open carry group in my city. They’ve tried to recruit me a couple of times, but I just can’t get into it. I don’t oppose them, I’m just not into it.
Like, I support the 1st Amendment, but I don’t exercise my freedom of speech by standing on the corner and yelling at people. I acknowledge their legal right to open carry, but it’s not a right I care to exercise.
Our local PD summed it up once as “You do have the right to open carry when downtown. We don’t recommend it.”
None of the Michigan gun shows are carry-friendly. I’m not even saying it’s a bad thing, there are a lot of stupid people with guns. I can only imagine the ignorance that would ensue and would bet cash to navy beans that they adopted the policy due to events that occurred.
Walmart would be better off banning yoga pants!
Not to mention police and ATF agents.
I am sure that is part of it. I also suspect, as @Nathan57 also agreed, that due to all the tables, vendors, people, etc., loaded firearms would be a safety issue in that type of venue. In Virginia, those type of bans have no real impact on those that want to CC, as long as they are not caught. Worst case is being thrown out of the venue, and likely banned from future events.
As I only attend as a volunteer of rights groups, it might also not look good for the rights group for me to be caught with a loaded firearm. While I was talking to a vendor at a show last year, I noticed his CC and that it had a mag in it. I asked if it was loaded, as I did not see the nylon tie that all personal firearms get at shows. He replied that it was loaded. I told him to be careful to ensure that it is not seen by a show employee or LEO as no loaded firearms nor mags are allowed at gun shows. If one is not handling the firearm, it being loaded at the event is irrelevant. Someone else told me a while back that most vendors likely carry loaded at gun shows due to their inventory. They certainly do at their gun shops.
This is one of the many examples of situations that come to mind when people say they don’t worry about printing with their “concealed” (not really) gun.
If concealed actually means what I think it means…that nobody knows or has reason to believe it is there…then nobody knows or has reason to believe it is there.
How many more noticed it is anybody’s guess.
I thought the exact same thing about gun shows. But then I have to wonder, how is a gun show any different than a sidewalk? There are a lot of stupid people with guns on the street, too.
I can think of one MAJOR difference: People expect to see guns being handled, guns in hand, guns being played with, at a gun show. And people do that. A lot of it.
Out on a public sidewalk people generally aren’t handling and playing with guns, and if they are, hopefully you see and stay far away.
Have you ever gone to a match? That’s another place you have to unload your gun, for similar reasons. Unless you are on the line with the RSO in your back pocket, probably your guns are unloaded and you can’t touch them unless you take them to a designated spot in a certain direction to so much as adjust an optic.
" At some point, our relationship with guns today has to change, too. Walmart’s decision is just a reflection of how a strong majority of Americans agree that change is needed."
Lost me right there, around here the majority of people like the God Given Right of the 2nd Amendment.