My column is up at Guns.com, a new site that I’m writing for now. I look at the new movement for open carry.
Is carrying a gun openly a threat to those around you? Is it a provocation? Should it make people around you uncomfortable? Does Fobus make paddle holsters in colors other than black, because if nothing else, open carry is a threat to my fashion sense?
Read my full column here at Guns.com.
(I’ll be honest, I give this one a low B. I’m out of practice on writing opinion columns so it will take a few to get back in the groove.)
There is only one good reason for open carry… intimidation. There is nothing that will turn middle America against the 2nd Amendment faster than for people to start wearing guns like in the wild west. Politically, this is a horrible idea.
The purpose of the Second Amendment is not so that you can look good in your new holster, or show off your AR-15 to everyone at the mall, and it sure as hell isn’t so that you can scare the hell out of all the soccer moms in your suburb (which is the net effect of it.) Firearms are not toys, and wearing them around town like a fashion accessory essentially turns them into one.
Concealed carry accomplishes all of the crime prevention and personal security goals that open carry would accomplish, and does so more effectively as the unknown is superior as a deterrent to the known. Pushing the 2nd Amendment beyond its intent will eventually bring an end to that fundamental Right.
That was crappy writing, even for you Garrison. Ease up on the meth and Jack Daniels.
UC the purpose of the 2nd amendment is to oppose a tyrannical government. I can offer an argument as to why open carry shouldn’t be practiced, but it shouldn’t be illegal.
“UC the purpose of the 2nd amendment is to oppose a tyrannical government.”
Agreed, and open carry is irrelevant to that end.
On a related note, I wonder how those restrictive gun laws are working out in New York?
Murderers are murderers. Take away their guns and they’ll pick up a knife, or run you down with a car, or in the case of this guy, do both.
http://tinyurl.com/62ewka4
U.C. – According to http://www.opencarry.org/opencarry.html, open carry in it’s various forms is legal in half of the States. I don’t get out much but I’ve never heard of any evidence to support your claim “Politically, this is a horrible idea.”
Regarding your idea “only one good reason for open carry… intimidation.” – Intimidation can be a factor in self-defense, agreed, but this reasoning will never accomplish the goal of changing the minds of those who prefer open carry. They prefer to prevent violence with intimidation to the option of preventing violence with violence.
They prefer to prevent violence with intimidation to the option of preventing violence with violence.”
That alone doesn’t distinguish them from common criminals.
The people who want to take away your guns are urban intellectuals, and media and banking elites, and their fellow travelers. The average American is pro-gun, or else indifferent. Pushing for open carry will serve only to provoke, and rally the public in opposition to gun rights.
Wouldn’t pro-gun types better serve their cause by eliminating 4473 (de facto registration) and similar record keeping requirements when a law abiding citizen wants to purchase a weapon?
I have to some what disagree, in my opinion, open carry does intimidate but if I intimidate a crimminal from an approach with robbery on mind, the open carry has paid off. With open carry come even greater responsibility than just carrying conceald. Would I open carry at my kids soccer game, No. Would I open carry at the mall while shopping, No. But I will tuck my shirt once I have left the security of the mall and I’m walking to my car in a not so secure parking lot. To me you have to know when to tuck and when to show. It’s like I mentioned earlier, If the crimminal see’s me and my pistol, there is a greater chance he will move on to the next. With concealment, this is not possible. Not all people are “gun ho” and looking to just be the billy bad a$$ around town. Eventually law enforcement will catch up to you if you have this mentality, but to me, it’s about protecting my wife and children that walk with me everyday. Family…things that crimminals know nothing about…nor do they care.
The other good reason for open carry, UC, is to move the firearm from your porch to your car without having the cops arrest you.