The recent open carry march in Andrews, Texas follows a similar even a month ago. Thanks to two arrests linked to legal open carry, the demonstration doubled in size. No charges have yet been filed against the OC’ers; they remain in legal limbo. James Franklin of the Midlands/Odessa CATI has told me that they’re applying for several more permits for more marches to educate the people of Andrews about their Constitutional rights . . .

Over 80 people participated in the February 15 march, in a small town near the Texas panhandle.

CBS7 News reported on the event locally. James Franklin is the organizer of Midlands/Odessa CATI.

During today’s march, a local restaurant allowed participants to go inside wearing their guns across their backs, drivers honked and waved to show their support as activists walked down Main St.

“We want to establish Texas as a bulwark of freedom to maintain our constitutional rights here in this state, if nowhere else,” Franklin says.

Open carry of long guns has become a popular way to express dissatisfaction with the Texas legislature for not passing an open carry law last year. The law passed the House, but then stalled out.  Texas is only one of five states that ban the open carry of holstered handguns in most public places.

Numerous open carry demonstrations have been held in Arkansas to enforce a change in the law. And settlements have been gained from police departments who abuse open carry rights in Washington, Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and others.

Both of the likely candidates for Texas Governor now support the restoration of legal open carry of handguns in Texas.

California is the only fish swimming against the open carry tide. It banned open carry of even unloaded handguns in 2011 and rifles and shotguns in 2012. Those laws are being challenged in the courts. The ban on open carry resulted in the Ninth Circuit upholding the Second Amendment right to carry handguns outside of the home for self defense.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch

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92 COMMENTS

  1. If they [CA gun grabbers] had only known that banning unloaded open carry would eventually force them to recognize the right to concealed carry. This “backfire” is dripping with irony.

    Rooting for TX on this one.

    • They were actually warned. From several different directions. The shear arrogance and hubris literally knows no bounds.

      Whether its Cuba or North Korea or Syria or California, a one party state can be incredibly dangerous.

      • I hope the open carry cases in CA fail or, rather, get postponed at least long enough that they have to issue a bunch of concealed permits out…

      • You had me at arrogance and hubris. There really is no end to these vices among progressives. No matter how obviously unconstitutional, unworkable, wrong minded and just plain dumb something is, if it fits their view they will follow it to ruin. The question in my mind is how to exploit this trait to lead more of them to ruin, sooner and more surely? I think it is simply in letting them act as badly as they can, to pursue their agenda to the ninth degree and then to follow up with vote outs, recalls and court challenges. I really don’t think they get it, the constitution is the law of the land and attempts at evading it are doomed to failure. The only way to teach a progressive a new trick is to have the new trick be an unequivocal demand from a court with jurisdiction and the power to enforce it or to remove them from power altogether and thus end public concern about what their thoughts might be.

        On the right there are those, (thinking of the Christian coalition here) who have been painted as inflexible demagogues, but if you wish to observe the high alter of fanaticism, dogmatism and slavish devotion to ideology one has to look to the left. The mantra for most of my life from the left, increasing in frequency and volume over the years is ban guns and take the money people worked for and give it to people who don’t work. Lately it’s becoming ‘government will handle it’ as if government ever handled anything well in the first place.

        I’ll show how radical I am by saying the following: Government out to be concerned with international trade, national defense, immigration and not much of anything else. This unwieldy leviathan we have now is a serious detriment to liberty and a threat to what little remains.

        Going out on a limb here and at risk of sounding like a nut job, I’m fearful every day that my government will make me a de facto felon for possessing certain types of arms. They will most assuredly come first for the very arms that are necessary and conducive to resistance to governmental tyranny. I cannot, in good conscience surrender those arms. I believe in the constitution and that a right unexercised is a right lost. I believe that we the people are supposed to hold all the power and only lend a portion of it to the federal government. I believe it is my right and duty as a citizen of a free nation to resist tyranny when I identify it. I also know I’ll likely die a violent death shortly after I resist the confiscation of my arms.

        I don’t want to die a violent death, and I don’t want to die young. However, I’m more willing to die that to give up the last bastion of freedom in a country that is supposed to be free.

        These civilian disarmament types and anti-gun politicians are missing something very important I think; They aren’t willing to die to rid the country of guns, but more than a few of us are willing to die to make sure that never happens.

        When I hear someone speak out about banning guns I hear something they aren’t saying or don’t even know: I hear “I’m willing to have lots of you, and lots of cops and soldiers, die in order that there be no guns”.

        The door to door confiscation of firearms in the US would claim more lives that the murder rate with firearms would in 1000 years.

        What I hear when someone says ‘ban guns’ is ‘I want every police officer and soldier to have to make the wrenching decision whether to obey commands that are unjust or defect and fight against their fellows.’

        I don’t think the antis even begin to understand the commitment some of us have to the constitution, to liberty and to arms as a demonstration of liberty, as a bulwark against tyranny and as a final resort in the event of tyranny.

        They say it’s hopeless, that the citizenry can’t fight the central government. I say that defies the reality demonstrated in 100 places. That in Iran a popular movement unseated the government, that in Egypt it happen twice in as many years, that it happened in Libya and it’s happening in Syria and Ukraine as we speak. I say it happened when the first Americans threw off British tyranny, that it happened when the IRA rebuked the Brits there and that it can and will happen here if the situation reaches a point where it’s necessary.

        Then I say that we are better armed and provisioned that the angry students in 1970s Iran, better armed and provisioned that the revolutionaries in Libya and Ukraine and that shortly after the outbreak of open hostilities we’d be better armed than the rebels in Syria.

        How anyone could say that a force at least as determined, better armed and more numerous could fail where less determined, poorly armed and less numerous forces prevailed is beyond comprehension. It sounds a lot like the typical progressive ignorance of facts and reality.

        Am I willing to stand down a SWAT team assembled at my door for the unlawful, unconstitutional and unconscionable confiscation of my guns. alone and with the full knowledge that I wont survive the conflict? Yes! I believe that every blow struck counts for something and that one less warm body willing to tread on our liberties and rights is ever a good thing. I’d suffer my own dying after the best defense I could arrange and die knowing that I thinned the ranks of the oppressors and made them think twice about attacking the next citizen.

        Would I leave my job and family to organize with others who intended to resist confiscation of their arms? If we could (and we could) figure out how to support ourselves I’d join in a heart beat and consider it a solemn duty to liberty and my fellow man. I’d lend not only my rifle and the skills that come with it but the skills I leaned as a child on a farm, and the skills that I’ve learned in the corporate world about organization and management. I’m certain we could make it work just as I’m sure I would not be the only smart, trained, educated and talented individual in the group. Like everything else Americans undertake, we’d find a way to make it work.

        I know this freaks progressive completely out but I really would rather die fighting than accept tyranny and I know I’m not the only one.

  2. Don’t count on Wendy Davis to uphold any of her suddenly pro-2A statements on the extremely slim chance that she’s actually elected. She’s as anti-2A as any progressive liberal.

    If we finally get open carry in Texas it will be because of Abbott.

    • Good luck there, Texas doesn’t seem like Texas without at least some carrying their shootin iron on their hip.

    • Comments and their replies tend to get washed out the bottom of the page here, so I don’t know if there has been any response to my queries of last week –

      Since it is (technically) legal in Texas to open carry an antique black powder pistol, is it possible/legal to do so while at the same time carrying a modern pistol concealed, assuming you have the necessary (but unconstitutional) permit for CCW?

      • I believe it is legal to do so. If you are able to legally carry the concealed pistol, and legally able to carry the openly carried black powder pistol, I do not see how the combination would make the actions illegal.

        Remember, if it is not forbidden, it is legal.

        We do not live in a society where everything is forbidden unless allowed, though it seems that some people want to turn us into that sort of state.

    • Kevin,

      That happened in March of 2013. The armed citizen is suing the police department and the City for something like $600,000 for deprivation of civil rights. The armed citizen is definitely going to collect. The only question is how much.

    • I’m glad we don’t have to deal with reich marshal doright. Milwaukee has great cops, there can be a somewhat beligerant one to the north though.

  4. Yawn… I am sick of these OPEN CARRY folks…. Go to YouTube and look for the idiots who purposefully bait Cops by conspicuous OPEN CARRY, then video tape their rants against the Cops, to post it on line. They are doing it for attention, nothing noble or patriotic about it. They are mostly immature folks with nothing to do but taunt people. Show me the part of the US Constitution that says you have a right to OPEN CARRY at Wal-Mart, Shopping Malls or any public place. You don’t see it.

      • Some of these open carry people are undoubtedly narcissists looking for their 15 minutes of YouTube fame, but many of them are willing to risk arrest and worse abuse, even up to being shot dead, by out of control police who believe they can rescind our Second Amendment rights simply by being bullies we do not believe we can defeat or are not willing to confront.

        If this makes you uncomfortable, DO NOT JOIN THEM. Meanwhile they are willing to man the barricades to protect you rights and mine while we take this less hazardous flanking move through the blog-o-sphere.

        And the full pull-quote is this: “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

        If the government or its authorities are allowed to decided when, where, how, and what kind of arms you can bear, your rights (and mine) have been infringed. This and the illegal attempts by local law enforcement officials to intimidate otherwise law-abiding citizens into not exercising their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms is what the Open Carry movement is all about, not the self-aggrandizement of a few yahoos.

        Go for it, all you OC guys, you got more balls than most of us, or maybe less to lose.

    • Inconspicuous open carry is called concealed carry. It’s kind of hard to open carry without being conspicuous.

      • Not entirely true. Walking in the woods with a revolver in a holster is a lot less conspicuous than walking through a city with an AR. Because of folks doing the latter, laws get passed that cover the former.

        • Now you’re talking ‘if a tree falls in the forest’ philosophy. Just because fewer people are around to see the gun on your hip doesn’t make it less conspicuous.

    • Umm…the whole “right to keep and bear arms” thing?

      That being said, Walmart is within it’s rights to say “no weapons here”. But Walmart doesn’t. At least not in my area. So…

    • I’m sick of narrowminded FUDDs who are against open carry.

      Think about it, if you’re carrying in a shoulder holster and the wind flaps your sports coat open, you’re open carrying. If the butt of your pistol is visible, you’re open carrying.

      Shall not be infringed means shall not be infringed, whether it be open carry, concealed carry, or full autos.

    • Yeah, it kinda is. Thing is, it was so ingrained that someone going about armed might get noticed for their state of dress or hair colour, but the gun was beneath notice.

      Granted, the right has been there from day zero to bar armed persons from private property, but almost noone actually did that until much more recently.

      Time was, if a guy had a gun or two in the store, if one noticed ’em at all it’d be to ask if they needed supplies. It would be assumed that they would be using ’em somewhere.

      RKBA and uninfringed. That’s exactly what it means.

      • +1. I just read yesterday that Col. Townsend Whelen got a miner’s license in Canada around 1900 and he could hunt all the game he could eat. Even with the license, that’s a lot of open carrying and hunting freedom.

        Imagine doing that today and the game wardens will be all over you.

        • Alaska is still that way, for the most part; the Northwest Territories are also a tidge older fashioned than, say, Montreal or Ottawa.

    • It’s called the Bill of Rights, it’s the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. That’s where you find it.

    • Show me the part of the Constitution that says you have the right to express yourself freely over the Internet.

      • 1A: freedom of speech and written communication, so long as it is not used in a perfidious manner.

        The internet is an open communication medium, and thus subject to 1A.

        In the same way that 2A applies to modern weapons which are in common use, so does 1A apply to modern forms of communication.

        Shouldn’t you be lurking under a bridge somewhere and terrorizing ruminants? Or we’re you simply snarking gmk, which is certainly understandable.

      • People like greg probably only believe you have the right to free speech in the privacy of your home or in the woods but certainly not in public where everyone can hear you and if you do you should have to get a govt permit to speak freely but only after taking a govt mandated course on proper and politically correct speech.

    • You have to actually read the Constitution to see it. It talks about freedom from the govt, the right to keep and bear arms (it doesn’t specify how) it just says that doing it shall not be infringed. It doesn’t say where it just says it shall not be infringed. If a privately owned business wants to ban firearms from their business that is also their right. But the RKBA outlined in 2A is specifically meant to be in the public not just privately in your home, otherwise what good would it be.

    • The Second Amendment is not about what you’re sick of. Or not sick of.

      DEAL WITH IT. Or join the banners, where you seem to have kindred spirits.

    • The fudd is strong with this one.

      Open carry is fantastic because it affords more liberty for self defense and removed paranoia from gun imprinting or accidental ccw slips.

    • Being proud of our Constitution & heritage is baiting cops? I see you just took a cursory run at the thread on mental health, perhaps you didn’t even read it. Your bradyisms are real droll.

      • I think in these cases it is not so much “baiting” cops (in general), it is more like the sting operations cops run every day all over the country.

        They set up some low-hanging but illegal fruit and wait for some punk to bite, then bust him and run him through the system.

        Open Carriers sling a perfectly legal rifle on their backs and walk where it is legal to carry such a rifle for the specific purpose of running a sting on cops who are ready and willing to over-step their legal authority for the sole purpose of harassing and intimidating the OC’er.

        Pretty sure honest cops or LEOs who know and understand the law do not get much You Tube play since they treat the situation reasonably and with courtesy. It’s only the bad apples that get infamous.

    • I was out tonight open carrying my firearm tonight at a restaurant in Delaware with roughly two dozen open carriers this evening. There were no incidents. There were no police that showed up. We were able to educate a few folks and inform them that open carry is perfectly legal. The restaurant was happy to have our business. We all had a great time.

      We are the people who normalize carrying guns, because they are visible.

      We are the people who show that folks who carry guns are just ordinary men and women who have taken on the responsibility of protecting themselves.

      We are the people who are not afraid to show our guns in public and educate the public.

      We are the people who are willing to deal with the unjust police harassment, and force police officers to become aware of the fact that carrying a firearm is legal.

      We are not going away. You can take your FUDDiness and shove it. Somewhere … that I won’t speak of.

      We are the front line of firearms carry, and proud of it.

      • Thank you for what your doing I am also doing it here in Nevada to get people used to it. Working on a concealed carry permit But I will still open carry.

  5. Here in Florida I’ve heard some small stories of people open carry protesting by using a loophole that as long as they are doing something recreational they are doing so legally. So you see people with rifles on their backs carrying fishing poles and stuff.

    • I always have a gun on me while I fish up here in Flagler. Place I fish is actually part of a city park/walking path system, with a playground right there. In the last two months or so I’ve only encountered cops twice, one was just making her rounds and while the other came to check me out (damnyankee called him) he was borderline apologetic for bothering me.

      Honestly, I’ve found open carry a refreshing experience. I’ve had a lot of people approach me just to ask about it. Most are folks who are looking at getting themselves a gun and are curious about the process and laws involved in buying one, and I’m more than happy to help with their misinformation problem. If you fish, try it sometime, you’d be surprised.

      One of these days, I want to hit FL Carry up and see if they’d sponsor an OC fishing tournament. That would be awesome.

  6. How is NJ open carry? I’ve never seeN Anyone but cops carry and I have only ever seen one concealed carrier.

    • It’s permit carry and basically if you can carry concealed you can carry openly, and that’s really it. That’s why you never see it there, hence the lawsuit.

  7. Wendy Davis (or any democrat) will say what she thinks will pander to get another vote. Dems aren’t going to NOT vote for her, and no one will remind her about it if she wins. She came out as supporting the law she filibustered, and has said she is pro life.

  8. That map is a joke. Open carry is legal with a permit in MA, NJ, and CT? Yeah, if you’re one of the connected few that can get a permit in those states.

    • Mass and CT issue by town. Some towns are shall issue, and Boston is basically no issue. The LTC is may issue by statute. Technically, the Mass LTC allows open carry, however it’s not usually practiced by permit holders because of the whole liberal panicky attitude towards guns. That and some “Boston Strong” cops might go ballistic.

      For more information, contact GOAL.

      http://www.goal.org

    • Also, Open Carry may be technically legal in Washington state, but except in rural areas the general policy of most city police is to harass you about it right up to the very limits of legality in an effort to make the exercise of the right so onerous that no one wants the hassle.

      As part of the official Seattle police policy letter if they receive any report of open carry they must investigate and while they are investigating you are required to surrender your pistol to the investigating officer. It will be returned when and if the investigation concludes, assuming they have not found some other reason to detain or arrest you in the meantime. Kind of puts a chill on the whole open carry thing and makes a mockery of the state law of preempting local government gun control.

      • Seattle PD are mostly dicks about OC, I think that’s largely because that’s how the Mayor wants them to be. If anyone is interested in setting up a legal challenge and scoring some settlement cash, I’d say they’re ripe for the picking.

        Cops outside of the Seattle city limits are a lot cooler about open carry. I’ve personally talked to Federal Way PD about this. After an incident a few years back (involving a cop who was originally trained in California) they all get training specifically about how OC is legal in WA and what they can and can not do when they encounter someone openly carrying.

        • As a Californian, I would like to apologize for all the lousy transplants that move up there. Even a parasite knows when the host is dying, watch out border states, they are comming.

      • Not at all; I’m a native Californian, lived in Hawaii, Texas and Colorado – along with considerable time spent working overseas on every kind of land and on ships.

        I moved here for love, and have come to love the land as well – not more than more featureful places, but certainly as much.

        However, when it comes to laws this is an unusually decent place.

    • Very few people on this board are anti-open-carry.

      We’re just not particularly gruntled by folks trying it as “shock therapy” on their communities or getting their jollies by playing Freak the Mundanes.

      Attention whores are the pawns of the enemy.

    • Some people are still bitter about the backlash open carriers caused in CA which led to the outlaw of all open carry. Certainly an open carrier has the potential to hurt the cause of gun rights, but on the whole they seem to be helping. Even from anti gun types I’ve been hearing/reading comments along the lines of “oh THOSE idiots, they carry guns openly as some sort of silly protest” instead of “OMFG PEOPLE ARE CARRYING GUNS, CALL THE NATIONAL GUARD, THE END IS COMING!”

  11. Can someone explain to me the rationale for choosing some hole in the wall town for these events? They’ve done them in Austin, and I’m sure other large cities, but it always seems they pick tiny towns who are more likely to support their shenanigans. (And, for the record, I support the option of open carry but think most of the OC crowd is going about it the wrong way.)

    • Shenanigans? Holding a legal, permitted, peaceful public rally is shenanigans?

      Who cares where they do it so long as it gets positive (or at least not negative) news coverage.

      At the very least, these folks are slamming the lie of “gun owners are violent nutjobs” by showing folks gun != trouble every time one is seen. Good for ’em.

    • In this case, I think the previous unlawful arrests in the town are at least part of the impetus for the march.

  12. I’m not anti-open carry, (and as a NY-er, I have a ways to go before its a problem I have to worry about personally,) but I do wonder sometimes if it helps pro-gunners or anti-gunners more. A rally like this is hard to argue with; people can see that the open carriers are part of a rally, and know that they’re not in danger. As such, they may decide to engage in discussion, and may learn something beneficial. But say you’re a non-gun-owning regular guy, never really gave much thought to the second amendment, and what you know about guns comes from the CBS nightly news. You’re in the mall and a guy walks in, by himself, with one of these scary black guns! Are you going to want to go introduce yourself and talk about gun rights? Hell no, you’re going to, at the LEAST, keep a sharp eye on this ‘lunatic’ carrying an assault rifle into a public place, maybe you call 911 or security, and when you go home, you tell your sweetie about the crazy guy at the mall. And you buy into the hype about those evil black guns just a little more.

    I know I’m gonna get ripped on for this. (“Screw you, I’d NEVER be that much of a pussy!” Fine, you have the biggest nards in town, now shut up…) I certainly don’t think that people shouldn’t be allowed to open carry. (SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.) I just think, as gun owners, we should be mindful of the state of our community vis-a-vis their comfort level with guns and tailor our activism accordingly. “Screw that, we should be able to open carry anywhere and people should be okay with it!” Well, yes. But some people aren’t. I live in a suburb of Buffalo NY. If I walked down main street with a pellet gun on my back, I wouldn’t make it halfway before five-oh showed up. I hope someday NY, and all of America, gets to that point where if a citizen wants to carry openly he can, and his friends and neighbors will not be alarmed. But the way to do that is to help people to find that acceptance themselves, not to force it down their throats.

    • You’re in the mall and a guy walks in, by himself, with one of these scary black guns! Are you going to want to go introduce yourself and talk about gun rights? Hell no, you’re going to, at the LEAST, keep a sharp eye on this ‘lunatic’ carrying an assault rifle into a public place, maybe you call 911 or security, and when you go home, you tell your sweetie about the crazy guy at the mall. And you buy into the hype about those evil black guns just a little more.
      ——————————-

      That may be your reaction the first time, because people don’t tend to do well when encountering something new, but after the 50th time, you wouldn’t even notice.

      First time an aunt of mine saw a White person and Black person eating together in a public restaurant, she had a fit. She couldn’t imagine that anyone would do such a thing. She voted for Obama.

      Changing norms requires someone to go first, the first open carriers will receive blow back, but it will change the norm.

      • I just might. Conversing with such an individual might help determine what his intent is. If he turns out to be a violent weirdo I want to take the length of his rifle and be closer than that.

      • I don’t think walking around the mall by yourself with a rifle is that great of an idea. Only protesters and killers would do that, because there’s really not much other reason to do so. That gives onlookers only two extreme possible outcomes: nothing and death, depending on what the rifle toter was up to. No wonder they call the cops to check it out. Plus, it gives everyone a chance to be the big hero without doing anything more difficult or dangerous than dialing 911 from a safe distance.

        Now, peaceful, armed, organized marches are another story. I’d be all for national Gun Pride Parades being held annually everywhere. Even three guys sitting outside of a Starbucks, enjoy their drinks, with their rifles at their sides, isn’t that big of a deal. After all, while not unheard of, team spree killers are extremely rare among already extremely rare spree killing events.

        I get the whole in-your-face approach. It does serve a purpose, namely of publicizing that open carry is even a real thing, which many people only first learn by way of these videos. In the long run, though, more mainstream tactics will probably win the day. Including the above, those would include old fashioned pressuring of politicians.

    • “I do wonder sometimes if it helps pro-gunners or anti-gunners more.”

      Since our entire focus is on reversing the erosion of our natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, we MUST at some point be willing to stand up and say “this is who we are, this is what we believe.”

      What we do is less important than what we are unwilling to do. What we do CANNOT help the anti-Second Amendment groups since they have NO LEGAL STANDING – everything they propose is a violation of the Second Amendment RKBA and no matter their rhetoric they have only one option – amend the Constitution. Any other law, regulation or Executive Order is null and void and if we had a SCOTUS with balls this would have been decided long ago.

      Open Carry is Americans standing up and saying, “The Constitution means what it says and we are willing to fight for our rights!”

    • I don’t know, man, but I think there’s a LOT more to do with it than just “he has a rifle.”

      Is it slung, muzzle down, on his back? Or, is it in his hands?

      What’s his demeanor? What is his body language saying?

      Can’t say I’d ignore a dude with a rifle in the mall, but nor do I think would I knee-jerk deep into Condition Red on that basis alone.

      That’s the difference between someone around guns a lot and someone that is just ignorant about them. It’s not the GUN that is a danger. It’s the human mind wielding it.

      • I EDC a brace of pistols and I’m a gun guy going way back, I even have an affinity for military rifles but I would definitely notice a guy at the mall with a rifle and at first I wouldn’t be comfortable.
        Then common sense kicks in and just as you say JR I’m going to, because he’s on my radar, start noticing his demeanor and body language. If he’s just browsing merchandise or meandering around like the rest of the crowd then he falls off the radar, it’s just some guy with a rifle not a threat.

        I noticed a guy at Wal-Mart the other day, big and tall with a very obviously open carried full size Glock in a holster on his belt. I even spoke to him briefly about how cute the baby ways he had in his cart. Neither of us mentioned his rather obvious pistol. A few minutes later I mentioned to my girl friend that the man open carrying and no one freaking out made me feel more comfortable about concealed carrying. She said ‘what man open carrying’. She had literally been within feet of him, spoken to him and somehow never registered the gun.

        That’s the point of open carry, to eventually alter the social and legal landscape to the point that no one even notices.

        Personally I prefer to conceal my pistols most of the time. It’s mostly a social decision, I prefer my contact with others to be about ideas, not about my gun. It’s partially a fashion issue, its fairly difficult to open carry a pistol wearing a suit as I do to work. It’s partially a tactical decision, I’d rather surprise the BG with the gun.

        However I appreciate the open carriers and the events and attention they are willing to face. If my pistols show I’d rather that people didn’t react at all than have to have a conversation with an unfriendly police officer or instigate a lock down somewhere. Open carry forces citizens and police alike to confront the fact that bearing arms is a legal thing to do, and something that ordinary people do all the time for no malicious reason. I like the idea that if I decide to take my jacket off I’m not breaking the law. I like the idea that if the wind blows my coat open I’m not breaking the law. I like the idea that in either of these events the people around me don’t panic.

        Anyone who is concerned about OC’rs causing carry laws to be changed is a fool. Either you have the right to open carry or you do not. If you have the right on paper but it’s going to be taken away if you actually use it then you have no right at all, you have a murky pit that will eventually get you in trouble. The OC’rs force the issue under scrutiny; They are obviously carrying a gun with the expressed purpose of ensuring that it’s legal to do so. I prefer that to some concept that it might be legal but you’d better not try it.

  13. I wish people would stop claiming that Massachusetts is an open carry state. It is not. Even if you have an unrestricted lic you can be charged with brandishing. The CLEO can yank your permit for whatever reason the like. There was a kid who had his FID taken away because the LEO though he was not responsible because he hung out with people underage. http://comm2a.org/images/cases/Plouffe_Complaint.pdf Another case had a non-resident ltc that had his permit yanked because he went to the doctors office and they called the cops on hims because they were “scared”. There is no open carry in MA. Do it and you could be charged, you will loose your lic if the CLEO even hears about you doing it.

    • I think the confusion arises because there is no specific section in MA firearms law that denies open carry at STATE level. So whoever makes up these infographics uses that as a basis without realizing their mistake. I clearly remember signing a statement saying I was informed that open carry is not allowed in West Springfield, MA when I picked up my license. I would imagine every town and city has a similar provision, but with the patchwork that we have, it’s hard to keep track.

  14. Why is this even a problem in Texas?

    Seriously… are Texans supportive of you owning a rifle and using a rifle, but they’re afraid of you walking down the sidewalk with a rifle?

    And what’s the issue with Open Carry?
    And why are your permits so difficult to obtain? Are you guys OK with some of the people who may have the most need of a defensive weapon not being able to afford a permit?

    If Vermont can get away with Constitutional Carry, then for the love of all that is good and right on this earth, Texas should be able to.
    You guys paint your state as bulwark against further infringements, so live up to it.

    • Texas is, it would seem, in the middle of a common “liberalization cycle.” It’s happened before. Hell, it’s happening now in other places. A “rough” portion of the country is settled by hard, freedom loving people. Once the nasty work of civilization building is done, progressive liberals swoop in because it’s so much nicer than where they came from. The bad part is they don’t make the connection that it was messed up liberal policies that ruined the original place, so they bring those same ideas with them.

      Unfortunately I can’t find a historical precedent for the “old” place righting itself after the liberal exodus….

      • Before Texas lawmakers legalized CCW with a permit after the mass shooting at Luby’s Cafe (around 1995 I think), Texas didn’t even have that. It had been that way for decades.

        You can blame some things on floods of new people, but this problem existed before Texas started turning purple.

  15. Sorry Mr. wiengarten but Mississippi is not a licensed open carry state , you do not need a license to open carry , you do need a license to ccw . I live here I know , the law . Be prepared and ready. Keep your powder dry.

  16. I’m not sure how accurate the map is in this post. Here in Missouri if you think you can just stroll around open carrying you will have a rude awakening in our two largest cities and metropolitan areas, depending on the exact community you are in.

    • It might be orange (“Friendly”) for reasons similar to Colorado. That is, state law generally allows it, but local jurisdictions can prohibit it.

      (Though, in Colorado, the court case that decided that Denver can prohibit public open carry only applied to the City and County of Denver. Except for Denver, Colorado is yellow (“Gold Star”).)

  18. North Carolina: try open carry in any decent size city OR town. There is a law concerning “going about to the terror of the people” and the local judge decides if you broke the law.

    Even gun rights groups in NC advise against open carry in most of NC. Rural areas you may be okay.

    The map is wrong. Also, in NC, for a conceal carry you pay over $100., photo and fingerprinted and they check for mental issues. Not really that gun friendly. If you don’t have a CHP, and you want to apply for a handgun to buy one, same process, NICS check and a letter from the local sherif gets you the authority to buy one handgun. Takes ~ 1-2 months near Charlotte.

    There are more ranges (outside) near Buffalo, NY than there are around Charlotte, Nc and the surrounding areas.

  19. As long as the El Paso area keeps Rep. Joe Picket in office OC in TX will never get out of committee. OC has died in the same committee in the last two sessions. We need to strongly urge Rep. Picket to let OC out of committee and onto the House floor for a vote.

  20. Pickett is the problem in Texas. I think even Perry would have signed it if it had made it through last time. I wrote a letter to my senator (Hancock) to make sure he wasn’t chosen again, but to no avail.
    On another note the OC group has been in Keller and Downtown Dallas lately and has had good (relative) press on it. Lots of horn honking and thumbs up in the area. No police issues that I saw either.

  21. This map probably should be revised. Mississippi is now an Open carry friendly state. There is no permit requirement for open carry any longer.

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