“Someone who wants to start a criminal attack will be less likely to do so when he sees someone is openly carrying, so I believe there will be fewer incidents of using a defensive firearm.” – Bryan Hull, founder Oklahoma Open Carry Association, Public Discussions Scheduled For New Oklahoma Open Carry Law [via news9.com]

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46 COMMENTS

  1. Dan, you’ve been posting alot of out-of-date stuff here. This very video was discussed on open carry.org back in early september.

      • Erik: Please, be constructive. Let people put their two cents in where they can. It is so depressing to reply to something and have a “Forum Bigot”, “gun bigot”, or other person talk about how it is “Out of date”… just because it is out of date for you does not mean that it is out of date for others…. your not the only one on the forum… or the only one that is interested. It’s not all about you.

    • I can’t agree more. Most states allow for open carry, but few know about it or bother to exercise that right. This definitely needs to change, but I’m not sure how best to go about it.

      • Well, all we need to do is get Justin Bieber shooting publicly and Stephine Meyer writing a book about a clumsy high school girl falling in love with an undead monster at a gun range and BAM, next generation is on our side.

    • I agree. Not sure I like the idea of open carry, but I certainly like the idea of freedom. It’s not about giving us the right to carry open or concealed, it is about not restricting our already free Rights to keep and bear arms. However, a lot of police officers are killed with their own guns simply because the LLSSM’s (low life scum-sucking maggots) see the threat and make extra plans on how to disarm and take advantage of the officer. It is best that the LLSSM’s simply understand that a bullet could come from anywhere at any time!!! That is a great deterrent.

  4. In most states that allow for open carry you don’t need a license to do so; you can practice the second amendment as a free person; once you get a license to practice a right, you’ve turned it into a privilege and you have acknowleged the state as your master.

    We need more constitutional states where you can OC or CC without any need of a license.

  5. This should have been called “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People”.

    You’ll never make a dent in the population that isn’t creeped out by open carrying of firearms. I think it’s like knives – it’s kind of a given you might have a pocketknife, but who carries them in town, at (office) work, in school for everyone else to see? Weird people.

    Yeah, exceptions abound: ‘authority figures’ (no shortage there), rural areas. This kind of complacency has existed since we moved our borders in from the Atlantic, and danger wasn’t present from the frontier anymore.

    Sorry guy, if the so-suave RF can’t pull it off without scaring the natives, even channeling the mirrored-sunglasses authority look, to hell with this catching on.

    • Open carry isn’t for everyone and that’s fine. Just don’t project your personal fears onto the rest of us.

      I’ve never seen anyone freak out over open carry whether by me or by someone else, and I live in the city.

      • It’s odd to think that the old timers back in the day thought open carry was what honest men did and that concealed carry was for thieves and bad guys. How times change.

    • So Wyatt; you’re saying that you would be willing to turn the most important right into a privilege and become a servant to the state your master because you might make a few people uncomfortable?
      Hey, you’re an American, you can choose to be a servant to the state; me, I choose to be free.

      • When people become uncomfortable, they call the police. And that could ruin your whole day, or at least the next half hour of your life. That’s what happened in San Diego, San Jose and other places in California where it was tried. Three to six police cars would respond to the old MWG calls, and then the games playing would begin, notwithstanding the fact that the only lawful open carry at the time was UNLOADED. Most of the east coast is exactly the same. Same in Milwaukee. Put on a unifom, even just a security guard uniform, and you are good to go. Otherwise, you are an outlier, a threat, a goon. Something to be quashed, arrested, beaten and disarmed. The only thing that is amazing is that so few people got killed, like the guy in Anaheim who was gunned down while holding a BB gun he’d the muzzle, talking to firends in a parking lot. (Of course, the police reports said it was a shotgun and he was waving it around, but you know how that goes….)

        • Exactly what is your point, Mark? Give up all your rights that so many others before you fought and died for and just be content to live your empty life as a slave on your knees?

          Me, I’d rather die on my feet. Your mileage obviously varies.

        • The point, Rob, is simple. The Second is a right to bear arms. It doesn’t say anything about bearing them openly or concealed. The style used to be to carry them openly. Not so any longer.The Second, like any other right, as the Supreme Court has stated, is subject to time place and manner regulations. So all you open carriers just need to get with the times. You can’t roll back the clock a hundred years or more. That’s what the Islamic fundamentalists are trying to do, roll back the clock. It doesn’t work, and it won’t work in the United States absent a massive (and unlikely) re-education campaign to train all citizens in the handling and use of firearms. As long as you have the right to bear arms in some fashion, you are good to go and the intent of the Second Amendment has been satisfied. I’m not giving up any rights by hiding my gun under my shirt, but I am keeping the peace. I see no issue with that.

        • How I carry is not for you to decide and how the 2nd amendment applies to us or it’s intent is not subject to your interpretation.

          My style of carry is my business and not subject to your tastes or delicate fashion senses.

        • Not sure what you mean about the “East” but here in VA OC rights have been hard fought the last few years, so much so that LEOs are few and far between that will risk harassing an OCer just for OCing.

  6. The main thing to remember is this: Guns will not protect you… but you can protect yourself with a gun. I have lots of people that come to my NRA class that have owned one for years. One time a woman came to my class because I gave a special price for “Older Women” to take the class, she brought along a .38 revolver and a box of 9mm ammo. She had these in her closet for years, but had never actually tried to shoot them. She was sure that they would protect her if anyone had tried to get into her home. If we had “No License” “Open Carry” in Texas, I wonder how may people would be carrying a gun that had never fired it or understood how it even worked.

    The number one statement that I get is: “I grew up around guns”… well, I grew up next to an airport, but I can’t fly a plane!!!!

    • I can’t agree with you more, Thomas. Nothing beats practice, practice, practice.

      Btw, I think it’s wonderful you give discounts like that to older women. Anything that gets women of any age more comfortable with guns gets our country just that much safer.

  7. Mrs. Patrick Campbell(1865-1940) said,”I don’t mind where people make love,so long as they don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses.” (Oxford Dictionary of Quotations,p.128)
    I’m sorry, but I see no benefit to open carry. Instead, I only see it as frightening the horses.
    Tactically, it screams two things to criminals, drunks, &idiots:try a gun grab(and don’t try to tell me that you’re never distracted from that possibility in the course of an average day)How many of the open carriers have taken a class to defeat a gun grab OR even carry with holster strap(let alone a true security holster)? Secondly, it screams to any armed bad guy,” Shoot me first!”
    Go ahead. It’s legal. But just because we CAN do something doesn’t mean we should. And don’t think you’re winning friends and influencing people for our cause.

    • Other than the witty quote, every thing you said about open carry is a myth. No one has ever been targeted by a criminal because they open carried.

      If you don’t see the benefit, that’s okay. Just stop ranting on those of us who do.

      • Glad you like the quote, I stole it from Massad Ayoob. As to your assertions though, please consider that before universal issue of Level II&III secrity holsters to police, half of all officers killed by gunfire each year were shot with their own or another cop’s gun.They’re the most open carriers in the world.
        If you don’t have at least a thumbstrap or one of the new locking designs, what happens if you lock up with the bad guy before you draw?What if this happens in Kroger’s and your piece goes skittering across the floor to the crook’s accomplice or a nine year old? Then what if the mugger or an unqualified bystander takes it and it’s Glock or revolver type “point and pull trigger” piece?
        Let’s not forget that 99.9999% of the time we practice self-defense,it’s in reaction to a criminal assault. We start behind the curve of action/reaction.In light of that, the citizen defender’s only tactical advantage is the surprise of the concealed weapon.
        I’m not “ranting” on those who choose this method. I’m just saying that from a tactical, practical, lawyer-riding- on- every- bullet-we send downrange, that certain factors be considered realistically.

        • The difference is we send police into harm’s way so of course they’re more likely to deal with people who would tussle with them and go for their gun.

        • Criminals, by nature, aren’t tactical; they’re opportunists in search of soft, easy targets. Exceptions will occur, but that basic rule still stands.

          The sight of a gun doesn’t automatically make me, or a cop for that matter, a target. Cops go into bad neighborhoods and intervene when and where trouble occurs. That’s what makes them a constant target, not the fact they are openly carrying a gun.

          And don’t worry about my gun. It stays holstered with an active retention system.

      • Actually there have been two documented gun grab attacks (Milwaukee WI a few years ago and Richmond VA last year) on OCers, and possibly more. Still, a factor of two makes for awful slim statistics. More likely to be struck by lightning while eating an apple type slim.

  8. I don’t think I’d ever open carry even if it was legal. But this knee-jerk B.S. reaction so many “second amendment defenders” have to it reminds me of the “OMG BLOOD IN THE STREETS!” hysteria that the antis scream about when concealed carry laws are about to pass.

    • I agree, Michael, and am beginning to wonder whether these people are actually gun-grabbing trolls in disguise.

      When is the last time you’ve ever seen someone who open carries try to bully or shame those who don’t? I’ve personally never seen it happen and wouldn’t tolerate it if I did.

      • Never. i also find it puzzling as to why you guys have to re-normalize something that was normal and acceptable amongst people of the gun for hundreds of years.

        • Apparently those fearfully vocal few temporarily won out over the strong silent types for a spell.

          Thankfully, the times are a changin’ once again.

  9. Unfortunely; there are still some so called “gun guru” who tear up people who OC.; I never understood how anyone can say they support the second amendment and then attack those who can practice it as a right and not as a licensed privilege.

    • It might be because they know they sold thier American birthright of freedom for simply the convenience of carrying a concealed weapon, by becoming a servant to the state.

      So they attack those of us who are still free in the way we practice our rights to make themselves feel better for the choice they made.

    • I’ve seen some of them and I can only surmise that they either harbor some latent gun fears or fear of crowds.

      Or perhaps as you say, they like being slaves and we all know that misery loves company.

      • I did read some interesting ideas by someone on one of the links through here or keepandbeararms that we have become so used to being licensed and regulated that it just frightens people that we can still practice in many states this right without a need of a license, even so called gun right supporters.

        It makes alot of sense, What can we do now adays that doesn’t need some kind of license or permit?

  10. All right, if open carry is such a wonderful thing and so socially acceptable, who can name a major metropolitan area that still permits the open carrying of firearms? Now I am not talking rural areas, but areas with populations of 750,000 or more. You can’t do it in California, New Yor, or New Jersey. Nor Texas either–in fact it is a felony to expose your firearm, as I understand it. Every city in Ohio has sought to ban all handguns, not just openly carried ones. I don’t think Vermont has a major metro area, but you won’t be too popular if you cross over into New Hampshire. I think Denver is out–if I recall, you have to have a CCW, and those are only available to residents. Add in that you can’t openly carry within 1000′ of any school anywhere in the US, and you really start running out of room; most cities have enough schools such that it is mpossible to go from one side of town to the other without locking up your gun, unloaded.

    Politicians get elected by promising the people he will lessen their fear. Fear of crime is always a big seller, and with the dearth of firearms in cities these days, fear of firearms is another. Half the population believes that the average citizen has no legitimate need to carry a firearm, and they will fear you if you do, unless you live in Montana or Arizona. The style these days is concealed carry–it is the least offensive alternate to sensitive soccer moms who worry that their kids will play with guns, and teachers who are afraid kids will play with toy soldiers and finger guns, nerf guns or water pistols. And I don’t think that pushing your guns into someone’s face is going to change any attitudes positively, no matter how nice a person you are. And on top of all that, I think that most owners, given the choice, will carry concealed, something that has become pretty standard over the last hundred years when guns disappeared from city streets.

    • Hampton Roads VA (Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Norfolk, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Hampton, Newport News; “7 cities” metropolitan area) combined 2010 population 1,671,683. Richmond VA including into the state Capitol (with CHP) metropolitan area population 1,258,251. Northern VA metropolitan area approx. 2.4 million.

    • I think that Cali, Chicago, and New York City should be left out of this conversation. 1) the governments in those area’s a MAJORLY Corrupt, 2) Those three area’s don’t live in reality but in a state of denial, 3) Also those area’s don’t allow you to do anything without Uncle Chow looking over your shoulder: they are the closest the US has to communism or a dictatorship in the country. Keep in mind those kind of governments usually end up in bloody revolutions. 4) Also you have to keep in mind that those area’s also have the highest crime rates in the nation. They are perfect examples of when the population is lazy and doesn’t care how they live. I think everyone that lives in those 3 chunks of land should be deported and allow those of us who care for the country to turn them into parks or in/outdoor firing ranges. Jez they are firing ranges now it’s just the population is the targets. Such a waste of good land and cattle…

  11. I live near Seattle, WA where the population is close to 700K and open carry is permitted in every city of our state.

    If you’re afraid of guns, see a therapist. I’m not covering much less disarming for you.

    • And tell me, how often do you open carry in Seattle, and what is the reaction when you do? I can’t believe it is all good. In fact, I’ve seen plenty of comments from others who reside there, and their experience has been quite negative. Are you one of those biker dudes who get a thrill out of shocking/scaring people? Seems like. And when you do open carry, do you respect gun free school zones, or do you think those are a violation of your rights as well and should be ignored, irrespective of the penalty?

  12. I personally live in an open carry state and oddly open carry. The reaction is all over the board and to be honest the people who have the most heartburn about open carry is the very catholic/christians and police. Most everyone else doesn’t really seem to care much. I might get a dirty look for some but that doesn’t mean it’s because I have a gun strapped to my leg, I got those looks before I open carried…LOL Personally I think you should carry what makes you feel the most comfortable. I haven’t had to draw mine outside of the range or when I practice at home with dry fires. I will admit that I also still carry a concealed but that is my back up. Just some facts about a believer in my birth right to defend my self the best way I can oh, and that some old guys many years ago said it was my legal right also… Keep it real and keep it safe…

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