Author Topic: Why do you open carry?  (Read 10965 times)

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Offline TheQ

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Why do you open carry?
« on: September 02, 2012, 03:15:06 PM »
Why do you Open Carry?

Quote
by Phillip Hofmeister
President of Michigan Open Carry, Inc.
Sept. 2, 2012

There has been something eating at me for a while: a certain minority who seems to have a much more than proportionate amount of attention drawn to them while they are carrying.  I have to ask myself, why do the people in this small minority get so much attention?  I'm left to think about one possible reason: they are seeking the attention.

First, I agree that if it is legal, every open carrier should carry a voice recorder with them.  I prefer ones attached to a smart phone that upload the video in real time to the Internet in a way they cannot be deleted from the Internet via the phone.  You just never know when you'll have an encounter that it'll be worth while documenting evidence.  I also think people should have a recorder "always running" (maybe one that doesn't live link to the Internet -- that would drain a battery quickly!) so they can have documentation of what happened before they turned their live-upload recorder on.  Some would suggest that if you carry a recording device while open carrying, you're (100%, no exception) just looking for confrontation.  I reject that suggestion entirely.  In fact, I think the vast majority of people who are carrying recording devices are just going about their daily lives, no seeking any confrontation.  Now back to my original question: why do you open carry?

Here are a few reasons people might carry openly:

1. Self-defense.  They believe there is a tactical advantage to open carry and that amongst those advantages are: a visual deterrent and a faster draw.  Great!  Carry on and defend yourself and those you love, I am with you!

2. Activism/Political Statement.  These people believe that a "right not exercised is a right lost".  They also believe that because they carry openly they have opportunities to talk to others (when approached) in a calm, friendly, professional way about why they carry a gun.  These conversations help others better understand their rights and promote the second amendment in a positive way.  Ryan Ransom, Treasurer and SW Coordinator of Michigan Open Carry, Inc. has performed an experiment with a friend who asked him why he open carries.  They were hanging out together on that day.  Ryan said for the first half of the day he will conceal carry and at noon he will start open carrying.  Their morning went by completely uneventful.  No one talked to them other than small talk pleasantries in passing.  After noon, when Ryan started to carry openly, there were occasions where people approached Ryan and asked about his gun, why he carries, and Ryan gave them information about their rights and why they should consider carrying to protect themselves and those they love.  These such encounters are almost entirely positive with very few exception.

3. You are carrying because you are seeking attention (often negative) from law enforcement officer (LEO) and/or private persons.  Some things that may contribute to the type of encounters you get are: how you dress, what you carry, how you present yourself, your general attitude when approached.  I'm not suggesting you should be submissive and forfeit any of your rights when approached by a LEO.  That being said, if when you talk to a person (LEO or otherwise) you seem to have a chip on your shoulder -- it's going to drastically shape the nature of the encounter!  Last night I went walking downtown Lansing while Openly Carrying.  I like to get out and walk and sometime I like to go downtown to see how the night life is.  Despite the fact of many inebriated persons, I had not one negative encounter.  Several people did notice I was carrying and had pleasant conversations with me.  Most were curious and they left their encounter with me more educated about Open Carry than when they started it -- much like Ryan's experiences in #2 above.  Not a single negative encounter -- despite a very large presence of law enforcement (as you would expect in a place where you have hundreds of drunks of the streets).  I have found if you look like a respectable, approachable person that people might want to talk to (gun aside) that you will have positive encounters.  If you look or act like a thug who people might want to avoid and you are carrying a gun, you're more likely to have negative encounters and have 9-1-1 called on you.  I think if you carry for the purpose of seeking negative attention, you're likely to find it.

So, if you are in fact openly carrying to seek personal attention, show that you have a chip on your shoulder, and just foaming at the mouth to have a negative encounter so you can post it on YouTube, let me ask you this: don't Open Carry -- you give the rest of us a bad name.

That all being said, I hope we can all rally behind #1 and #2 above as reasons that Open Carry is a good thing.  Our goal in open carrying shouldn't be to shock people or grab negative attention, but to leave
them thinking better about gun owners than before they saw us.

 

/s/

Phillip Hofmeister
I Am Not A Lawyer (nor a gunsmith).

Offline ken243

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2012, 06:51:22 PM »
I used to conceal carry but I "came out of the closet" in 2010.  ;D

1. More comfortable.
2. No worries about making sure my pistol is covered.
3. Speed advantage in presentation to a threat.
4. Threat deterrent.
5. A right not exercised is a right lost.
6. Can only open carry in some places I go.
Common sense, isn't.
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Offline Shadow Bear

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2012, 07:51:20 PM »
I used to conceal carry but I "came out of the closet" in 2010.  ;D

1. More comfortable.
2. No worries about making sure my pistol is covered.
3. Speed advantage in presentation to a threat.
4. Threat deterrent.
5. A right not exercised is a right lost.
6. Can only open carry in some places I go.

Yeah, that!
Its not GUN rights, its HUMAN rights.

Offline wardog6t

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2012, 10:01:41 PM »
I used to conceal carry but I "came out of the closet" in 2010.  ;D

1. More comfortable.
2. No worries about making sure my pistol is covered.
3. Speed advantage in presentation to a threat.
4. Threat deterrent.
5. A right not exercised is a right lost.
6. Can only conceal carry in some places I go.
7. Because I can.

+1
"Any day you don't hear a "POP" and "WHIZ" is a Wonderful day....."

Offline TheQ

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2012, 10:05:20 PM »
7. Because I can.

+1

I've heard someone else use that reason before.  He was a young man, about 19 years old (I think he's 20 by now)....
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Offline wardog6t

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2012, 10:48:58 PM »
I've heard someone else use that reason before.  He was a young man, about 19 years old (I think he's 20 by now)....

LOL well I'm a little older then 20...
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Offline CV67PAT

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2012, 12:27:11 AM »
Convenience. I don't dress around my gun. So when I am wearing t-shirts and jeans (almost always) I am open carrying.
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Offline JSteinmetz

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2012, 09:10:09 AM »
Convenience. I don't dress around my gun. So when I am wearing t-shirts and jeans (almost always) I am open carrying.

This.  Honestly, I CC at work most of the time, but OC almost everywhere else.  (At least in the summer - in the winter it will change.)
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Offline rampage537

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Re: Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2012, 08:58:22 PM »
I used to conceal carry but I "came out of the closet" in 2010.  ;D

1. More comfortable.
2. No worries about making sure my pistol is covered.
3. Speed advantage in presentation to a threat.
4. Threat deterrent.
5. A right not exercised is a right lost.
6. Can only open carry in some places I go.

I totally agree with the list above but would have to put personal protection number 1.
The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard, against the tyranny which now appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be always possible. Hubert H. Humphrey, Senator, Vice President, 22 October 1959

Offline Scotchman

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #9 on: September 04, 2012, 10:19:09 AM »
I Carry because I should. As a christian - Jesus commanded it!

I Concealed for 6 years before I finally got the courage and learned the benefits of OC.

Now that is about all I do!

thanks guys and gals...
Luke 22:36 * [Jesus said] ... and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

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Offline gryphon

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2012, 11:24:54 PM »
Why I Open Carry a Firearm
by Dan Griffin

Quite simply it is for comfort, convenience, deterrence, and activism—to normalize it among the general populace.

In their March 1963 issue, Reader’s Digest printed a story about a black man who was admitted to the Arkansas School of Law in 1949.  The Dean set him up with a room in the basement in which to stay between classes.  The Dean ordered law library books delivered to him, commanded him to not wander around campus, and mapped out a back route for him to strictly follow to get in and out of his basement hideaway.  Out of sight, out of mind, keep the peace.  Hide yourself from others.

He could have chosen to attend a law school in the north where he wouldn’t have to live like a pariah, but he didn’t.  His and his father’s belief was that segregation wouldn’t end until beachheads were opened wherever it existed.  What he was doing was legal, yet he and his legal activities were looked down upon.  Even his fellow blacks disapproved of what he was doing and avoided him.  They thought he walked a knife edge and they didn’t want to be around him.  He was harassed and threatened, yet he tried to maintain the correct temperament and persisted, year after year. 

One day he was invited to a meeting of fellow travelers, people who in theory should have been supportive.  They asked what they could do.  He told them they could treat him normal, like everyone else.  He expanded on that, and afterward there was acceptance with them.  Over time a slight thaw began to take place with others at the university.  He still experienced fear and hate, but slowly, little by little, the general populace began to accept him.

By his last year he had been asked to write for the Law Review.  The faculty chose him to be a moot court defense attorney, and his Law Review colleagues picked him as comments editor.  At the end of the year the distinguished alumni returned for a faculty banquet that included a salute to the Law Review staff.  He was the last to be introduced.  The Law Review editors stood and applauded.  Then the faculty stood up and added to the cheers and applause.  Then the alumni stood, the judges, lawyers, and politicians from the Deep South.  The ovation became thunderous.

Let’s take that story and substitute the open firearms carrier for the black man, our everyday surroundings for the Arkansas School of Law, and all the other people we encounter in our everyday life who look askance at or fear gun-owners in general and open carriers in particular for the other students.  The other blacks that shunned him for being too prominent are now fellow gun-owners that believe the open carrying of a firearm is just asking for trouble.  The fellow travelers are ones who claim to represent and defend liberty and freedom, yet are still standoffish.  And although not brought out in this particular story, law enforcement will sometimes mistreat each for perfectly legal activities.

People who choose to carry their firearms openly sometimes suffer ostracism from society, as did this black student.  Don't misunderstand, I don't mean to equate the two, for they are not equal.  They do not have the same gravity.  They do not have the same milieu.  They do not have the same consequences.  One is chosen, one is not.  Yet a parallel can still be drawn, and with the right attitude and persistence maybe—just maybe—we can turn people’s minds around on the idea of open carrying for self-defense, just as that young black man did on the campus of the Arkansas School of Law, and it will one day receive widespread social acceptance.  Some may never accept the open carry of firearms—or for that matter the concealed carry of firearms or the civilian ownership of firearms in general—just as today, 60 years later, some still do not accept blacks.  But with the right attitude and persistence one day most will.

Oh, the open carrier, I mean, the black student’s name was George Haley.  He became a respected attorney, Deputy City Attorney, diplomat, and policy expert.  He helped found a number of business firms and was Vice President of the state Young Republicans.  He served in national administrations under Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush.  You might have heard of his brother, Alex Haley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
« Last Edit: September 13, 2012, 03:29:09 AM by gryphon »

Offline TucTom

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #11 on: September 11, 2012, 08:37:25 AM »
+1
The parallels are so...

Offline gryphon

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #12 on: September 13, 2012, 03:13:11 AM »
I have received some criticism of my post above.  Upon reflection I think it is largely valid, mainly because of the way I worded one single sentence.  But that one single sentence is important.  Words have meaning.  My initial assumption was that anyone reading it would have the same mindset I did when writing it.  However, some topics are so fecund with disgraceful and horrific history it is hard to talk about them in context with anything else.  One of those topics is racism in America.

I understand that, and so to that end I have rewritten that one sentence (edited above already).  I have excerpted the change below.  What is in BOLD is new.  I value your thoughts.  Thank you.

+++++

...still standoffish.  And although not brought out in this particular story, law enforcement will sometimes mistreat each for perfectly legal activities.

People who choose to carry their firearms openly sometimes suffer ostracism from society, as did this black student.  Don't misunderstand, I don't mean to equate the two, for they are not equal.  They do not have the same gravity.  They do not have the same milieu.  They do not have the same consequences.  One is chosen, one is not.  Yet a parallel can still be drawn, and with the right attitude and persistence...
« Last Edit: September 13, 2012, 06:55:27 AM by gryphon »

Offline CV67PAT

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #13 on: September 13, 2012, 09:39:01 AM »
Where would we be today, if Rosa Parks had decided to CC in the back of the bus?
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Offline TheQ

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Why do you open carry?
« Reply #14 on: September 13, 2012, 09:50:29 AM »
Where would we be today, if Rosa Parks had decided to CC in the back of the bus?

I don't think they let non-whites carry guns in the south back then. I suspect she would have been convicted of CCW ;)
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Offline CV67PAT

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #15 on: September 13, 2012, 09:56:12 AM »
I don't think they let non-whites carry guns in the south back then. I suspect she would have been convicted of CCW ;)

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Offline bagz013

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Re: Why do you open carry?
« Reply #16 on: September 13, 2012, 01:31:21 PM »
I OC because I can.

I OC because I approach everyday that I put a firearm on my hip as a chance to show someone the legal rights we have in this country.

I look at OC'ing no different than educating the general public of any other freedom we, as US citizens, can enjoy on a daily basis. It gives me an opportunity to explain to someone that what I am doing is as American as putting a flag in your front yard or a bumper sticker supporting our troops on your car.

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