Hello,
I've been OC'ing for about a year now and joined MOC during a luncheon get-together last fall. My reasons for OC'ing aren't necessarily for protection, but for public awareness. In all the time I've been carrying, I've never had any issues, on the contrary, I've had many people come up to me and ask questions or simply extend their thanks. Up until recently, my wife and kids have been supportive of this activity.
The only time I was ever worried was when i carried at the local fire station open house. Of the people there, about 75% were children under age 10. The place was crawling with officers from the Kent County Sheriff, I toured a incident response van, and some other urban assault vehicles, being shown around by the kind officers, and no one said a word.
So this July 4th, I strapped on my sidearm and headed off the the local parade with the intention of OC'ing. When we got there, my wife asked that I not carry or conceal instead of OC for the parade (and we both have our CPL). I was a bit upset and disappointed by this, so I left the sidearm in the car. After later discussion, I learned she was very concerned about displaying a gun in such a large public setting. What if the cops detained us? What if the women and children saw the gun and sent them into mayhem and panic? Or maybe, more subtle, what if it simply reminded the crowd about all the recent gun violence around the country and caused them to have a bad day?
Well, I don't believe I'll be OC'ing again in the future if it's going to cause these types of marital issues. But I had some questions for the group who may have run into something like this before.
- Did anyone OC during this year's 4th festivities? Any experiences to share (positive or negative)?
- If you did OC at a parade, what was the general reaction?
- Has anyone else have a similar experience (significant other objecting to OC in a particular situation)? How did you handle it?
- If, by some slim chance, you happened to have been OC'ing at the Caledonia (south of Grand Rapids) parade, let me know how it went.
Thanks,
Bill