[MNSurvival]

As the titles says, I have been carrying openly with w/ my level 2 retention serpa holster for the past 7 days. I carry a Gen 3 Glock 23 w/ pachmyr grip and tru glow night sights (green and yellow). My normal carry holster is a Crossbreed Supertuck Deluxe.

I live in the heart of Minneapolis so it is funny to see the different looks I received on occasion. However for the most part nobody really says a word or seems to bother to even notice I'm carrying. Which is surprising because I have gone about my daily routines the same (grocery store, liquor store, target, home depot, gander mountain) while just openly carrying. For me it's different.. It's a new thing so to speak... as I prefer concealment, but it's nice to mix it up once in a while. I had one person who asked me if I was an undercover police officer lol.

Anyways I just wanted to share that and also get feedback from others on their experiences from carrying concealed or openly.

-Alex

[257 roberts]

its not allowed in Fla. but I wouldn't do it anyway( I don't want anyone to know I have a gun till its time)

[Ford302Glock21]

It is legal in florida under certain circumstances which I believe are on your way to and from hunting, fishing, and camping. I have not had the oppertunity yet but I would like to try it. I think I would be pretty wierded out walking through a store or mall though. In most typical activities I would prefer to keep the upper hand concealed. Just walking around your own property or doing outdoors stuff I think it would be cool

Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine

[CajunBass]

That's been my experience here in central Virginia also.

[Folsom_Prison]

Kansas is an open carry state, but what I've found it depends on the county. I've kinda treaded the waters so to speak but can't find my local county laws. In the end I prefer concealed.

[glock2740]

I prefer concealed carry. I like the "surprise factor".

[redrick]

If we scare enough people by open carrying our pistols, we will soon start seeing businesses posting no firearms allowed signs at their doors and lawmakers passing tougher laws on carrying a firearm.

[Arc Angel]

THANK YOU FOR NOT LIVING IN PENNSYLVANIA!



(The moms, dads, and their children are already terrified enough.)

[hogship]

Originally Posted by redrick

If we scare enough people by open carrying our pistols, we will soon start seeing businesses posting no firearms allowed signs at their doors and lawmakers passing tougher laws on carrying a firearm.

This is probably true, and would be the initial "knee-jerk" reaction......but, the crime rate would likely drop.

There is a big advantage to reminding the bad guys there is a price to pay for bad behavior....... because "an armed society is a polite society". I really do believe that is true.

You know there was another time when it was commonplace to see armed citizens. Nobody gave it much of a thought. It's unrealistic to think open carry would be accectable right away, but it could transition over a period of many years......and, if it did, it would be a good thing for cleaning up our rampant criminal element.

If open carry were common, then concealed carry would be equally as common.......and, I'd be one of the latter for most of the time.

I did open carry a few times, about 30 years ago.....and, it did not go well for me. People were skepical and I didn't like the "attitude" I saw.

ooc

[JBnTX]

Originally Posted by MNSurvival

As the titles says, I have been carrying openly with w/ my level 2 retention serpa holster for the past 7 days.
-Alex

Have you come in contact with or been seen by any LEO's
while open carrying?

If so, what was their reaction?

[MNSurvival]

Originally Posted by JBnTX

Have you come in contact with or been seen by any LEO's
while open carrying?

If so, what was their reaction?

Not yet. However sooner or later it will happen. When it does I will report on it.

[Highspeedlane]

That's cool.

Back when I was a teen, my father and I would often visit Cleveland Hardware in downtown Shelby, N.C. to peruse their gun section or buy ammo.

I often went in wearing a S&W Model 10 in a hip holster. No one even gave me a second look.

Of course that was in the 70's.

[Bob Hafler]

Originally Posted by Arc Angel

THANK YOU FOR NOT LIVING IN PENNSYLVANIA!
.)

+1
Sounds like he's looking for a little attention, a need to be noticed. Got to tell ya,I'm so not impressed.

[CajunBass]

Originally Posted by JBnTX

Have you come in contact with or been seen by any LEO's
while open carrying?

If so, what was their reaction?

I have on a number of occasions. No reaction. Not even a mention of the firearm. If they noticed it, they didn't seem to give two hoots in a hail storm.

[ArmoryDoc]

Aside from all the naysayers and some parrots, I'll say this. There is nothing "wrong" per say, unless it's against the law. If you do it, do it knowing there is a much higher level of expectation for responsible and ethical behavior and creating "positive perceptions" in the minds of those you encounter. Dress well, be polite, smile, use greetings and set a most positive example of a 2nd Amendment advocate and gun owner. Without this P.R. approach you could do more damage than not.

Carry on, enjoy and do right by the rest of us gun owners. ;-)

[AA#5]

Originally Posted by redrick

If we scare enough people by open carrying our pistols, we will soon start seeing businesses posting no firearms allowed signs at their doors and lawmakers passing tougher laws on carrying a firearm.

Exactly what's been happening. I hope these attention addicts think more gun laws are worth it.

[Arc Angel]

Originally Posted by Bob Hafler

+1

Sounds like he's looking for a little attention, a need to be noticed. Got to tell ya,I'm so not impressed.

Here's what I've got against open carry:

1. Virginia Polytechnical Institute, and Cho, Seung-Hui.

2. Luby's Cafeteria, and George Hennard.

3. Gabrielle Giffords, and Jared Loughner.

4. And dozens and dozens of other modern massacres by seemingly innocuous individuals who suddenly and (for all practical intents and purposes) inexplicably went insane with a gun-in-hand.

Trust me on this: The larger body of the general public does not know about and does not care for firearms. I know it's difficult for many gun forum aficionados to understand; but, a large majority of the general public IS NOT GOING TO CONSIDER AN INDIVIDUAL WITH AN EXPOSED FIREARM TO BE AN, 'EDUCATOR' OR A, 'GOOD WILL AMBASSADOR' FOR THE 2ND AMENDMENT. (Got it, yet?)

In 21st century America anyone walking around in public with an exposed firearm is thought of in only one of two ways: Such an individual is, either, an officer of the law or a possible lunatic whose potential for mayhem might be revealed at any moment. It's unrealistic, myopic, introverted, and rude for any of us to think otherwise.

Firearms are NOT, 'machines designed to throw lead balls' Oliver Winchester might have thought this; but, for a fact, his daughter Sarah (and her very troubled conscience) did not! The primary purpose for a firearm is to ....... END LIFE. In today's violent modern society anyone wearing an exposed firearm must be suspect. Both common sense and personal security demand such an evaluation! Anyone who fails to realize this FUNDAMENTAL REALITY of daily life in the Western Hemisphere is, to be perfectly blunt, A SOCIALLY OBTUSE, 'OFF THE GRID' IDIOT!

Awhile ago I was eating dinner in a stuffy Texas Roadhouse restaurant. The place was warm; so I decided to quietly slip off my jacket while we ate. A man, his wife, and 3 children were sitting across from our table. Nobody else in the room noticed I was armed; but, this father did; and it was only a matter of seconds before he began looking back and forth between his children, and me! That father didn't care about anybody's 2nd Amendment rights; he wasn't interested in, 'being educated'. All he cared about was the stranger with the large black gun who was sitting across from him at dinner.

Know what? I don't blame him! I do the same thing, myself, whenever I'm out in public and see a stranger with a gun. If I don't know the gunman (and, sometimes, if I do) I'm automatically suspicious and watchful. Guns aren't computers. Computers are for teaching and information retrieval. Guns are for self-defense and ending life. It isn't Christian; it isn't neighborly to demand that another person MUST EXAMINE your personal motives for flashing a gun in public.

All this pseudo-intellectual crap about demonstrating for 2nd Amendment rights, and educating the general public to their right to keep and bear firearms is a load of horse hooey. No well-hung adult male needs to wear an exposed firearm in public. Only self-centered and conceited, 'little boys' do rude and ill-considered things like that.




NOTE: For anyone who has trouble mentally digesting the above points-of-view, how about, at least, doing all the rest of us who quietly carry concealed a really big favor: The next time you feel the urge to expose your gun in public show other people the courtesy of wearing a Boy Scout uniform and carrying a dictionary - OK!

(At least this way your aberrant social behavior will be more comprehensible and your subjective motivations less suspect.)

[Bruce M]

Could you concede that there may be limited circumstances (say hunting) or perhaps some very rural areas at where openly carrying a handgun may not be socially obtuse or aberrant?

[Arc Angel]

Originally Posted by Bruce M

Could you concede that there may be limited circumstances (say hunting) or perhaps some very rural areas at where openly carrying a handgun may not be socially obtuse or aberrant?

Is your comment addressed to me? If it is, the answer is yes. However, the social behavior you're referring to isn't really aberrant. It's EXPECTED instead.

Nor does it occur at high noon inside your local indoor shopping mall, at a children's kindergarten class, or in the middle of a crowded Olive Garden restaurant. I'm not referring to Main Street in Shickshinny, PA on the opening day of deer season. I'm talking about someplace like downtown Philadelphia in September just before the kids begin returning to school.

Are you able to appreciate what it looks like for one of our scruffy bearded locals to walk down Main Street in Stroudsburg, PA during the middle of July when the Poconos are teaming with thousands of tourists from surrounding highly urbanized (and admittedly anti-firearm) states?

Believe me, the man with the dirty dungarees, scraggly beard, and the exposed gun is going to get all of the attention he so desperately craves! (Yes, I actually watched while this happen - Stunning! I don't know what it did for MY 2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS; but it was certainly an attention grabber for, 'Pocono Billy'.)

[carbuncle]

Originally Posted by redrick

If we scare enough people by open carrying our pistols, we will soon start seeing businesses posting no firearms allowed signs at their doors and lawmakers passing tougher laws on carrying a firearm.

This nicely summarizes my opinion on open carry, thanks!

[FCastle88]

Originally Posted by Arc Angel

Here's what I've got against open carry:

1. Virginia Polytechnical Institute, and Cho, Seung-Hui.

2. Luby's Cafeteria, and George Hennard.

3. Gabrielle Giffords, and Jared Loughner.

4. And dozens and dozens of other modern massacres by seemingly innocuous individuals who suddenly and (for all practical intents and purposes) inexplicably went insane with a gun-in-hand.

Trust me on this: The larger body of the general public does not know about and does not care for firearms. I know it's difficult for many gun forum aficionados to understand; but, a large majority of the general public IS NOT GOING TO CONSIDER AN INDIVIDUAL WITH AN EXPOSED FIREARM TO BE AN, 'EDUCATOR' OR A, 'GOOD WILL AMBASSADOR' FOR THE 2ND AMENDMENT. (Got it, yet?)

In 21st century America anyone walking around in public with an exposed firearm is thought of in only one of two ways: Such an individual is, either, an officer of the law or a possible lunatic whose potential for mayhem might be revealed at any moment. It's unrealistic, myopic, introverted, and rude for any of us to think otherwise.

Firearms are NOT, 'machines designed to throw lead balls' Oliver Winchester might have thought this; but, for a fact, his daughter Sarah (and her very troubled conscience) did not! The primary purpose for a firearm is to ....... END LIFE. In today's violent modern society anyone wearing an exposed firearm must be suspect. Both common sense and personal security demand such an evaluation! Anyone who fails to realize this FUNDAMENTAL REALITY of daily life in the Western Hemisphere is, to be perfectly blunt, A SOCIALLY OBTUSE, 'OFF THE GRID' IDIOT!

Awhile ago I was eating dinner in a stuffy Texas Roadhouse restaurant. The place was warm; so I decided to quietly slip off my jacket while we ate. A man, his wife, and 3 children were sitting across from our table. Nobody else in the room noticed I was armed; but, this father did; and it was only a matter of seconds before he began looking back and forth between his children, and me! That father didn't care about anybody's 2nd Amendment rights; he wasn't interested in, 'being educated'. All he cared about was the stranger with the large black gun who was sitting across from him at dinner.

Know what? I don't blame him! I do the same thing, myself, whenever I'm out in public and see a stranger with a gun. If I don't know the gunman (and, sometimes, if I do) I'm automatically suspicious and watchful. Guns aren't computers. Computers are for teaching and information retrieval. Guns are for self-defense and ending life. It isn't Christian; it isn't neighborly to demand that another person MUST EXAMINE your personal motives for flashing a gun in public.

All this pseudo-intellectual crap about demonstrating for 2nd Amendment rights, and educating the general public to their right to keep and bear firearms is a load of horse hooey. No well-hung adult male needs to wear an exposed firearm in public. Only self-centered and conceited, 'little boys' do rude and ill-considered things like that.




NOTE: For anyone who has trouble mentally digesting the above points-of-view, how about, at least, doing all the rest of us who quietly carry concealed a really big favor: The next time you feel the urge to expose your gun in public show other people the courtesy of wearing a Boy Scout uniform and carrying a dictionary - OK!

(At least this way your aberrant social behavior will be more comprehensible and your subjective motivations less suspect.)

So you're saying you assume everyone is perfectly safe until you see a gun? Sure someone open carrying a gun could go nuts, but at I know they have one. Anyone could be concealing a gun or knife, or a group of punks could get bored and decide to beat someone to death. Saying that the person open carrying is somehow more likely to go nuts and shoot everybody is just stupid. Someone planning on going on a shooting spree is going to hide the gun so they don't get stopped before they can even get started. I know several people who don't feel like going to the trouble of planning their wardrobe all the time, so if the clothes they put on that day happen to conceal their gun, great, if not, so what? It doesn't have anything to do with being macho or trying to get attention, they just don't bother with worrying about concealing all the time. And guess what? Nobody cares, most people around here have guns and don't consider it worth looking twice, and the ones who aren't gun people assume you're a cop. As long as it's legal, open carriers have the right to carry as they wish. What's the point of having the right to carry a firearm if you don't even exercise it for fear of someone being offended?

Edit: and no, I don't live in "Shickshinny, PA", I live in a pretty large town near the Maryland border. Even many of the Maryland cops who come over the border don't really care.

[FCastle88]

Originally Posted by redrick

If we scare enough people by open carrying our pistols, we will soon start seeing businesses posting no firearms allowed signs at their doors and lawmakers passing tougher laws on carrying a firearm.

Most businesses who are anti-gun and willing to drive away some costumers already have signs. And most states where politicians could get away with tougher guns laws already have them, a few people open carrying aren't going to sway anyone to the other side..

[WiskyT]

Anyone who open carries when concealed is a legal option is a weirdo just like the fat, wrinkled nudists on the beach.

As for intimidating criminals, anyone who makes that argument hasn't met any. Not only will a genuine criminal break a bottle of MD 20/20 over your head and take your gun, the rest of the subculture will likely form a mob around you and start chanting "Trevon! Trevon!"

[BEER]

i don't care if it's right or wrong, i just believe that every free person in the u.s. should have the choice.

then again i've been told that my brain isn't wired right because i think released convicts should have all their 2a rights restored. so what the hell do i know?

[gatorglockman]

Originally Posted by Arc Angel

Here's what I've got against open carry:

1. Virginia Polytechnical Institute, and Cho, Seung-Hui.

2. Luby's Cafeteria, and George Hennard.

3. Gabrielle Giffords, and Jared Loughner.

4. And dozens and dozens of other modern massacres by seemingly innocuous individuals who suddenly and (for all practical intents and purposes) inexplicably went insane with a gun-in-hand.

Trust me on this: The larger body of the general public does not know about and does not care for firearms. I know it's difficult for many gun forum aficionados to understand; but, a large majority of the general public IS NOT GOING TO CONSIDER AN INDIVIDUAL WITH AN EXPOSED FIREARM TO BE AN, 'EDUCATOR' OR A, 'GOOD WILL AMBASSADOR' FOR THE 2ND AMENDMENT. (Got it, yet?)

In 21st century America anyone walking around in public with an exposed firearm is thought of in only one of two ways: Such an individual is, either, an officer of the law or a possible lunatic whose potential for mayhem might be revealed at any moment. It's unrealistic, myopic, introverted, and rude for any of us to think otherwise.

Firearms are NOT, 'machines designed to throw lead balls' Oliver Winchester might have thought this; but, for a fact, his daughter Sarah (and her very troubled conscience) did not! The primary purpose for a firearm is to ....... END LIFE. In today's violent modern society anyone wearing an exposed firearm must be suspect. Both common sense and personal security demand such an evaluation! Anyone who fails to realize this FUNDAMENTAL REALITY of daily life in the Western Hemisphere is, to be perfectly blunt, A SOCIALLY OBTUSE, 'OFF THE GRID' IDIOT!

Awhile ago I was eating dinner in a stuffy Texas Roadhouse restaurant. The place was warm; so I decided to quietly slip off my jacket while we ate. A man, his wife, and 3 children were sitting across from our table. Nobody else in the room noticed I was armed; but, this father did; and it was only a matter of seconds before he began looking back and forth between his children, and me! That father didn't care about anybody's 2nd Amendment rights; he wasn't interested in, 'being educated'. All he cared about was the stranger with the large black gun who was sitting across from him at dinner.

Know what? I don't blame him! I do the same thing, myself, whenever I'm out in public and see a stranger with a gun. If I don't know the gunman (and, sometimes, if I do) I'm automatically suspicious and watchful. Guns aren't computers. Computers are for teaching and information retrieval. Guns are for self-defense and ending life. It isn't Christian; it isn't neighborly to demand that another person MUST EXAMINE your personal motives for flashing a gun in public.

All this pseudo-intellectual crap about demonstrating for 2nd Amendment rights, and educating the general public to their right to keep and bear firearms is a load of horse hooey. No well-hung adult male needs to wear an exposed firearm in public. Only self-centered and conceited, 'little boys' do rude and ill-considered things like that.




NOTE: For anyone who has trouble mentally digesting the above points-of-view, how about, at least, doing all the rest of us who quietly carry concealed a really big favor: The next time you feel the urge to expose your gun in public show other people the courtesy of wearing a Boy Scout uniform and carrying a dictionary - OK!

(At least this way your aberrant social behavior will be more comprehensible and your subjective motivations less suspect.)

While I am not a fan of open carry and I do not do it (I also fall into the surprise/low profile is better camp), I do not believe it is evil/bad or wrong.

The primary fault with your 1-4 points and overall concern is the "what if" factor. What if one of those by-standards were open OR concealed carrying and utilized deadly force to stop the crazed individuals you note? Think about the Ft Hood shootings and how that ended and why. I think the power of legally armed/trained/law abiding citizens is a powerful deterrent to crime.

Freedom and liberty comes with a cost. The irony is that many want acknowledgement and acceptance of their own ideals and fail to accept others. While at times I grow nauseated at diversity that has been rammed down my throat, I understand the higher principle at hand. Freedom is awesome and 2nd A rights are one of our highest rights. I say this as although I am not a fan of open carry/don't do it....I realize the higher principal at hand and my 2nd A rights in play.

AA, I will agree with your sentiment though....even as a gun nut, I often do a double take and assessment of an individual when I see him open carry. Once done, I try and keep an...open..ummm mind...open mind carry (bad pun sorry)

One funny aside, as I understand it, in AL where I reside, we relinquish our right to open carry IF we secure our CCW permit. Can't have your cake and eat it too...