My main drive to desire open carry is comfort not any sort of tactical advantage.
But I keep reading over and over that open carry sacrifices a tactical advantage.
OK. What advantage is that?
Because I can see where conceal carry will include you in the victim selection process where the criminal doesn't want to deal with an armed person at all. Open carry would deter this criminal, which I am given to understand is nearly all of them.
I can see where open carry could get you targeted by someone bent on doing a mass shooting, taking you out first so you don't interfere. Except... None of these shootings seem to have started with taking out the single uniformed cop that happened to be there or the armed security guard. I posit that you can't get more open in your carrying than being uniformed too.
Mass shootings, though, are such a rare breed. One probably shouldn't make assumptions.
This is an area where I've really only just begun to think about, so my opinions are not vetted by debate. Be gentle in the comments.
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Really from the tactical standpoint we need BOTH! We need open carriers because even in gun friendly states anti-gun people and criminals sometimes assume nobody actually carries a gun.
ReplyDeletehell my dad in Maine was all bent out of shape when he read Oklahoma had legalized open carry. I told him Maine had always been an OC state, and unlike OK Maine needs no permits to OC. Dad scoffed at me noting he'd NEVER seen anybody OC. He was probably right, OC has been fairly rare in Southern Maine where He's lived most of his life.
But if people ONLY open carry then carry can be treated like cops by criminals. They look around for cops (and for anybody packing a gun) before committing a crime, and chances are they'll bet right.
Add in CONCEALED carry and suddenly life becomes VERY dangerous for predators. I like that!
Personally I'd rather not bother with OC. Still there has been many a time when the weather turns hot and I'm stuck wearing a partially zipped sweatshirt because I would face troubles if my gun was exposed.
Same goes for those of us who cautiously stoop to the bottom shelf at the grocery store. Legal OC means that if you plan to conceal carry, but you have a momentary wardrobe malfunction or your cover garment needs to be removed you don't have to worry about being prosecuted.
My own Cr 0.02:
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the "if you open carry, the bad guy will shoot you first" concept is based on projection. Free citizens lawfully carrying a firearm are unlikely to be in what Cooper defined as "Condition White". They then project an equal awareness of his surroundings on a potential armed robber, and therefore expect an armed robber to eliminate anyone capable of mounting a credible armed response in a preemptive attack. In doing so, they ignore any possibility that a potential armed robber will have target fixation on the person(s) from whom the robber expects to obtain items of value.