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Question of the Day: Would You Open Carry?
The Truth About Guns ^ | 1 June, 2011 | Ryan Finn

Posted on 06/02/2011 6:40:19 AM PDT by marktwain

If I’m carrying a gun, no one else needs to know about it. Living in an open carry state—within a proverbial stone’s throw of DC—has reinforced this belief. There are just too many stories of OC’ers being harassed. I don’t have time to be held up by local law enforcement called in by a gun-shy ignoramus. Spending the weekend in TN changed my perspective . . .

With all the moving between venues, changing clothing and gear was impractical. As TN’s an Open Carry (OC) state, most of us carried openly while moving through hotels, gas stations and restaurants on our way to and from events. No one called the cops and no one even gave us a second look. To be honest, it was refreshing to see people treat openly carried firearms as if they were “no big thang.” Which got me thinking . . .

How many of us would actually choose to open carry if your state allowed it, and in what situation would you most likely choose to do so? I know a lot of people view OC as the equivalent of a wearing a T-shirt that says “Shoot Me First,” but wouldn’t that cease to be an issue if OC reached critical mass?


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: banglist; ccw; constitution; opencarry
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To: glock rocks
Wisdom is a commodity in short supply. Thank you for supplying some.
121 posted on 06/02/2011 8:35:00 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Some, believing they can't be deceived, it's nigh impossible to convince them when they're deceived.)
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To: glock rocks
Why in the world, in an urban environ, would you want to announce that you are to be taken out first, and the way to take you out is by ambush or from behind?

Yep. The answer to that is to carry concealed. So you look like easy pickings and can be taken out with ease...

Oh wait...

:-|

Your theory doesn't work for people like me. Large, heavily muscled, male... I'd get targeted by a criminal from ambush anyway. It's the only way they'd think they'd have a hand-to-hand fighting chance against me. Not a boast... Just a fact. I look scary, but I'm actually not all that good at hand-to-hand. It's why I carry a gun.

122 posted on 06/03/2011 6:03:01 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (explosive bolts, ten thousand volts at a million miles an hour)
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To: Squantos

Is that how Reagan stared down the Soviets? By looking “meek-n-weak”? Is that what we as US Citizens should be doing with our lives? Appearing “meek-n-weak”?


123 posted on 06/03/2011 6:09:02 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (explosive bolts, ten thousand volts at a million miles an hour)
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To: stuartcr
You play softball armed?

You bet your petunias. Gun and knife both. And the knife is bigger than the gun, which in my case, is usually a G.I. issue M1911 .45 automatic.


124 posted on 06/03/2011 8:48:47 AM PDT by archy (I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!)
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To: fireman15
My AK won’t fit in it’s holster when I am using the drum magazines... so I might consider open carry when it is too warm to wear an over-coat.

You might be surprised. It helps if it's a folding-stock AKMS or Draco, but I've come to prefer a belt rig for an AK for it's better support rather than using a shoulder holster.

Granted, I find the Hungarian tank crewman's 20-round magazine to be more to my liking than a 75-round RPK drum, which IMHO more properly belongs in an RPK. But a shorty or folding AK will go very nicely under a GI field jacket.

Posting HTML

125 posted on 06/03/2011 8:56:12 AM PDT by archy (I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!)
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To: Dead Corpse

With regards to the subject at hand I do not bluff with a firearm. Nor do I wear such to look like a badass.

Since 72 I have been EOD a deputy sheriff an a goobermint contractor carrying a firearm.

Posing in public with a pistol is your right that I respect an will support yet not right for me an my day to day needs.

If you consider me less than etc then so be it..... I don’t carry to impress. You have at it .....:o)


126 posted on 06/03/2011 2:14:54 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: Squantos
Deputy?

Figures. Badges, even ex-badges, always think they have a lock on what's right in regards to firearms.

Sorry, but you are being part of the problem.

My wearing a firearm is no more about appearing to be a "bad ass" than my owning a fire extinguisher makes me a wanna-be firefighter. Thanks for the implied insult though... That'll help sway me to your side of the argument. :-|

127 posted on 06/03/2011 2:39:19 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (explosive bolts, ten thousand volts at a million miles an hour)
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To: Dead Corpse

You started with the insults troop. Just playin yer game. Aka I’m weak if I don’t carry a handgun in the same manner you want to...

The thread asks if I will if it was allowed.

I won’t an said so. You have a problem with my choice of carry methods...wow.

You need to stop an take a deep thought if ya think I’m part of your problem.... But hey if it gets ya through your day then use it.

Stay safe....hope yer well.


128 posted on 06/03/2011 2:55:12 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: Squantos
You started with the insults troop...

No. I asked a question. You said looking weak was better than looking like you are capable of defending yourself. I asked you for real world examples of how well this works. The example I gave was Reagan's response to the Soviet threat.

Now, all you seem to have is insinuated insults instead of cogent argument.

Are you really so vested in the gun control laws you used to enforce that admitting you may have been in the wrong disturbs you?

I'm not actually looking for a fight, I just want you to be sure you know what you are advocating and where that logic leads.

129 posted on 06/03/2011 8:22:11 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (explosive bolts, ten thousand volts at a million miles an hour)
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To: archy

We had a disturbed individual shoot up the mall in our town a few years ago. A concerned citizen took out his concealed hand gun (unfortunately forgetting to take cover) and told the guy with the assault rifle to “drop it”. The guy with the hand gun ended up losing the confrontation, nearly died and is now pushing around a wheel chair.

I thought that even if the concerned citizen had remembered to take cover; it still wouldn’t have been a fair fight. I commend you on finding a way to even the odds in situations like that. Of course after seeing your post... my wife now wants a similar holster for her M1 carbine paratrooper.


130 posted on 06/03/2011 9:56:26 PM PDT by fireman15 (Check your facts before making ignorant statements.)
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To: fireman15

He should have just pulled and shot. No way I would ever give a warning to a crook with a gun...


131 posted on 06/03/2011 10:13:55 PM PDT by Mr Rogers (Poor history is better than good fiction, and anything with lots of horses is better still)
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To: misterrob

“Cops come up with this notion of a person “breaching the peace” when someone is engaging in OC”

Point out the cops that they open carry also, are they breaching the peace??


132 posted on 06/03/2011 10:25:52 PM PDT by Nailbiter
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To: Dead Corpse

You know me better than that bud....

Stay Safe...


133 posted on 06/04/2011 12:28:31 AM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: fireman15
Of course after seeing your post... my wife now wants a similar holster for her M1 carbine paratrooper.

A couple of options come to mind, the most immediate being the G.I. issue M1A1 folding stock carbine *holster* used by some paratroopers but more commonly by glider-borne airborne units. The originals are pricy and worn by now, more in the category of collectors items, but quality repros are available, or a craftsman could recreate the design in leather or Kydex.

Second choice is an M60 machinegun spare barrel bag, available for as little as $10 in used condition. This is more of a case than a holster, but since it comes set up for an over-the-shoulder carry strap, it might be usable.

Third option: a tennis racket case. I've used this one for a folding stock Remington 870 shotgun with about the same barrel length as an M1A1 carbine, and it's okay if a bit slow. Again, more of a case than a holster, but very credible if the handle of a sawn-off thrift shop tennis racket is added to stick out the end.

BTW: about the use of the M1 carbine, and its alleged lack of stopping power, which ballistically is pretty close to a fairly hot .357 magnum load. [.308 110-grain projectile @ 2000 FPS for around 1000 foot/pounds energy vs. .357 125-grain projectile @ 1500 FPS for circa 650 foot/pounds] I've been involved with three shootings with the M1 carbine, and in two of them the carbine resuklted in one-shot incapication of the target; in the third, multiple shots were fired into the occupants of an automobile and one died immediately while the driver survived long enough to crash the vehicle, then lose consciousness. The carbine can get the job done, particularly if hollowpoints are used, the barrel remains the full 18-inches length, and the targets are hit in vital areas, ie, center of mass/center body or headshots.

So far as those hollowpoints go, I've mostly used the Winchester version, but I believe either Mag-tech or Cor-Bon also offers one, and Hornady has an offering from Tom Byrzynski, designer of Remington's Golden Sabre and Winchester's Black Talon JHP bullets, that ought to be pretty good but is not yet in wide circulation. I also like to add a couple of .30 carbine tracers in the mag to let me know when I'm down to my last 5 rounds.

The 15-round magazine is the preferred mag for no-hangup use from a case or inside a vehicle, but having a 30-round mag handy for the first reload is certainly okay, and having a pair taped together is particularly thoughtful, if a little heavy.


134 posted on 06/04/2011 6:43:53 AM PDT by archy (I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!)
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To: Mr Rogers
He should have just pulled and shot. No way I would ever give a warning to a crook with a gun...

Concur. Popping an M18A1 Claymore mine to open the ball is the Infantryman's preferred method of announcing an ambush, but it might be a little hard on the nearby windows in an urban area. But under some circumstances, I might consider it.

135 posted on 06/04/2011 6:47:03 AM PDT by archy (I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!)
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To: Squantos
You know me better than that bud....

At least we agree that it should be an individual choice. Advocacy of one over the other tends to play into the gun haters hands though. That is how we switched from deeming "open carry" as acceptable to only "concealed carry" being the norm in only a hundred years. Nunn V Georgia for example.

Not just "keeping", but "bearing" arms shall not be infringed.

If you are trying to lure bad guys in to attack you, make yourself look weak. If you want to warn them off so they find easier prey elsewhere, project strength...

Easy calculus.

136 posted on 06/04/2011 8:22:28 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (explosive bolts, ten thousand volts at a million miles an hour)
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To: archy

My wife loves her M1 Carbines. She is only around a hundred pounds, but she has got the moves, and the rhythm. Her dad lived through WWII, Korea, and Vietnam and he passed on his survival instinct. In emergency situations she has no hesitation.

I bought her a couple of SWAT like videos as kind of a joke, but she practices around the house and knows all of her best defensive positions. Unlike Bobby Goldsboro I don’t come home unexepectedly without clearly announcing myself. The one that could end up being missed would more likely be me than my honey. She is as close to being ready to defend herself at all times as anyone that I know.

We love the M1 carbine. It doesn’t weigh any more than a .22 and it has just enough recoil to make it fun, for 100 lb wives to shoot. It is also a perfect gun for reloading cast bullets for target shooting, it literally costs just a few cents a round that way. I also put together cartridges with hollow points for home defense.


137 posted on 06/05/2011 9:50:44 AM PDT by fireman15 (Check your facts before making ignorant statements.)
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To: Eagle Eye

No, sir, you missed the intent and the point by a wide margin.

Your negative comment is the only one....

I’ll leave it at that.

Best; and I really mean it.


138 posted on 06/05/2011 5:22:45 PM PDT by Manly Warrior (US ARMY (Ret), "No Free Lunches for the Dogs of War" (my spelling is generally korrect!))
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