But that is exactly what you are doing.
"Seriously, just because we can carry, doesn't mean we have to or should. These two dressed up as they were and carrying are doing it, in my opinion, to stir up a reaction. Taunting people. That they did not get a reaction is good. Got their 5 minutes of media attention and went home."
No, they were doing it to show that there were people out there who actually believe in their rights as written by law, and not what the media are propagandizing them to be, and they won't be intimidated into doing otherwise.
It's called "street theatre", and is very much a favored propaganda tactic of the left.
"I was in a WalMart a few weeks ago and as I came in a woman and her friend did so. She had a Glock open carry. I observed her strut around a couple isles at the front of the store, then leave the store without buying anything. She was clearly tempting someone to say something. No one did, she left bored.
YOUR interpretation. I seriously doubt that you could read her mind and in any way know what her motivation was.
"I've been around guns for longer than I can remember. With my dad as a police officer, our house had lots. Never treated them as toys, never needed to show off. Guess it is an age thing, but at 55 I carry or do not for its sake, nothing more, nothing less.
Likewise. I'm 67. "Fired" my first shot around age 4 (dad's .22 pistol in my hand...with my hand in his). Farm boy in south Louisiana. EVERY household had guns, and not locked in "gun safes" either. No...they were in the corner by the door to outside so they could be accessed quickly on the way out (coons and possums in the garden...or any other reason). Kids were introduced to guns just as I was...and in my entire 55 years in Louisiana, I NEVER heard of ANY child ever being injured by a "home gun incident". Hunting accidents, yes, two or three in fifty plus years, but never an "infant with gun" scenario.
Heck, when I was in high school, I would often "motor" tractor and bush-hog to rented property a couple of miles from the home farm to clip weeds in rented pasturage. ALWAYS carried a pistol (0.22 cal) loaded with rat-shot rounds for snakes. Open carry, hip holster. I also always stopped in at the local grocery store for a cold Coke on the way home. NEVER, EVER had anyone comment in any fashion whatsoever about the pistol, which I never even thought about taking off.
We had a shooting range IN OUR HIGH SCHOOL in Idaho. Shot pistol and rifle competition. No one shot each other or teachers. Bet there are such ranges in school today!