# Answering the door while armed
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 18, 2014, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544 "2014-12-18T02:13:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@InfiniteJest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InfiniteJest)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/1 "2014-12-18T02:13:58Z")
What would happen if I answered the door with Sig in my left hand and there was a door-to-door marketer outside?
A cop?
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### Author:  [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/2 "2014-12-18T02:19:14Z")
Well, in Canada you’d be in a tonne of trouble, but I’m guessing that’s not the jurisdiction you’re interested in! 😉
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/3 "2014-12-18T02:23:20Z")
What’s Sig?
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/4 "2014-12-18T02:27:56Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> What’s Sig?
Firearms manufacturer. [Sig-Sauer](http://www.sigsauer.com/)
Or it’s that line of text under your post.
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### Author:  [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/5 "2014-12-18T02:39:49Z")
So far we have one Canuck smart ass and one Canuck who doesn’t know his firearms. This thread’s off to a bad start.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/6 "2014-12-18T03:06:18Z")
Hey, I just litigate about them. I don’t use them. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/7 "2014-12-18T03:12:10Z")
In your hand is more brandishing than armed. The marketer will say a little prayer hoping you’ll blow his brains out to end the long history of poor choices and failures which have led him to sell door to door. The cop will probably yell DROPTHEWEAPON while putting eight shots in your center mass.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/8 "2014-12-18T03:14:42Z")
> [@InfiniteJest](#):
>
> What would happen if I answered the door with Sig in my left hand
How about a sword (as in [this classic post from **Master Wang-Ka**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4600087&postcount=31))?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/9 "2014-12-18T03:18:20Z")
> [@D18](#):
>
> Well, in Canada you’d be in a tonne of trouble, but I’m guessing that’s not the jurisdiction you’re interested in! 😉
> [@D18](#):
>
> So far we have one Canuck smart ass and one Canuck who doesn’t know his firearms. This thread’s off to a bad start.
**Moderator Note**
Assuming that you’re the Canuck smart-ass (Northern Piper being the other Canuck), let’s keep the smart-ass answers out of GQ, especially as the first reply. No warning issued, but don’t do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/10 "2014-12-18T03:19:48Z")
Since the OP requires speculation, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
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### Author:  [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/11 "2014-12-18T03:23:55Z")
Wouldn’t that depend on your state laws? Open carry is legal where I live (not that I do) but it would be legal here as long as you weren’t brandishing it.
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### Author:  [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/12 "2014-12-18T04:29:37Z")
But if you’re carrying a gun in your hand, you ARE brandishing it.
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### Author:  [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/13 "2014-12-18T04:36:10Z")
> [@Flyer](#):
>
> But if you’re carrying a gun in your hand, you ARE brandishing it.
Ah. You are correct by most states’ definitions.
My bad.
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/14 "2014-12-18T04:52:03Z")
I hate to admit but I have done this; usually when just home from the range or just picking up/putting down my carry weapon. For the most part if you are polite and not threatening and holster or set it aside, they go into their pitch without missing a beat. Once (and this was like 15 years back) I had a follow-up visit from the police who basically wanted to make sure I was
a) legal
b) not planning harm.
Open the door with a gun in your hand and yelling “Get off my fucking property you son of Satan” and I’m betting you will hear the phrase “terroristic threats”.
In other words, its attitude as much as it is the sight of a firearm.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/15 "2014-12-18T04:58:27Z")
There’s a significant difference between brandishing a weapon in public and doing so in your home. I would imagine that in most states the law sees the distinction.
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### Author:  [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/16 "2014-12-18T05:15:20Z")
Out in the country around here, many people, especially women home alone will answer the door, weapon in hand. If an LEO came to my door & I had a weapon in hand, I tell him I had it & would ask him to wait while I went & put it down.
I think even a pissed off LEO would have a hard sell if I had my front door open and was practicing the ‘quick draw’ in my front room. Nothing wrong with that. IMO If some door to door person called about that, they would get laughed at.
Most of the time I have it ( weapon ) down behind the door or my leg which in no way is ‘brandishing’ IMO.
One time I had the police chief of the town come to my house to check me because I fit the description of a perp that he knew could fit me. I was sitting in a chair watching TV with a weapon on the arm of the chair. He never batted an eye.
He was doing due diligence by coming to see me because he knew it was not me, I am a biker, not a thug, but now he could say that yes, he had checked that rough looking guy who lives over West of town…
It also did not hurt that he was the instructor when I got my first CCW in AR.
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### Author:  [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/17 "2014-12-18T05:20:00Z")
Just as a data point, the auto repair shop I’ve patronized for years is owned and operated by a guy who openly carries. He has a gun on a leg holster. I think this is a little weird, but they are cheap, honest and friendly plus the shop has a very cute resident dog who visits with clients in the waiting room, so I overlook it.
As I understand it, there’s a legal distinction between open carry and brandishing, the latter being tied to “intent to use”?
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### Author:  [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/18 "2014-12-18T11:17:38Z")
What would happen if a poster asked a location-specific question, and also included where he was?
I don’t know since it rarely happens. But if it ever does I’ll try to answer it. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Boogly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boogly)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/19 "2014-12-18T12:23:16Z")
> [@InfiniteJest](#):
>
> What would happen if I answered the door with Sig in my left hand and there was a door-to-door marketer outside?
>
> A cop?
What would happen if I responded in comic sans to spam e-mail?
To a business associate?
BEWARE MY CAPS LCOK
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/answering-the-door-while-armed/707544/20 "2014-12-18T12:30:40Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> How about a sword (as in [this classic post from **Master Wang-Ka**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4600087&postcount=31))?
Or a [crab boat captain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sig_Hansen). Although I have no idea what he would be doing in your left hand.
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