Yes, I understand that. But if you’re a “law-abiding citizen” and you have the license and permits to carry a gun proudly on your belt while shopping at a Target in a low-crime rate area, I think you’re a potential lunatic. And I’m sure that if I confronted a person about it, they’d proudly tell me that this is a low-crime rate area “because of citizens like us!”. :rolleyes:
Aren’t there a couple of states out west that only allow open carrying? One of the Dakotas, maybe?
You can think that. It doesn’t’t make you right.
The classic hoplophobe position: something must be wrong with anyone who would want to carry a gun. :rolleyes:
What they’d likely say is something to the effect of “I’m a law-abiding citizen exercising my rights. I have no realistic expectation of using this gun for anything but target practice at the range, but it suits my political beliefs to be seen carrying a gun while behaving in a safe, sane, and generally peaceful manner in the hopes that people get used to the idea that you can know someone has a gun and not be afraid of them.”
Also, people who are really crazy about the self-defense thing tend to carry concealed out of some misguided desire to not pre-warn the criminals that they are armed.
Meanwhile, open carry people on the crazy side of the self-defensive spectrum tend to want to avoid confrontation altogether, and their hope is generally that by advertising their armed status they discourage criminal activity within their line of sight.
The above represent anecdotal evidence from overheard conversations at the range.
You’ve got that backwards. There are a few states that only allow concealed carry (something like six of them). Most states allow open carry.