I am all for the 2nd but dont like concealed carry, and this is why...

I respect your position on this issue Punisher but,it doesn't bother me one bit..Like others have said just be responsible for your fire arm..
Edit..Btw,I have a handgun,but never carry it on me.I just have a buck knife attached to my belt.

a reply to: Punisher75

I'm currently living in an open/concealed carry state.

Seeing someone open carry around here (barring law enforcement) is a pretty rare thing, and make no bones about it - where we live if you see someone carrying a rifle out and about, something strange is afoot at the Circle K.

A few years back, I was having coffee when someone ran into our bookstore cafe and nonchalantly told everyone to stay inside, that there was a young man in the parking lot with his rifle out, and yep - everyone ran out to the patio to see what was going on.

Turns out it was a Lovers Quarrel. Young man was upset and headed into his girlfriends place of employment to "have some strong words with her" over another young man in the picture. While everyone was calling a report in to the police or acting as a witness a couple of the bigger bucks managed to intercept the rifleman and get his weapon from him. Police arrived and things were settled down at the station and courthouse I'm sure.

That was a lucky situation...but then again, this IS the South, and we're no strangers to firearms around here.

Long story short....not so sure how things fare in other parts of the country, but usually folks who are familiar with proper handling and operation of firearms can tell when someone is a bit off kilter and shouldn't have one on their person.

That includes show offs and insecure people.

Aside from gun racks to and from hunting - making a fashion statement of one's rifle or handgun outside of aforementioned hunting, hanging out at the homestead or personal acreage and/or shooting range isn't considered very polite.

Doing so tends to make the tourists and those of delicate constitutions a bit skittish and that ain't good for business.

Just sayin'.

Personally, I don't really care either way.....but it's not the Wild West anymore and I don't think any of us want to be around the bar scene when the drunken good ol' boys start stumbling into the street and having a good time shooting stars at 3am.

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
Open carry just feels to much like some macho man statement to me.

From all the opinions I've seen on that side of the debate over the years, it certainly seems to me that this is predominantly about attitude and paranoia.

Obviously it's not everyone on that side of the debate, but it certainly seems to me that most of the people who want to carry (open or not) have severe paranoias about crime, combined with a hero complex.

They think everyone around them is a potential terrorist/bank robber/kidnapper/shooter/all-around thug, and that they would leap in with their heroism to save the innocent law-abiding citizens from the evil villain.

As a person interested in psychology, it's fascinating to consider American culture and see the hero worship many are exposed to throughout their adolescence, and how that might have played a part in creating a subculture of (mostly) men who seem to be preoccupied with the notion that one day they might be able to shoot their gun in public and take out the baddie.

America! F**k yeah!

originally posted by: alienjuggalo

Just be responsible.

This is the core of it all, I would say.

How reliable are people?

I have no idea. I would say it's a cultural thing. I'm just glad I'm from a country that has a small enough population and no real sense of entitlement to crow about carrying weapons.

If we could all be responsible, then the question would be: who/what are we being responsible to?

I find the United States fascinating, as our 'Empire du jour'. You guys are peculiar...

What I don't get is, why I can carry a gun all over the place but a sword is a big no no...

originally posted by: Puppylove
What I don't get is, why I can carry a gun all over the place but a sword is a big no no...

When did you see any "All-American hero" with a sword?

a reply to: Rocker2013

Is that relevant? Besides swords are all over our history, especially when you include their conversion into the bayonet... though that's arguably a small pole-arm or short spear... say I wonder if I could carry a spear around legally... hrm...

a reply to: Puppylove

I was charged in Texas with carrying a concealed weapon for having a decorative sword in the trunk of my car en route home from visiting family.

Tell me about it.

Damn thing wasn't even sharp.

a reply to: Rocker2013

Dude.

a reply to: Rocker2013

As a person interested in psychology, it's fascinating to consider American culture and see the hero worship many are exposed to throughout their adolescence, and how that might have played a part in creating a subculture of (mostly) men who seem to be preoccupied with the notion that one day they might be able to shoot their gun in public and take out the baddie.

lol, they all want to be like Martin Riggs, who are going to one day save the day with there Beretta and supreme shooting skills. Using the suppressed anger they have over there long lost love to take out the bad guys, one bullet at a time.

a reply to: Puppylove


I love it!

How well-defined is it?

Can you carry suitcase nukes, or are you limited to muskets and cannons?

a reply to: greydaze
I think that being responsible should go without saying, I just wish the culture was not so fearful of something as benign as a firearm. It has gotten absolutely stupid in the last decade or so.

It really does seem to me like people have been reacting as if even seeing a firearm will infect them with some kind of pox or something. It's just really really bizarre to me, almost like they have some irrational fear of the thing, forgetting that it is an inanimate object. Its not out to kill them... it has no mind of it own, its just a piece of metal that launches another piece of metal.
A tool.
That's all.
Just a tool.
There is something like 318 Million people in the U.S. and 33,000 are killed via way of the bullet.

12,000 are Murdered, via the bullet.
That what? 0.0038% of the population???

Yea its a real war zone here in the U.S.
I really feel unsafe outside my house... no really I do its like living in Baghdad... SMH

Statistically people are more likely to commit suicide than they are to be Murdered.
So basically people are a bigger threat to themselves than they are to others, maybe we should just put everyone in a camp someplace or maybe a mental hospital.
Women and Children first!!!
Why not? After all they are in danger from the person in their mirror.
Just ridiculous.

I want to be like Martin Riggs?
Really?
And you came to this conclusion based on... what exactly?
You just kind of assume that we all want to be a hero and save the day, and just cant wait to kill someone.
How would you know what we want if your not one of us?
Oh I know... Guns.

That's just...
SMH
Okay Dokie.

originally posted by: cmdrkeenkid
Open carry has the potential to make you a target. When you're playing poker, you don't lay all your cards out on the table, do you?

I thought people having guns made society safer, because no one wants to screw with you when you have a gun?

So now it's a cause for trouble? Makes you a target? And they want to arm Teachers?? Holy buckets!! That means they will be making targets out of schools now. Are they serial?

Wish the argument would find common ground, it's hard to follow like this... Oo

a reply to: GENERAL EYES
Well to be fair guns have not been allowed in bars for a long time I don't think. LOL

I vote more trained Martial Artists.

You can always disarm a gun wielding psycho and afterwards - look - free gun.

Much more badass in the badassery department anyway.

originally posted by: Punisher75
a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

Maybe so but I think that wearing a firearm should just about be like wearing shoes.
So in my ideal world it would just be a normal part of life, for most people.
Get up put on your pants shirt and holster and out the door you go.
I mean I can understand covering it up on a cold day with a coat or what not.

I've heard of people strapping on their open carry just to go get milk from the store.

I've heard of someone strapping on a open carry to go to an aquarium.... you know those armed goldfish can be tricky. Good thing they only have 30 second memory spans, it's all "Right, synchronises your.... is that food?" and they never pull it off.. who'd be a goldfish..

I see not purpose other than as an extension of someone's ego. "Look at how BAD I am..." in these cases.. as for concealed?

I don't get the point of concealed either, But then I live in a country where I was arrested once for having a knife in a pouch on my belt, but it was under my shirt so they got me. good old penal colony...

a reply to: sn0rch

Well actually the Article I linked earlier said that open carry would be safer than concealed.

I think that part of the problem is that people have developed "firearm fear" or something and effectively caused people to have to ask for concealed permits if they wanted to carry as the population grew more nervous around firearms.

In short a capitulation made so that people who are scared of guns wont know if the guy sitting next to them has one or not.

originally posted by: sn0rch

originally posted by: Punisher75
a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

Maybe so but I think that wearing a firearm should just about be like wearing shoes.
So in my ideal world it would just be a normal part of life, for most people.
Get up put on your pants shirt and holster and out the door you go.
I mean I can understand covering it up on a cold day with a coat or what not.

I've heard of people strapping on their open carry just to go get milk from the store.

I've heard of someone strapping on a open carry to go to an aquarium.... you know those armed goldfish can be tricky. Good thing they only have 30 second memory spans, it's all "Right, synchronises your.... is that food?" and they never pull it off.. who'd be a goldfish..

I see not purpose other than as an extension of someone's ego. "Look at how BAD I am..." in these cases.. as for concealed?

I don't get the point of concealed either, But then I live in a country where I was arrested once for having a knife in a pouch on my belt, but it was under my shirt so they got me. good old penal colony...

Ah well I am sorry you think I feel that my ego needs extending.

originally posted by: GENERAL EYES
I vote more trained Martial Artists.

You can always disarm a gun wielding psycho and afterwards - look - free gun.

Much more badass in the badassery department anyway.

Also, people with a little more discipline would be better able to use their 'weapons' with a mindful attitude and not as a reaction to something.

Haha now I have visions of people putting on their dobok, adjusting the black belt, fixing up the crotch... and heading off to buy the morning paper...

"Why you all dressed up?" Better to be prepared than sorry !!!!! Oo

originally posted by: GENERAL EYES
I vote more trained Martial Artists.

You can always disarm a gun wielding psycho and afterwards - look - free gun.

Much more badass in the badassery department anyway.

Why choose?