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Originally Posted by jimbob86
...OC is legal where I live. I do it occasionally, but not to make a statement.
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And no one is quarreling with that. The concern is open carry as political activism.
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Originally Posted by jimbob86
...Of what value is a right if you are afraid to use it?...
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It's a funny thing, but it is in fact reality, that if enough people do something that's legal but they do it in a way that enough other people find obnoxious, the activity probably won't stay legal for long.
[1] There are plenty of examples of rights being lost because enough folks didn't like the ways in which they were being exercised. Over the years, in many communities, we have seen many zoning and other laws adopted restricting how you can use your own property. In some places you may not work on your car in your own driveway in view of the public street. In some places you must get design approval of remodeling or landscaping visible to the public. In some communities, you may not park or store large vehicles like boats on trailers or RVs on your property so as to be visible to the public. These sorts of restrictions have in large part been the result of strong enough public sentiment that some things previously lawfully done by private parties on their own land were unseemly or unattractive.
[2] In California in 1967, because some folks with whom much of the public lacked sympathy legally carried loaded guns openly in public, loaded open carry was made illegal.
[3] And because demonstrations in California in which folks legally carrying unloaded handguns openly in public made too many other people too uncomfortable, the open carrying of unloaded guns in public was made illegal, effective 1 January 2012, in California.