Open Carry?

[Seaman]

OC is legal in Michigan and on rare occassions I have, if I am suffering from insomnia and take a late night stroll.

Tactically it sucks, the only tactical advantage is a faster draw for most. Since I carry behind one layer only, there is no difference, ie, if I have the misfortune of OCing in the midst of a SHTF scenario, and the BGs are good, serious trouble for me because I have totally lost the element of surprise which pretty much equates to 5 accurate rounds fired.

Bottom line...OC is OK if you can draw and shoot like Bill Jordan (who honed his skills with a 1911 shooting Japanese in Pacific island caves and later on the Border Patrol). Mr. Jordan could draw and fire an accurate slug out his S&W .357 in about a quarter of a second, and btw he could also shoot aspirin tablets, exploding them in mid air.

PS: Kudos to that 71 year who took out the 2 bad guys in the Sub shop, the old gent was carrying concealed. (post #97)

[CMichael]

Me Quote:
We are currently having in an issue in MI, where a few (blank) open carry to get in the face of people who are terrified of people with guns, and it has created a legal confrontation.

At the risk of taking this into territory best covered in a different subforum...

There's a subset of the community that sees the political side of open carry as the primary reason for doing it. I'm not sure I agree, but I'm willing to listen. They've got their arguments, and they've got a few folks who articulate them very well.

The real problem arises when a small (but intentionally very visible) faction of that subset does dunderheaded things like carrying shotguns into the local library because they felt they weren't getting enough attention.

What happens? Those of us who exercise some discretion and common sense find "no guns" signs at places we frequent. In some states, those signs are legally binding. Even if they're not, we all suffer a net effect because Jimbo thought it would be amusing to freak out the squares.

I'm always leering of treating a weapon as anything but a weapon. Perhaps it can double as a political statement, but when the person carrying it is carrying it solely as a means of making a statement, I worry.

Obviously you are aware of the MI mess.

I have a dilemma on this issue.

Several OC activists were IMO seeking out a confrontation with a local library. The library staff are terrified of guns. And the activists IMO actively OCed there to get "into their face.".

In fact, they were talking about having an OC picnic in the park across the street from the library.

The result was that the library got an injunction against OCing in the library and it's going to be a court battle.

I support the right to OC, but I don't like the "in your face" code pink tactics. I am having trouble supporting the OC people who created this mess, and who have not learned from it.

[Tom Servo]

I am having trouble supporting the OC people who created this mess, and who have not learned from it.

That's the problem. If we criticize the decisions those guys make, then we're "traitors" and "Fudds."

That kid's actions had nothing to do with promoting political awareness. He wasn't carrying the weapon for self-defense. He was using it to antagonize people, whether he admits it or not.

Thing is, it backfires. Sometimes badly, as it did in this situation.