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Cryo Chamber

The Open Carry Argument

My primary goal when I’m out and about (besides whatever I went out and about to do) is to go about peaceably and not be the victim of a violent crime. To that end I carry a firearm whenever I go out as well as follow all the other standard safety practices like maintaining situational awareness, drugs staying out of high crime areas, and avoiding confrontation. I also have a larger overall goal of making it through my life without shooting anyone. Simply put, I don’t want to be responsible, legally or morally, for another’s death. Those two goals might appear at first blush to be mutually exclusive, and with concealed carry it would be a difficult set of goals to realize.

Read more…Carrying a concealed firearm presents to a criminal that I am unarmed. Every study I’ve ever read, not most but every study, says that criminals will avoid an armed person or home when selecting a victim. That only makes sense, right? Robbers, rapists, or carjackers might be dumb and opportunistic, but they have the same instinctual sense of self preservation we all have. Hyenas don’t attack lions to steal the gazelle the lions have just killed. It’s all about risk management; are the potential gains (a tasty gazelle dinner) worth the potential pain and damage the lion’s teeth will cause, and does the hyena really need to test the lion to figure out the answer? No, the hyena can see the lion’s teeth and knows to stay well clear.

Deterrent Value:
When I’m carrying concealed I feel like my ‘teeth’ are hidden, and thus of no real deterrent value. If I appear unarmed then I am unarmed in the eyes of the robber, I appear as easy a target as almost anyone else out on the street. My probability of being a victim of a crime, violent or otherwise, is completely unchanged by the fact that I have hidden beneath my shirt the means to defend myself. My goal, however, is not to be a victim in the first place, remember?

MORE: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=371028

7 comments to The Open Carry Argument

  • Mainsail

    Please link to this website, the most current version of my essay is here: http://www.usacarry.com/forums/open-carry-discussion/7230-open-carry-argument.html

  • J

    The hyena analogy is a false analogy because the lion is always armed.
    A person who is LEGALLY open carrying isn’t as armed as a criminal.
    A criminal is going to have a loaded weapon. Someone who is LEGALLY
    open carrying DOES NOT have a loaded weapon. Therefore the criminal
    is at the advantage. All it takes is the criminals to learn who is legally
    open carrying and who isn’t.

    Since legal open carriers like to be well dressed because they are making
    a political statement, it’s not hard to pick off who is carrying the criminals
    next free gun.

  • donttreadonme

    What if they’re carrying an unloaded weapon in their visible holster, hoping some jerkwad punk will try to take it from them?
    And when it happens, they pull a LOADED CONCEALED weapon and blow the badguys face clean off?
    Then all they’d do is yank the empty clip from their unloaded weapon, and insert a loaded mag, while the gun is in the badguys grip?

  • "B"

    dontreadonme…
    Obviously you’re joking, because if not, you have no idea how much trouble and in how may ways you would get into trouble. At the very least, there would be tampering with evidence charges. A good DA might even be able to get depraved mind 1st degree murder. Then there would be the civil suit(s).

    • No, I wasn’t joking, and wasn’t serious about doing such a thing either, I was referring to a possibly true story written by a well known retired Texas Ranger, that had known a fellow officer that had claimed to such a thing as carry an unloaded sidearm while transporting prisoners. Now this officer had never made the claim of swapping magazines from a dead criminals’ gun neither.
      In pointing out you never know if someone’s firearm maybe unloaded or not, and the carrier may be some ex-special forces or Steven Segall type bad arse that will beat the stuffing out of some one that can’t handle someone openly carrying or has a bad case of “little mans syndrome” so they yank another’s firearm from their holster in a “What are you gonna do!?” type of mentality.
      So, make our day.
      If you see someone carrying openly, there maybe a few others with this person carrying concealed………

  • Bob Long

    to address J’s comment. First, I have my CCW and I carry all the time, locked cocked and ready to rock. I take good care of my firearms, because I know one day they might have to take care of me. If OK did have open carry, which I truly wished they did, I would open carry LOADED, to carry unloaded is just plain stupid. Secondly, they would not get my weapon because I would have a quality locking holster. Third, if they should succeed, then I would have to take them out with my concealed firearm. As the Tx Ranger put it, when asked by the reporter what would you have done if you did not have your back up. He reached into his boot and said I would have shot him with this one. Yes, I do carry more than one. I am also aware of what is going on around me, and I am always looking over the “battlefield” to find cover and concealment and what I would do if… If you carry open carry, you must be confident. I for one, am.

    • A convenient way to keep your sidearm holstered when some suicidal criminal is trying to take it from you is to keep your hand on the weapon, forcing it down into the holster.
      This technique is taught to police officers.
      REMEMBER THIS.

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