Why not only open carry?

Again a response - I'm told it was a good one, so I'll share, preceded by the comment that produced the response (methinks it makes more sense that way).

Dominique Jul 18, 2008 at 11:58 pm

gc - I would totally fight for your right to open carry a gun

GC Jul 19, 2008 at 1:34 am

Why only open carry? While, in a more perfect world, I’d rather that open carry be an individual choice than of local regulation - I’m not terribly enamored of that choice…

Open carry, from my point of view, has a number of severe drawbacks - particularly in our current cultural environment.

First, if the biowaste does hit the rotary oscillator, unless one has unnaturally good luck - open carry (having at that point failed as a deterrent) equates rather nicely with a “shoot me first” t-shirt. Not good.

Second, after a couple of generations of “oooh, guns bad/scary - they will grow itty bitty little legs and arms, foam at their tiny little steel mouths, and kill all the people and ravish the washing machines” - I’m not especially excited about being the target of yet another range of the irrational fears of the little old ladies of both genders, all ages, and many hues in the general populace. One such range of bigotry and foolishness is sufficient to annoy me, I have no need for two.

Such fears tend to produce unwanted interviews with local law enforcement, wherein (particularly in more repressive areas) *even if one is wholly in the right, and aside from open carry, engaged in no “threatening” actions* one tends to lose between hours and days while it “all gets’ sorted out”. Tedious, at best.

I don’t mind folks who open carry lawfully, and substantial respect for more than a few of them - ones who are willing to put up with the bigotry and harassment in hopes of abating the irrational fears and bigotries accumulated these last few decades.

However, my path and preference is a bit less noble. I’d much rather live my quiet little life, hedging my bets against the available misfortunes as best I can (yes, I do have fire extinguishers in my home and car; the car also, not surprisingly has road flares, tire chains, a flashlight or two, and a couple of cans of 10w-30 oil and a jug of water), and then getting on with the business of getting on with life.

I’m not, at this point, an activist. Just an advocate of letting the law-abiding make their own choices and, in line with their various ethos and environments, make the best choices they can to ward off the less jolly aspects of fate.

If said law-abiding screw up? There’s a reason we have courts and juries.