Quote:My home state (Idaho) has open carry laws...To us who have grown up there it's really not much different as we are a HUGE hunting and outdoor sports (including sports competitive shooting) therefore people have always been carrying firearms openly...Heck when I was in high school, all of us kids that hunted and fished had a gun rack in the back window of the truck with a shotgun, rifle, and fishing pole hanging in it and no one was phased...

 

The thing I want to point out, is open carry to most people who are hunters and gun enthusiasts, is that open carry does not mean start shooting people who need shot, or that we are vigilantes, nor are we a back up police force, nor should we take the law into our own hands, open carry simply means that we can carry our firearms openly without repercussion...Open carry is also a deterrent to being chosen as a victim of a crime...Most people won't attack or attempt to cause injury to someone who is known to be armed  

 

But isn't it also true that open carry means anyone, including the people you might be afraid of.  

 

Look at Cleveland right now.    There are going to be demonstrators of all stripes carrying guns during the demonstrations.   How do you think the cops feel about that?   They'll be facing off with people who are yelling at them and carrying guns.  And what is going to happen when the cops inevitably have to arrest some people, for valid reasons, but those people are carrying guns and they aren't in a mood to get arrested that day?   And which one of those people carrying guns in Cleveland is an ISIS sympathizer?   Or just some nut who's having a bad life? 

 

Granted, as you say, open carry doesn't mean you (in particular) want to start shooting people, or that you (in particular) want to be some sort of vigilante.   But you're not necessarily representative of everybody, and open carry laws mean that inevitably there are going to be people carrying guns that make you (and me) very very nervous. 

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