Sunday, January 21, 2024

Open Carry Or Concealed

 
The below was was my reply to a thread in a gun forum about open carry in Texas. Some folks believe there is no risk involved with open carry, I disagree strongly:
 
'I have rarely seen people open carry. While I live in AR now, I am in Texas every day as I live in a border city. The first guy I saw open carrying in TX as best I can recall, literally swaggered into whatever store I was in with his strong hand and arm so far out from his body it could only have been because he was showing off. I guarantee he would have made an easy target for a gun takeaway. Other than him, I have seen very few folks open carry other than uniformed law enforcement. There is one local guy here that I see often at the dog park. He wears a total piece of crap nylon holster that hangs at an odd angle, my guess is that if someone grabbed the holster and tugged hard the whole thing would rip off of his belt. I can only imagine he wears it like that to show it off trying to be tacticool.

As for me I rarely open carry; about the only time I do so is when going out to my car fast to grab something and I don't put on a shirt or jacket to cover it and when I go hunting (which has not been for a while). You can, of course, do as you please but I believe open carry is asking for trouble. While you may think there may have been zero problems to date, that is not factual, takeaways happen from open carriers. In addition, sooner or later there will be someone else who has his or her gun grabbed by a bad guy or a group of bad guys or a guy who gets shot during a crime merely because the bad guy saw the handgun. I see no reason to tempt fate.

Of course, some folks have to open carry. They are mostly police officers or others in law enforcement who are in uniform. They probably amount, by far, to the greatest number of people who open carry. They have their guns taken away and are shot by their own guns all too often. That is why LE concealable body armor is usually required to be at least able to stop the handgun rounds that the officers in any given department are carrying.

While some walk around with their heads in a cloud thinking no one will ever take my gun away from me, stuff like that happens to those carrying openly. Mostly it seems to LE officers but then again that is likely because they are the ones who make up most of the folks who open carry. Here are a few links to and a video of some examples of gun takeaways from people open carrying:




[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/dekalb-county/17-year-old-steals-gun-man-dunkin-shoots-him-death-parking-lot-police-say/AXKCAIEEWNHJJHMMDL7NCWJSDA/[/URL]

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2021/02/18/video-man-snatches-gun-from-man-at-detroit-gas-station-counter/[/URL]
 
[MEDIA=youtube]bUgx90ewbhw[/MEDIA]
 
I have had to fight for my life in two instances of bad guys (all illegal aliens) trying to take away my handgun. Luckily I survived both but during one where multiple assailants were trying to get my gun my sternum and my zyphoid process were fractured; in the other the bad guy bit my left bicep and I still bear the scar about 40 years later. In that second one I mentioned, the bad guy had my gun half way out of my holster but due to good training in retention I was able to retain and keep control of it. Thank goodness an Immigration Inspector in the port of entry and a Sheriff's officer came to my assistance while several Customs & Immigration Inspectors just watched me battling the guy and trying to hang onto my revolver. The illegal alien was built like Charles Bronson in his prime and I was a skinny 155 lbs when soaking wet. I also had a homeless bum approach me in a parking lot in AZ after the wind blew my jacket up and he saw my pistol. He approached me saying something like so you have a pistol. He started to come at me, put his arms out in front of him, then started moving faster toward me as if he was going to grab for it. He was probably 20 or 25 years younger than me. I took a defensive posture getting my car in between him and me and placed my hand on the grips. When I told him if he took one more step I'd open fire, he stopped; it took a moment more to convince him that I was dead serious.  He ran away. I reported it to the police who as far as I am aware did nothing. My pistol was probably in open view during that encounter for less than 2 seconds but criminals are opportunists and he started to act on what he thought was an opportunity. I was in my mid fifties at that time, I guess he was in his young to mid twenties; he must have thought me an easy mark but soon realized he had guessed wrong. While no one may ever try to take your gun away from you, the truth is you raise the risk of a takeaway or of you being shot during the commission of a crime by displaying it openly. You can choose for yourself, I choose to carry concealed and believe me I try to be more aware of the wind ever since the incident in AZ.
 
All the best,
Glenn B

3 comments:

danielbarger said...

I'd rather concealed carry illegally than open carry legally. You simply do not advertise you are armed unless it's unavoidable. Too many bad outcomes are possible compared to being armed but nobody knowing.

riverrider said...

in complete agreement with you and my experience has been similar, thank the lord for good training at the academy. it was harped on relentlessly by the tac officers and it saved my bacon once or twice too. an academy mate didn't fare as well and his field training officer had to kill the perp to save him. he shook like a leaf from there on out. but there needs to be an exception though for cowboys/hunters out on the range. those guns are too large and situation dictates open carry. won't matter much longer i suspect anyway. i think we are days or weeks away from open warfare. tally ho!

Birdchaser said...

Here in Alabama we have open carry with a permit & concealed without. Two years in a row during a Mardi Gras parade in Mobile someone had their open carried gun snatched. One guy grabs the gun & his buddy pushes the owner down & take off in the crowd.