Grand Traverse County Open Carry Report

This new thread is designed as a place for people in Grand Traverse County to share their open carry experiences. This is a thread idea I am copying from Washington State OCDO and personally I always found it encouraging to read others peoples open carry experiences from people in my area. It is encouraging for me to know I am not the only one practicing open carry in my are. I hope you all will enjoy this and get as much encouragement from it as I have over the years

1-26-13

Started the day out by a trip to Shooters to test fire a few guns I do not own. I walked in open carrying my Springfield XD 40 and as expected I had no problems what so ever. It was busy when I got there at 1100 and found the staff to be very friendly and they did a great job of getting everyone through the long line and into a shooting lane. I got my Michigan CPL last week but due to work I have not yet been able to open carry around town other than inside my vehicle. This was a great place to officially open carry in Michigan for the first time.

After Shooters it was lunch time so I stopped in at Panda North to try the sushi buffet. The food was good, the service was great and once again no problems with my XD. To be honest the staff may not have even noticed it. I walked in with my coat on, took it off at the table and the way my jacket naturally draped over my chair the side of my coat may have acted as concealment. Either way I had a nice long casual lunch without any problems. All and all it was a great first time open carrying in Michigan state. And boy did it feel good to have my gun next to my side again!

I opened carryed up around TC for a bit today. So far I've been in Gander Moutain, MC Sports, Qdoba, Home Depot and a local park
At Ace today a guy complimented me on my T-Shirt

I always open carry at Jere's Barbershop.

It has been a bit cold for oc around town.

Nice to see people actually OC around these parts. I wonder how many OC around Emmett county, or am I the only one?

NMadole said:

I opened carryed up around TC for a bit today. So far I've been in Gander Moutain, MC Sports, Qdoba, Home Depot and a local park
At Ace today a guy complimented me on my T-Shirt

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It's really nice to know Qdoba is OC friendly, Traverse has two of them was it the one near Gander Mountain or the one near Family Video? We do not have any Qdoba's back home and I love going to them

CaptBW said:

I always open carry at Jere's Barbershop.

It has been a bit cold for oc around town.

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I have had people tell me Jere's is open carry friendly. It may be too cold to walk in open carrying but also good to know I can take my jacket off without worrying

fire suppressor said:

It's really nice to know Qdoba is OC friendly, Traverse has two of them was it the one near Gander Mountain or the one near Family Video? We do not have any Qdoba's back home and I love going to them

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Not sure if they are OC Friendly, they didnt seem to even notice....I was at the one by gander mountain

Does anyone know what the Bob Evan's restaurant position is on open carry? Petoskey has a new one and I might drive up there...

Anyone from TC going to the event on march 20th in Lansing?

OC'd at Jere's Barbershop Friday.

Do we really need a separate OC experiences for different areas? If so we should have one for Detroit area and West Michigan.

Raggs said:

Do we really need a separate OC experiences for different areas? If so we should have one for Detroit area and West Michigan.

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Keeping "exercise/experience" postings in as few threads as possible is a good idea. But I can see trying to experiment with stand-alone threads like this, to see if it spurs OC growth in an area.

It will live or die, depending on its usage. If this thread doesn't get good traffic, it will scroll down below to oblivion or be deleted eventually. If OC is increasing because people from that area read this thread and get motivated to participate and post here, that's fabulous and this thread stays at the top. Sort of Darwinian really, so I'm not too concerned with this separate thread because "natural selection" will take care of whether it goes away or not.

If this thread stays strong, after a while I would say it accomplished its mission to grow OC in the area (or whatever its purpose is) and we should talk amongst ourselves if the area is ready to fold into using the general "experiences" thread. Of course, our GTC sisters and brothers make the final call on that, since--bottom line--they know best what thread suits them and they can post any where they damned well please (in line with TOU of course). I trust their intelligence and sensibility on those decisions later.

They can post where they want though it seems like a duplicate thread

DanM said:

Keeping "exercise/experience" postings in as few threads as possible is a good idea. But I can see trying to experiment with stand-alone threads like this, to see if it spurs OC growth in an area.

It will live or die, depending on its usage. If this thread doesn't get good traffic, it will scroll down below to oblivion or be deleted eventually. If OC is increasing because people from that area read this thread and get motivated to participate and post here, that's fabulous and this thread stays at the top. Sort of Darwinian really, so I'm not too concerned with this separate thread because "natural selection" will take care of whether it goes away or not.

If this thread stays strong, after a while I would say it accomplished its mission to grow OC in the area (or whatever its purpose is) and we should talk amongst ourselves if the area is ready to fold into using the general "experiences" thread. Of course, our GTC sisters and brothers make the final call on that, since--bottom line--they know best what thread suits them and they can post any where they damned well please (in line with TOU of course). I trust their intelligence and sensibility on those decisions later.

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2-4

I am currently open carrying at burger king on south airport and garfield. Not much foot traffic right now. The drive through is packed but inside is slow. I do not believe anyone has even noticed my gun

DanM said:

Keeping "exercise/experience" postings in as few threads as possible is a good idea. But I can see trying to experiment with stand-alone threads like this, to see if it spurs OC growth in an area.

It will live or die, depending on its usage. If this thread doesn't get good traffic, it will scroll down below to oblivion or be deleted eventually. If OC is increasing because people from that area read this thread and get motivated to participate and post here, that's fabulous and this thread stays at the top. Sort of Darwinian really, so I'm not too concerned with this separate thread because "natural selection" will take care of whether it goes away or not.

If this thread stays strong, after a while I would say it accomplished its mission to grow OC in the area (or whatever its purpose is) and we should talk amongst ourselves if the area is ready to fold into using the general "experiences" thread. Of course, our GTC sisters and brothers make the final call on that, since--bottom line--they know best what thread suits them and they can post any where they damned well please (in line with TOU of course). I trust their intelligence and sensibility on those decisions later.

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Personally it helps encourage me to open carry much more frequently. Isn't that the entire point of this forum? Reading about people open carrying in Detroit dose little if anything to help encourage me to open carry. But when I read about people in my area who are so far unseen practicing open carry it gives me conference and motivation knowing I am not alone

fire suppressor said:

Personally it helps encourage me to open carry much more frequently. Isn't that the entire point of this forum? Reading about people open carrying in Detroit dose little if anything to help encourage me to open carry. But when I read about people in my area who are so far unseen practicing open carry it gives me conference and motivation knowing I am not alone

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I'm down with whatever is going to increase our numbers of OC'ers in Michigan. If this thread is doing it, more power to it!

alphamale said:

Nice to see people actually OC around these parts. I wonder how many OC around Emmett county, or am I the only one?

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Maybe we should make this a NW Michigan thread. I live, and OC, in the Petoskey area. I have never had any problems. I did have a long, interesting, but friendly, conversation with a tourist/grad student from Berkley last summer.

I had a great time open carrying yesterday at B.C Pizza in Traverse City. It is one of my favorite places to go in town and I was a little nervous about open carrying there because I did not want to ruin a good thing. I am happy to report I had a nice long leisurely lunch without any problems. I am not positive that any staff even noticed my bio tone XD but I did get a few looks from other people eating in the restaurant. Most of the looks I got where from the same man about my age who looked at me more with a looks of approval than anything else

NMadole said:

Anyone from TC going to the event on march 20th in Lansing?

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Yes, planning on it.

Grand Traverse Mall

I've been CC'ing for about 4 years and will occassionally OC. Never had a problem until recently at Grand Traverse Mall. Had my kids with me and let them play at the kids area. Took my coat off and sat down. Eventually, a security guard walked past, stopped, called on his talkie, and 2 others showed up. One approached and asked to talk to me, and informed me that they did not allow CC or OC in the mall. This surprised me as I have OC'd there often and was never approached. He was "sure" that this was posted at all the entrances as well. We walked to the main entrance, and as I stood there watching him read the sign, he said, "well, we'll have to fix that, 'cuz I'm sure they don't allow it."
I have contacted the Mall twice asking what their policy is, with no reply as of yet.