self preservation
Regular Member
Just like most of you, I have been asked the same questions over and over when I OC. The most common questions for me have been "are you a cop?", "is open carry legal?", "do you need a permit?", "why do you open carry?", etc. These questions are pretty easy to answer and it doesn't take much time or effort to give a good solid answer. But every now and then I run into a question or comment from a person that leaves me scratching my head looking for a good answer.
Recently, I was told by a friend that I shouldn't OC. When I asked him why, he responded "because a lot of states that were OC friendly have passed laws that makes OC illegal now because they have had issues with people OC'ing." Of course my response was "so I shouldn't do something that is legal so that I may continue to legally do it?" He agreed that I had a valid point, but pointed out that the fact remains that some states (or cities and counties that do not have state preemption) have changed these laws due to a sheeple population, a bad LEO encounter, an OC'er that truly did something stupid or a million other reasons that are unknown to me.
The only defense that I could think of was to say "a person has to carry responsibly and respectfully" whether they OC or CC. He then asked what my definition of "responsibly and respectfully" is. I said "well, if a 16 year old dies from a gunshot wound, for whatever reason, and the town holds a candlelight vigil in the middle of town square, that probably isn't a good time to OC." I felt that doing so may be viewed as disrespectful. But then I got to thinking more and more about what I had just said. What if the 16 year old didn't die from a gunshot wound, but rather in a car accident? Would it be disrespectful to drive my car to the candlelight vigil? I don't think so.
Plus, within a week after the Colorado movie theater shooting, the wife and I went to a movie theater and I OC'd then. Not to prove a point, cause alarm or be viewed as an insensitive *****, but because I would have OC'd that night regardless if a mass shooting in a movie theater had just happened or not. I'm not going to be defenseless just to spare someones feelings.
He also made the comment that he feels like a lot of people that are trying to exercise and promote a right are going about it the wrong way, and they are doing more harm than good. I asked what he meant and he said "like when people want to remind others that we have gun rights and 10 or 15 people show up unannounced on the courthouse lawn with AR's, AK's, handguns and shotguns, it freaks people out." I said "maybe this is where the responsible part of carrying would come in." He asked what I meant and I responded "maybe instead of just showing up on the courthouse lawn, you could advertise that a rally will be taking place at such and such location, on such and such day, at such and such time." That way people wouldn't be in the dark as to what is going on and you may have 100 people participating instead of 10 or 15.
But then I got to thinking more about that. Let's say I did organize a pro-2A rally and I ran ads in the local newspaper, I used social media, I ran radio ads and placed billboards and banners all over town. What if I did get 10,000 gun owners to stand on the courthouse lawn with me while a million more people stood in the street cheering us on? What would my message to these people be? Probably something like this, "welcome everyone. I'm glad to see so many people showed up. We have advertised this event for a month now so everyone knew we would be here today and so no one would be freaked out. The point of this rally is to remind people that we have gun rights, and if you see a person legally carrying a gun in the future, even if it is a group of people like us, and they didn't advertise like we did, you shouldn't be afraid of them and you should accept them.........because people that don't advertise these events are just as harmless as we are,,,,,and that's why we advertised this event instead of just showing up,,,,so to prove a point...whatever that point may be "
I'm sure at this point someone would scream "if they are just as harmless then why did you organize this event the way you did?" And then another would scream "you are a effing hypocrite, why don't you practice what you preach?"
I'm pretty convinced that there is no right or wrong answer to any of these situations that I mentioned, but only a best answer. Problem is, I have no idea what the best answer would be.
Recently, I was told by a friend that I shouldn't OC. When I asked him why, he responded "because a lot of states that were OC friendly have passed laws that makes OC illegal now because they have had issues with people OC'ing." Of course my response was "so I shouldn't do something that is legal so that I may continue to legally do it?" He agreed that I had a valid point, but pointed out that the fact remains that some states (or cities and counties that do not have state preemption) have changed these laws due to a sheeple population, a bad LEO encounter, an OC'er that truly did something stupid or a million other reasons that are unknown to me.
The only defense that I could think of was to say "a person has to carry responsibly and respectfully" whether they OC or CC. He then asked what my definition of "responsibly and respectfully" is. I said "well, if a 16 year old dies from a gunshot wound, for whatever reason, and the town holds a candlelight vigil in the middle of town square, that probably isn't a good time to OC." I felt that doing so may be viewed as disrespectful. But then I got to thinking more and more about what I had just said. What if the 16 year old didn't die from a gunshot wound, but rather in a car accident? Would it be disrespectful to drive my car to the candlelight vigil? I don't think so.
Plus, within a week after the Colorado movie theater shooting, the wife and I went to a movie theater and I OC'd then. Not to prove a point, cause alarm or be viewed as an insensitive *****, but because I would have OC'd that night regardless if a mass shooting in a movie theater had just happened or not. I'm not going to be defenseless just to spare someones feelings.
He also made the comment that he feels like a lot of people that are trying to exercise and promote a right are going about it the wrong way, and they are doing more harm than good. I asked what he meant and he said "like when people want to remind others that we have gun rights and 10 or 15 people show up unannounced on the courthouse lawn with AR's, AK's, handguns and shotguns, it freaks people out." I said "maybe this is where the responsible part of carrying would come in." He asked what I meant and I responded "maybe instead of just showing up on the courthouse lawn, you could advertise that a rally will be taking place at such and such location, on such and such day, at such and such time." That way people wouldn't be in the dark as to what is going on and you may have 100 people participating instead of 10 or 15.
But then I got to thinking more about that. Let's say I did organize a pro-2A rally and I ran ads in the local newspaper, I used social media, I ran radio ads and placed billboards and banners all over town. What if I did get 10,000 gun owners to stand on the courthouse lawn with me while a million more people stood in the street cheering us on? What would my message to these people be? Probably something like this, "welcome everyone. I'm glad to see so many people showed up. We have advertised this event for a month now so everyone knew we would be here today and so no one would be freaked out. The point of this rally is to remind people that we have gun rights, and if you see a person legally carrying a gun in the future, even if it is a group of people like us, and they didn't advertise like we did, you shouldn't be afraid of them and you should accept them.........because people that don't advertise these events are just as harmless as we are,,,,,and that's why we advertised this event instead of just showing up,,,,so to prove a point...whatever that point may be "
I'm sure at this point someone would scream "if they are just as harmless then why did you organize this event the way you did?" And then another would scream "you are a effing hypocrite, why don't you practice what you preach?"
I'm pretty convinced that there is no right or wrong answer to any of these situations that I mentioned, but only a best answer. Problem is, I have no idea what the best answer would be.
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