• We are now running on a new, and hopefully much-improved, server. In addition we are also on new forum software. Any move entails a lot of technical details and I suspect we will encounter a few issues as the new server goes live. Please be patient with us. It will be worth it! :) Please help by posting all issues here.
  • The forum will be down for about an hour this weekend for maintenance. I apologize for the inconvenience.
  • If you are having trouble seeing the forum then you may need to clear your browser's DNS cache. Click here for instructions on how to do that
  • Please review the Forum Rules frequently as we are constantly trying to improve the forum for our members and visitors.

Don't OC so that you may continue to OC!

self preservation

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2012
Messages
1,036
Location
Owingsville,KY
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.
 
Last edited:

davidmcbeth

Banned
Joined
Jan 14, 2012
Messages
16,167
Location
earth's crust
I would only add that one is under no obligation to answer any questions posed by people in respect to their OC. I recommend one not answer any questions at all.
 

eye95

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 6, 2010
Messages
13,524
Location
Fairborn, Ohio, USA
s p: Excellent response to a dumb question. When you can communicate that well, please continue to answer questions from the public, the "advice" from another poster in this thread notwithstanding.

Thank you.
 

golddigger14s

Activist Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2010
Messages
2,068
Location
Lawton, OK USA
PLEASE do not derail this thread, and go off tangent with this response. It is just to make a point, not to start thread about drugs and sexuality.

Gay rights would not be advancing if they stayed in the "closet", our guns need to come out too.
CO, and WA would not have legal marijuana if the partakers stayed in the closet.
Again, I'm just using these examples to make a point. If you don't approve of these lifestyles fine, just leave those thoughts in you head. Again, we can't educate the public if they think guns don't exist anymore. They need to see that someone can go about their daily life while being armed. I carry a gun for the same reason I wear a seat-belt, my safety when an event takes place beyond my control.
 

Griz

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2010
Messages
315
Location
, ,
There have been several St. Louis county municipalities that have made OC illegal recently (within past 2-3 years). I think Maplewood is one. Others in the Missouri forum know better which ones have. Olivette may have been another.

Missouri is a non-preemptive OC state.
 

sudden valley gunner

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
16,674
Location
Whatcom County
PLEASE do not derail this thread, and go off tangent with this response. It is just to make a point, not to start thread about drugs and sexuality.

Gay rights would not be advancing if they stayed in the "closet", our guns need to come out too.
CO, and WA would not have legal marijuana if the partakers stayed in the closet.
Again, I'm just using these examples to make a point. If you don't approve of these lifestyles fine, just leave those thoughts in you head. Again, we can't educate the public if they think guns don't exist anymore. They need to see that someone can go about their daily life while being armed. I carry a gun for the same reason I wear a seat-belt, my safety when an event takes place beyond my control.

+1

Prohibition of alcohol would have never ended if everybody stayed in the closet.
 

HPmatt

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
1,467
Location
Dallas
California.......

So what was the reason Kalifornia banned OC - just in certain counties. To cut down on gun violence from non-gang members? To keep ordinary citizens from protecting themselves? After the Watts riots to disarm the poor-folk against the po-po? Not sure if OC is banned in Fresno or OC, but when visiting relatives there have never seen anyone OC.
 

sudden valley gunner

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
16,674
Location
Whatcom County
So what was the reason Kalifornia banned OC - just in certain counties. To cut down on gun violence from non-gang members? To keep ordinary citizens from protecting themselves? After the Watts riots to disarm the poor-folk against the po-po? Not sure if OC is banned in Fresno or OC, but when visiting relatives there have never seen anyone OC.

They had Unloaded OC, and still have OC for certain activities my friend lives half the year there and OC's all the time in the woods.

They banned it because they hate seeing people exercise their rights.
 

stealthyeliminator

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
3,100
Location
Texas
They had Unloaded OC, and still have OC for certain activities my friend lives half the year there and OC's all the time in the woods.

They banned it because they hate seeing people exercise their rights.

They hate what they consider to be a "conservative" right being exercised. There is no shortage of gays exercising their rights in public, yet when I was there, I didn't see anyone complaining saying that gays were using "in your face" or offensive tactics to make a political statement.
 

self preservation

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2012
Messages
1,036
Location
Owingsville,KY
Getting back to my original post. Any thoughts from you veteran OC'ers on my conundrum? I realize my OP is rather lengthy and may seem foolish to some, but these are questions that I can't answer and that bothers me.
 

Primus

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2013
Messages
3,939
Location
United States
Getting back to my original post. Any thoughts from you veteran OC'ers on my conundrum? I realize my OP is rather lengthy and may seem foolish to some, but these are questions that I can't answer and that bothers me.

I'm not a veteran OC'er, but I will attempt to throw an opinion or "answer" to keep the thread and thoughts going.

I think your initial thought about carrying responsibly and respectfully is spot on. Should you be able to carry wherever you want when ever you want? Sure. Does that mean you HAVE to? No.

If you decide NOT to carry someplace, then it shouldn't automatically be chalked up as a "loss of liberty" or "oppression". It can be just chalked up to using some tact.

For example, your going to a relatives house. It's a young kids birthday party. There will be lots of activities that your kid may want you to do and a million little kids running around. Start the thought process.

Are you in danger by being there? I know i know I know, you can get attacked anywhere. But realistically, unless your going to plug a 5 year old for stealing your cake, your probably pretty safe.

Are you going to be making a political statement that will BENEFIT the 2a comm.? Maybe not, depending on the crowd of people. You can still bring up the topic in discussion with the other adults. Especially those non gun people. Bring it up over a beer (since your not armed). So you can still push the movement forward but with tact. You just don't need to put the full size 1911 in their face at the table. Sometimes too much too soon can turn a on the fence person to a hell no person. Especially if they get "excited" and you get "excited in response".

So again, CAN you carry in this example, yea. Should you? Maybe not. Up to you. Ever seen the video of the guy getting shot at a party because as he was hugging another person, a small child came over and pulled his gun out from his OC holster? Guy didn't make it. More recently saw a similar video of a guy at a wedding. Same thing, kids and people around and bam gun goes off.
 
Last edited:

self preservation

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2012
Messages
1,036
Location
Owingsville,KY
I'm not a veteran OC'er, but I will attempt to throw an opinion or "answer" to keep the thread and thoughts going.

I think your initial thought about carrying responsibly and respectfully is spot on. Should you be able to carry wherever you want when ever you want? Sure. Does that mean you HAVE to? No.

If you decide NOT to carry someplace, then it shouldn't automatically be chalked up as a "loss of liberty" or "oppression". It can be just chalked up to using some tact.

For example, your going to a relatives house. It's a young kids birthday party. There will be lots of activities that your kid may want you to do and a million little kids running around. Start the thought process.

Are you in danger by being there? I know i know I know, you can get attacked anywhere. But realistically, unless your going to plug a 5 year old for stealing your cake, your probably pretty safe.

Are you going to be making a political statement that will BENEFIT the 2a comm.? Maybe not, depending on the crowd of people. You can still bring up the topic in discussion with the other adults. Especially those non gun people. Bring it up over a beer (since your not armed). So you can still push the movement forward but with tact. You just don't need to put the full size 1911 in their face at the table. Sometimes too much too soon can turn a on the fence person to a hell no person. Especially if they get "excited" and you get "excited in response".

So again, CAN you carry in this example, yea. Should you? Maybe not. Up to you. Ever seen the video of the guy getting shot at a party because as he was hugging another person, a small child came over and pulled his gun out from his OC holster? Guy didn't make it. More recently saw a similar video of a guy at a wedding. Same thing, kids and people around and bam gun goes off.

Good points. Like I said in my OP, I feel sometimes there is no right or wrong answer. Just the best answer.
 
Top