Salon: Open Carry "dangerous"

A recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology suggests that when people are holding a gun, they’re less capable of evaluating a threat than they would be if they didn’t have a weapon in their own hands. Jessica Witt, a psychologist at Colorado State University, asked volunteers to hold either a plastic gun or a neutral object (such as a ball) as they reacted to pictures flashed on a screen. The photos depicted people holding various objects — sometimes a gun, sometimes a shoe, a soda can or a cellphone. While holding a gun, volunteers were more likely to misidentify the object in the photo as a gun. (Likewise, if you’re holding a shoe, you’re more likely to think the guy in the photo is holding a shoe — but that mistake isn’t likely to end in tragedy.)

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Typical flawed study.
It doesn't say that if you carry openly or concealed that you're more or less likely, just that when you have a tool in your hand that you are more psychologically prone to see times when it is needed.

People don't go walking around their homes, yards or in public with a firearm in hand unless they are looking for a threat. And if you're holding an implement in your hand that's used in response to a threat you're more likely to see things in terms of being a threat.

But hey, let's run with it. Who in modern society typically carries more than anyone else? Cops. So, from the study (if it's accurate) we can assume that cops are more likely to see innocent people and innocent acts as threats than are other citizens.

Sounds like the best way to keep the citizenry safe.... would be to disarm cops.

Who woulda thunk that simply pulling your shirt over your gun makes us all safer?

Salon = liberal rag.