Open Carry Opinion/Story

Come on, open carry groups, give Marshal Dillon and his real life current counterparts a break and work with us, not against us. Tote your pistols, but if you are legally doing so, show us who you are, so we cops can distinguish the good guys from the bad guys.

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Firstly. Funny, but I don't remember Matt stopping everyone in Dodge City he saw openly carrying a gun, maybe I'll have to watch a few more late night reruns.

Secondly. This presupposes that those who Openly Carry are the bad guys, which I'm fairly sure is not the case. The "bad guys" don't want to be seen carrying, they conceal. The "bad guys" don't use holsters that can be associated with firearms.

Since we can safely assume that the "bad guys" prefer to conceal, it only makes sense that in order to increase the number of 'hits' officers should concentrate on anyone they can't see being openly armed. The odds are much better that someone concealing their actions is more likely to be a criminal than someone openly practicing some action.

Lastly. Here's a fairly good clue about distinguishing between good guys and bad guys, Rich, the bad guys will be doing something that in the totality of the circumstances evinces a reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct. The mere carrying of a legal object, without other indicators, does not support that.