open carry Lacy Cabela's

Friday I was in the Lacy Cabela's having lunch (among other things) and noticed 4 to 6 men open carrying.

What was unusuall was they all also had silver badges on their belts, except one man had a gold badge. They were all fairly fit and in their late 20's early 30's.
So not your typical bunch of middle age gun toters.
I did not have a chance to speak to one of them. I assume they must have been LEO's but this is the first time I have seen LEO's in civilian dress open carrying.
Could they have been just a bunch of guys with those "concealed carry badges" that you sometimes see for sale in the back of gun magazines?
They ignored me (I was open carrying) but I am curious if anyone from this forum has run into people like this?

This episode just struck me as very odd.

I doubt they were LEO's, did you manage to see what kind of handgun they are carrying? That usually tells you if they are possible LEO's. Odd are, you saw people who are friends and decided to sync their looks.

Seriona said:

I doubt they were LEO's, did you manage to see what kind of handgun they are carrying? That usually tells you if they are possible LEO's. Odd are, you saw people who are friends and decided to sync their looks.

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They seemed to be all carrying Glocks.

Eh, it could be LEOs.

Gold badge was the supervisor...

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Primus said:

Gold badge was the supervisor...

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Or a De[f|t]ective.

The Sheriff's deputy that harassed me in Starbucks was wearing a polo shirt and had his badge on his belt. He was an instructor at the sheriff's shooting range.

It really does not matter who they are. They were open carriers, in regular guy clothing acting like regular guys. That makes the rest of us "regular guys" look good. The normalization of openly carried firearms by ALL people is our goal,eh?

MSG Laigaie said:

It really does not matter who they are. They were open carriers, in regular guy clothing acting like regular guys. That makes the rest of us "regular guys" look good. The normalization of openly carried firearms by ALL people is our goal,eh?

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Well said. +1

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CC the badge, OC the pistol.

Nightmare said:

Nope. Badged as elite-wannabes. Either we are equal or we are not.

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Don't take it too far, how many times is OC ignored because we are assumed to be police officers? A week after turning 21 before my CPL arrived I open carried while walking to a job interview in seattle. I took my gun off and stored it unloaded in my backpack before getting to the place, then after it was over I went to a restaurant bathroom stall and armed up again. I was wearing a bluish white dress shirt, tie, and grey slacks with a leather belt, people probably thought I was a cop and thus didn't pay me much mind. Sometimes the idea of cops being the "only ones" works to our advantage....

6 people all dressed business casual with badges carrying glocks, I will bet you the moon and stars they were LE.

Actually the LE community should thank the open carry movement, because in some agencies carrying guns openly in civilian dress is forbidden by regulation, but my understanding is some agencies have recently loosened that. Could it be because of handgun normalization?

EMNofSeattle said:

Don't take it too far, how many times is OC ignored because we are assumed to be police officers? A week after turning 21 before my CPL arrived I open carried while walking to a job interview in seattle. I took my gun off and stored it unloaded in my backpack before getting to the place, then after it was over I went to a restaurant bathroom stall and armed up again. I was wearing a bluish white dress shirt, tie, and grey slacks with a leather belt, people probably thought I was a cop and thus didn't pay me much mind. Sometimes the idea of cops being the "only ones" works to our advantage....

6 people all dressed business casual with badges carrying glocks, I will bet you the moon and stars they were LE.

Actually the LE community should thank the open carry movement, because in some agencies carrying guns openly in civilian dress is forbidden by regulation, but my understanding is some agencies have recently loosened that. Could it be because of handgun normalization?

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Could be. I think the OC movement has done a lot more than any pro-gun membership driven organization.

sudden valley gunner said:

Could be. I think the OC movement has done a lot more than any pro-gun membership driven organization.

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+1 Absolutely

MSG Laigaie said:

It really does not matter who they are. They were open carriers, in regular guy clothing acting like regular guys. That makes the rest of us "regular guys" look good. The normalization of openly carried firearms by ALL people is our goal,eh?

Click to expand...

+2