But to be clear, what I was simply pointing out, if you read my post, was that JUST BECAUSE you open carry, doesn't necessarily mean every criminal is going to avoid you. Some may plan or surprise you when they whip out their concealed weapon to rob you and take your gun.
None of us think it's a magic talisman. What we're saying is that your objections are poorly thought-out.
Sure. Some criminal
could decide to target me
for my gun. It's probably happened before (though none of the cases you've submitted so far are kosher).
But you know what's a lot more common than hardened, dedicated, die-hard criminals picking the hardest target around for a meager reward at an immense of risk? You guessed it: lazy, opportunistic criminals looking for the easiest mark around so they can make a quick buck while minimizing risk.
So, you say I make myself a target to the one die-hard criminal by OCing. Perhaps. But then, you make yourself a target to the hundreds of opportunistic criminals by CCing and, thereby, presenting an apparently unarmed and (therefore) soft target.
Which is the greater risk? Well, the stakes are life-or-death either way, aren't they? And the risk you, the CCer, assume is numerically more prevalent. This is easy to demonstrate: you search high and low to find one or two - probably BS - stories of OCers robbed, but I could with trivial effort present dozens of cases of CCers being robbed (as you well know). By logic no less rigorous than yours, these CCers have all been "targeted" "for" being (apparently) unarmed, and therefore "for" concealing a firearm they could have worn openly.
And, once a criminal does decide he likes you, by the time your concealed weapon has a chance to deter him you've been backed into a corner and left with little choice but to shoot the guy.
You wanna share anecdotes? Remember that CCer who killed some 10 year old kid who tried to rob him with an airsoft gun? Justified, sure, but don't you think that CCer would have preferred to
not shoot a 10-year-old (however justified)? And don't you suspect that that 10-year-old would have
not tried to rob, using his toy, someone he knew to have a
real gun?
Or, what about those guys who planned to rob a Waffle House down in GA, only to be deterred by a couple customers carrying handguns? The criminals were themselves armed, as we learned when they were arrested out back. What were they doing, you ask, hanging around behind the Waffle House with guns and criminal intent? That's right: waiting for the armed citizens to leave. How do you imagine that would have played out had the customers been concealed carrying? I figure a gunfight, at best.
Life is risk. Pick your risk, accept the consequences. From where I sit, though, the risk you've chosen seems like the greater one.
