First off... Austin, get rid of your police chief. That dude needs to go and now. He's a spewing fountain of liberal style paranoia and miss information, and a hypocrite with that "Come and Take it" flag on his wall.
Secondly... what in the hell do these mass shootings by twisted individuals have to do with law abiding citizens open carrying? People who commit crimes, any kind of crime, DONT OPEN CARRY! THEY CONCEAL IT! Case in point, Loy Norrix H.S. My old HS. A group of dumb kids CONCEALED a gun in their backpack, snuck it into the school and for some stupid reason, fired it off in a bathroom. And that was just a couple of weeks ago.
Thirdly, and this is a direct refute to that dingbat from the Mommy group, the reason we dont have any data about how often someone with a gun deters a criminal is... get this, it'll blow your mind... THE CRIME DIDNT HAPPEN!!! *gasp* What are we supposed to do? Stop random people on the street and ask if they've ever not committed a crime because they say a guy with a gun?
"Hi, are you a criminal?"
"Why yes I am, what can I do for you?"
"Have you ever had the idea to commit a crime, but before doing so, seen a person with a gun and decided not to?"
"Umm, yes, there have been a few times when that's happened."
Yeah, sure wilber. I'd love to see THAT scenario play out somewhere.