Open Carry Day

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I appreciate the idea that everyone needs to see ordinary people going about their normal business peaceably armed. To me, that is the goal. However, where I live, open carry is completely legal, yet it is simply not done. Ever. To do so would cause alarm, and would result in police intervention. It would result in either open carry converted to closed carry and a stern warning (assuming a CCDW), expulsion from a business, or a high profile arrest. None of those would send the correct gun rights message, nor would they help educate people about the 2nd amendment.

I think we want the same thing, but I see the need for a two step process in some areas like mine. If you can openly carry without any of the unpleasant consequences I described, please do so. You are fortunate to be in such an enlightened location, and you have lost a lot less than the rest of us. Carry openly to guard against an erosion of your rights.

I'm stuck in the middle. People don't carry openly here, but the laws in a lot of states completely prohibit citizens from open carry.

In my experience, the more urban the area, the more resistance there is to open carry. My comments refer to those urban areas that already have a deep seated fear of guns in most of the population.

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You are more likely to encounter these problems, if they exist for an individual, doing somthing en masse to scare people - as it might be perceived.

But I doubt anyone is going to be arrested in KY, let alone convicted,for obeyng the law, and if so, that is what needs to happen anyway to get the problem fixed.

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I've open carried in Carytown (in a highly urban area of Richmond) both alone and with a friend about a dozen times, never had a problem. Have been into most stores in Carytown without a problem - Plan 9, Ellwood Thompsons grocery, Mongrel, McDonalds, the flower shop, For The Love of Chocolate, etc. Its a pretty upper-middle class liberal (for Richmond) area, and I have never had a problem.

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I spent over a month in the Lexington, KY area. During that time I OC'ed everywhere I went. Even had a lot of conversation with Japanese nationals because many had never seen a gun except on TV - there is a Suzuki plant there or something like that.

I OC'ed in public everyday, I was living in a hotel and had to eat out and do all my basics in public.

I did not have a single negative encounter. I even talked with a few LEOs and walked past many. Again, no problems. I was mainly around Man O' War Blvd and a few other places that I just know how to get to and from.

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I'm struck by the tremendous difference between Libert4ever's perception and Possumboy's actual experiences in Lexinton. Perhaps many people assume that because OC is simply "not done", that doing it will result in terrible consequences. It took news stories of a few high profile mistakes by the police in Virginia to remind the masses that OC is perfectly legal, and to educate the police that they couldn't hassle decent people for doing something that is perfectly legal. I'm not aware of any backlash to outlaw OC here. Hell, people can OC in the General Assembly building in Richmond if they want to. (tho' you need a concealed carry permit to do so. Go figure.)

I have a friend who moved to the Lexington area after 20 years in VA. I'll have to email him to find out his experiences.

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I'd like to hear any experiences that anyone has relating to open carry in Lexington KY. I've lived hear for 28 years and I don't remember ever seeing civilians carrying weapons, other than at gun shows.

I think some people would know about the open carry law (mostly gun owners, many of them carrying concealed). Others would assume someone with a holstered pistol was a detective or off duty police or something like that. This perception would probably be based a lot on the person's superficial appearance. Then, there would be some excitable people calling the police to report "a man with a gun", as if that's a crime. There's no question that attitudes around here need to change.

Kentucky has some good gun laws. Check out the maps on opencarry.org to see how the state is rated. But I think there's often a considerable difference between laws and customs. The three largest towns in Kentucky, (Louisville, Lexington and Covington), are not very gun friendly. About a third of the police in each of these towns will hassle people for carrying openly, even though they know it's legal. They just don't like it.

I think Lexington probably has the most anti-gun government in the state, and possibly the most anti-gun perceptions by the citizens too. Hey, at least it isn't Louisville. They have a firearms museum with signs at every exterior door prohibiting concealed carry and open carry.

Overall, Kentucky is a good place to be if you're a gun owner, but Lexington certainly needs to be made more aware of gun rights, and particularly needs to learn that guns are not used only by criminals. From recent legislation and opinion polls, I suspect much of the country needs the same lessons.

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Liberty,

Welcome to OCDO,and thanks for your well-argued posts concerning group OC and individual OC. I, like possumboy, have OCd uneventfully in Lexington, but I agree that it is a bastion of silly liberalism. On balance, I agree with Mike, that individual OC is the way to go, and if necessary,some hard-hitting lawsuits against policemen who would seek to deny us a long established RIGHT.Only through individual OC will the practice eventually become a non-event, IMHO.

I understand the point that you are making about the difference between laws and customs, but it devolves on us, I believe, tomake OC anormal custom.

We have right on our side. If the cops hassle us, educate them politely. If they arrest us, sue the pants off them!They are not paid to have opinions one way or the other. Please remember this.

For the record, I am not at all anti-LEO, just very pro-freedoms!

Kentucky must not be allowed to degenerate into another People's Republic, and guys like us can prevent this from happening.

TrueBrit.

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TrueBrit wrote:

I, like possumboy, have OCd uneventfully in Lexington...individual OC is the way to go, and if necessary,some hard-hitting lawsuits against policemen who would seek to deny us a long established RIGHT.Only through individual OC will the practice eventually become a non-event, IMHO.

Click to expand...

My bet is that OC in lexington will be a non-event for Liberty4ever too.

In the odd chance that you do have a problem,a lawsuit will rarely be necessary - once a OC harrasment incident (if it ever happens) hits the public record thru press reports, official complaints against the police, policy discussion by elected leaders, etc., the whole thing usually goes away beautifully.

Look thru these threads for advice on baby steps to OC. Once you start doing it, you will become our local Lexington OC Jedi.

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Fortunately, there is no need to make a choice between individual open carry and open carry group events. We can do both. Some people are simply not willing to be the poster boy for gun rights in their community for many different reasons, but still want to do something to advance gun rights. A group event would allow them to make a contribution.

I think there's certainly room for both approaches. Individual open carry may result in unjustified harrassment and that would be an opportunty to educate everyone about the law. But laws aren't written in stone. I doubt that a few problem cases with individual open carry would result in Kentucky rewriting laws to prevent open carry, but there are a lot of states like Texas which are basically gun friendly, yet still do not allow open carry.

I'm not very confrontational. I don't want to be the one person in any social situation receiving all the attention for bucking the trend, even when the law is on my side. That's mostly a matter of my personality, and not a comment on tactics. But I do feel that the open carry cause can be advanced in a less confrontational manner by the group events. It's difficult, but I think it's important to try to get inside the head of anti-gunners as well as the average person in the community. Their attitudes about guns are a lot different from anyone on this forum.

For those of you willing to more aggressively push the open carry agenda by freely exercising your rights, I'm grateful. I'm not quite there yet, and I know a lot of other gun owners aren't either. But there should be some way we can do something, and the open carry event seems like a way that causes less stress for gun owners and the more excitable members of a community. It has the potential to raise awareness by generating positive media coverage, and even though I'm not a social guy, it should be a fun social event.

From the perspective of self defense tactics, I still prefer concealed carry, so that's another reason I prefer not to open carry on a regular basis. I'm basically putting my defense ahead of everyone's gun rights, and that's a bit selfish, so that's probably a good part of the reason I want to have a group event where I can contribute to raising public awareness of gun rights, instead of hiding a handgun and allowing people to ignore all guns except those used in violent crime.

Even if you openly carry every day, you're still invited to the group open carry event.


Maybe you can sit at an honored place at the front of the table.

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I think both approaches have their merits. For the individual who is comfortable with openly carrying every day, please do so! It is these people who help protect against erosion of our rights and make it easier for closed carry people to "come out of the closet". However; I think that the idea of a group gathering or "ice cream social" also has huge positive implications. There are plenty of people out there who are either pro-gun and closed carry or who are pro-gun but don't carry at all (I currently fit in this group). For people like me it's not as easy as someone saying "It's your legal right, so just carry openly and don't worry about it".The simple fact is that many people are intimidated at the thought of open carry. It's difficult to do something that is frowned upon by the masses, even if you know that something is the right thing to do. However; it's a whole lot easier to convince someone who is "on the fence" to open carry if they know their first open carry experience will be a positive one with other like minded people. People might very well be willing to openly carry if they know that more of their peers are doing so, or if they could be introduced to the concept in a friendly, group setting rather than having to test the waters by themselves at the local grocery store or restaurant.