imported post
4/27/08
After applying for and being denied a CCW permit, my attention has been drawn towards lawful unloaded open carry. I have been watching this site and others for a while reading about the relevant laws and other's experiences. After careful review of the risks and benifits, I finally got up the courage to exercise my rights.
My parents have a very open mind about firearm rights in general and were more than willing to be silent witnesses for my first time out. I figure, as far as credible character witnesses go they must be near the top of the list right? They needed to go grocery shopping so I figured that would be a great place to start. I live in a school zone so I had to lock up my firearm and put it in the truck. Our first stop was a diner located on the outside of the local mall. I holstered my firearm in the car parkinglot, turned on my voice recorder, and we walked in. The counter was a little high so I do not think the hostess even noticed. When we sat down the people in the booth across the isle from us glanced over once or twice but never said anything audible. We ate lunch and paid our bill and were on our way. We were there for about 1/2 an hour or so, plenty of time to have the police respond if they were called.
Since there were no school zones between the diner and the grocery store I carried openly in the truck. Passed two openly armed security guards walking in front of the store on the way in. I am positive they saw me (my strong side was to them and I was pushing the cart) but neither said anything. We spent over an hour and a half in the store making our way from one side to the other. Being a Sunday afternoon it was pretty packed, not only with patrons but employees stocking shelves also. I received a few glances but not a single word by anyone. The only acknowledgement of my armed status came from the bagger at the checkout line. 3/4 of the way through bagging the groceries I saw him lean over to the side craning his neck to get a good look at my hip. Like he had just realized it and wanted to make sure of what he saw. He smiled at me and I smiled back and he went right back to bagging as if nothing happened. Later while unpacking the groceries at home my father made note that the bagger had said under his breath "We have a police officer with us." I wish I would have heard him say it so I could have corrected him.
All in all I had spent over 2 hours openly carrying my firearm in public with narry an audible comment directed to me much less the panic in the streets that some proclaim will happen. One more example that as long as you come across as polite and confident the sheeple will not be bothered by an armed person in their midst.
There is only one thing that I would have done differently: after walking through the majority of the store I dropped a bag. When I looked down to pick it up I noticed that while my voice recorder was running, I had forgotten to turn on my lapel mic. When going over my recording it seems that I only had about 20 minutes of actual conversation and almost 2 hours of nothing. Believe me, I will not be making that mistake again.
Sorry that this post is so long. I think I rambled a bit. If anyone wants to critique anything that I have said please feel free. I welcome any constructive comments and look forward to continued open carry where feasable.
4/27/08
After applying for and being denied a CCW permit, my attention has been drawn towards lawful unloaded open carry. I have been watching this site and others for a while reading about the relevant laws and other's experiences. After careful review of the risks and benifits, I finally got up the courage to exercise my rights.
My parents have a very open mind about firearm rights in general and were more than willing to be silent witnesses for my first time out. I figure, as far as credible character witnesses go they must be near the top of the list right? They needed to go grocery shopping so I figured that would be a great place to start. I live in a school zone so I had to lock up my firearm and put it in the truck. Our first stop was a diner located on the outside of the local mall. I holstered my firearm in the car parkinglot, turned on my voice recorder, and we walked in. The counter was a little high so I do not think the hostess even noticed. When we sat down the people in the booth across the isle from us glanced over once or twice but never said anything audible. We ate lunch and paid our bill and were on our way. We were there for about 1/2 an hour or so, plenty of time to have the police respond if they were called.
Since there were no school zones between the diner and the grocery store I carried openly in the truck. Passed two openly armed security guards walking in front of the store on the way in. I am positive they saw me (my strong side was to them and I was pushing the cart) but neither said anything. We spent over an hour and a half in the store making our way from one side to the other. Being a Sunday afternoon it was pretty packed, not only with patrons but employees stocking shelves also. I received a few glances but not a single word by anyone. The only acknowledgement of my armed status came from the bagger at the checkout line. 3/4 of the way through bagging the groceries I saw him lean over to the side craning his neck to get a good look at my hip. Like he had just realized it and wanted to make sure of what he saw. He smiled at me and I smiled back and he went right back to bagging as if nothing happened. Later while unpacking the groceries at home my father made note that the bagger had said under his breath "We have a police officer with us." I wish I would have heard him say it so I could have corrected him.
All in all I had spent over 2 hours openly carrying my firearm in public with narry an audible comment directed to me much less the panic in the streets that some proclaim will happen. One more example that as long as you come across as polite and confident the sheeple will not be bothered by an armed person in their midst.
There is only one thing that I would have done differently: after walking through the majority of the store I dropped a bag. When I looked down to pick it up I noticed that while my voice recorder was running, I had forgotten to turn on my lapel mic. When going over my recording it seems that I only had about 20 minutes of actual conversation and almost 2 hours of nothing. Believe me, I will not be making that mistake again.
Sorry that this post is so long. I think I rambled a bit. If anyone wants to critique anything that I have said please feel free. I welcome any constructive comments and look forward to continued open carry where feasable.
