Old thread, but I'm from Winchester, VA, so I thought I'd add my experience.
My personal policy is simple. I carry a gun as a tool, one which I hope never to have to activate. I carry it openly, because it's not an abnormal activity to do so. I don't go into public places that don't have armed good guys. (Examples: The Home Depot prohibits its employees from even having a gun in their vehicles in the parking lot if they are on the clock, but it doesn't prohibit customers from carrying guns. The court house prohibits non-LEO from having guns, but there are enough LEO there to assume that at least one of them is a good guy. The medical centers don't allow guns, and they have hardly any armed guards, and those armed guards are never around, so I simply take care of myself and don't want to be caught dead in a medical center.)
I carry all the time at work at Visual Link. I go to many public places without any event at all, including Wal-Mart (where I bought ammo for the gun I was carrying), Martin's, Cici's Pizza, Sheetz, Bear's Trading Post, Gander Mountain, Play-n-Trade, ALDI, Berryville Veterinary Clinic, Home Depot, and more. I don't get any trouble for it at all. I carry a S&W .357 Magnum K66.
At Sheetz, the store manager (formerly my boss) asked me, "is that real?" I said, "Of course." She said, "Good."
At Martin's, a lot associate I know stopped me and said, "I didn't know you had one," pointing to my gun. I said, "I have five." We chatted about guns vs. blades, etc.
At Visual Link, the vast, vast majority of customers are more heavily armed than I am! But on at least one occasion I did have a customer express concern over my well being.
I do not bring a gun into a customer's home, because it's impolite to enter another person's castle armed. I take my gun out of the holster and lock it up before going inside the customer's home. However, I may be revisiting that particular policy. Most customers who see my empty holster ask me what I carry, and then they show me what they have.
Going up to the buffet and loading up on salad, soup, pizza, brownies, etc. at Cici's Pizza, I never even got a second glance from anybody. Turns out that the kid-friendly pizza joint might be the most open-carry friendly place in town.
Around my own home, only one person has ever asked me about it.
At Home Depot, I think I sparked a debate among the employees, who I think are feeling a bit repressed due to the corporate anti-gun policy. Even those who have CWP's are not allowed to have ANY gun in their vehicles on store property, if they are on the clock. Crazy, especially when you recall things like the Beltway Sniper!
---
Funny Q&A
On Christmas Eve, I decided to start calling a few stores to ask two questions: 1) How early do you close on this Christmas Eve? 2) Is your particular store open-carry friendly?
Food Lion: "We close at 6pm." "Uhh, I don't see why not."
Martin's: "We close at 6pm." "We don't really have a policy on that."
Wal-Mart: "We close at 8pm." "Well, that depends, are you a detective?" "Hold on, let me get a manager." "Sir, are you the one on hold about the....gun?" Assistant Manager: "Virginia's an open carry state, so as long as you don't brandish it, then there's no problem. I can't say that the customers won't have something to say about it, but there's nothing I can really do about that."
K-Mart: "We're open until 11pm." "Wellll, I don't see anything on the door about it, so I guess it's fine!"
K-Mart had the cutest answer! Wal-Mart had the worst AND the best answer.
