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Open carry story from Bedford Ohio

jgregel

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
39
Location
Ohio, USA
imported post

This story took place last July but I thought I would share it with you now.
I was getting ready to go to bed around 11P.M. and I was sitting down stairs in my bathrobe watching the end of the new when I heard some kids messing around outside. I had heard these kids (or another group) go by a couple time earlier but this time they were hanging around in my neighbor’s yard across the street. This happens to be where my other neighbor had his work truck parked. Now I always carry a gun. Yes even in my bathrobe! I happened to be carrying my Glock 23 in a shoulder holster this night. I also always checkout things that don’t sound right outside and this did not sound right.

So, I grab my big Mag light and slip out the back door and go around to the front of the house to see what’s going on. It turns out to be just a bunch of kids playing in my neighbor’s yard and he was not home at the time. I turned on my light and politely told the kids that it’s late and they should be getting home. The first words out of their mouths were “we isn’t doing anything”. I said, “I never said that you were but its well after curfew and you guys got to get home”. By this time I had a head count and the three that were in the yard had come up to the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street and I could see the feet of a forth one behind my neighbor’s work truck. Now I’m still standing in my front yard in my bare feet and my bathrobe shining my light on the group of kids on the other side of the street. They start doing that nervous shuffling and looking around for the best way to run when my other neighbor comes home. This other neighbor is a less than desirable piece of trash that has more or less pissed of everyone that lives around her but this could be another whole story by it self.

By this time it’s about 11:20 and I just want to go to bed. I tell the kids “Go on, get your ass’s home” and I turn around to go back to in the house when I hear the woman that just came home scream “Why you swearing at my baby!!! He only ten years old!!!”. Baby? Ten years old? Turns out that it was her 10 year old son that was hiding behind the truck. Anyway, this lady and three of the people that just came home with her (two males and another female) are coming across the street to yell at me for swearing at “her baby”. I asked her what her ten year old “baby” was doing roaming the neighborhood at 11:00PM on a school night while no one was home to supervise them.

This is where it involves open carry. Remember, I have my Glock in a shoulder holster over my bathrobe. Funny image I know but I had not expected to be holding a conversation with anyone. I was just checking out what was going on outside. So now this woman is in my yard and in my face about swearing at her baby. I just wanted to go to bed and was getting irritated with the whole situation. I told the lady, “Look, get a leash on your kid, take him home and you and your friends get out of my yard”. It was at this moment that they notice that I was carrying a gun. Now I never touched it, pointed to it or made reference to it in any way. I thought that woman was going to have a heart attack right in my front yard! “IS THAT A GUN?, IS THAT A GUN?, THEY JUST BABIES!!! OH MY GOD!!!, THEY JUST BABIES AND YOU HAVE A GUN!!!”. Funny thing is that this woman’s father is a LEO and actually a nice guy. I told her “yes, that is a gun and why don’t you guys just go home”. I went back in the house and went to bed.

A little after 12pm I had just fallen asleep and was startled by my dogs barking and the door bell ringing. I put my bathrobe and my gun back on and go down to answer the door. Never answer the door at night without your gun. I looked through the blinds to see who is out there and it’s the police. The woman called and reported a man with a gun at the house across the street. I open the door and stepped out on the landing and asked “what’s going on”. There were three LEOs all with their hands on their guns and the one looks to the other one and says “Yep, he’s got a gun”. I said “of course I have a gun”. There was one older LEO and two young ones and the young one asked me if I was afraid of being shot for having a gun. I told him “no, should I be?, I’m not being a threat in any way so why would you shoot me?” This is when the older officer said jokingly “If we shot him we would have to take his gun out of the holster and put it in his hand. Besides, Ohio is an open carry state and that gun is not concealed. You can put your cowboy holsters on and carry your guns around town and it’s not illegal. You’ll probably get stopped by every LEO that sees you but you can do it”.

I told them that I had a CCW permit and gave it to them. The younger officer told me that they received a call about an angry man with a gun. I told them the whole story of what happened and that I did nothing illegal. The young LEO said that they could charge me with menacing. I laughed at him and explained that they came into my yard to yell at me for telling their kid to go home. If anyone was menacing it was them. This seemed to irritate the younger LEO so he asked why I would be carrying a gun anyway. I said “you most likely take your gun with you when you go out at night to see what’s causing a disturbance, why shouldn’t I”. We talked a little more and finally the older LEO said that I didn’t seem to be a threat to anyone so there was no problem. Have a nice night.
:celebrate
A few days later another one of my neighbors stopped me to ask what went on the other night. I told him the story and he said that the woman was telling him that I’m a dangerous person and that I pulled a gun on her ten year old “baby”. Of course she didn’t know that the man she was talking to is one of my friends and a hunter. She also tried to tell to tell the same story to the neighbor on the other side and he told her straight out that he didn’t believe her. This guy is into civil war reenactment and black powder guns and we have shared more than a few beers together.

In the end, my unintentional open carry night turned out ok. The woman across the street still does not know how to be a good citizen and neighbor and does not seem to mind the police being called to her house on a regular basis. I’m on good terms with all my neighbors and talk with them on a regular basis. I have even taken a few of them to the range with me for some shooting. I plan on OCing this summer around home instead of CCing. It’s just easier when the weather is hot and I think it’s time to make a statement for our second amendment rights. :cool:

John
 

IxionDeece

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2009
Messages
240
Location
Troy, Ohio, United States
imported post

Now if only all LEO's were like the older one in this story, we really need to get the story to people that just cause a man has a holstered gun doesnt mean that he is an idiot and is gonna go on a shooting rampage....especially with 10 year old "baby's"....lol
 
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