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big OC day

Trigger Dr

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2007
Messages
2,760
Location
Wa, ,
I have OC'd in Gig Harbor with no encounters, HOWEVER, Gig Harbor PD does have at least one officer that is very opposed to OC. He posted on here last year, I believe, about his personal thoughts as opposed to his professional thoughts on OC. Do I believe that he can keep them seperate? Not on your life.
 

joejoejoe

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2010
Messages
319
Location
Vancouver, WA
It will get easier in time. I was out and about all day today and I only thought about my gun maybe 3 times. I don't even think about what other people think anymore. I just go about my business. When I first OCed in the bank I was very nervous, but now I have been to the bank multiple times since the first one and I am totally cool with it now. The tellers all recognize me now, too.

Sounds like a great day for ya!

Joe~
 

BigDave

Opt-Out Members
Joined
Nov 22, 2006
Messages
3,456
Location
Yakima, Washington, USA
Took the day off and got a little dressed up and wanted to OC all day as I Havent before, went to the car wash and gas station just a lot of stares and nothing more, them I realized I needed to go to the bank of America on point fosdick in gig harbor, wasn't nervous till I got in there as it was extremely busy. I started to fill out my slip when a guy about my age (22) or so said excuse me banks are gun free zones! I simply said actually there's no law stating that, and he just said oh.... I didn't know that, I'm with you man. I could see some older gentleman in the bank seeming to approve not that I needed it but it was nice, everyone else in the bank seemed very nervous so I broke the silence by cracking jokes with the people behind me in line after that walked to Safeway then back to my car with a lot of eyes on me but no swat team on me ha! Prolly since I didnt stick around but maybe gig harbor pd are bein careful, I need some more OCers in the harbor!

Is it really that many eyes were on you or is it just a hypersensitivity as the greater majority experience who carry for the first time, be it open or concealed go through as well?
"I need some more OCers in the harbor!"
If you don't mind, Why?
 

Trigger Dr

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2007
Messages
2,760
Location
Wa, ,
Officer O'Neil.
Look up the thread "THE WILD WILD WEST OF TACOMA" March of this year. I do not know how to link to it.
This was the start of the thread I think.

imported post
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/0...of-tacoma.html

I looked down the empty streets of town, squinting against the brightness of the setting sun. As it dipped over the horizon, the shadows produced a lone figure whose dusty, er, duster, flapped in the light breeze that arose in the sun’s absence.

The unbuttoned coat was tucked behind a holstered gun that loomed larger, suddenly, than the man himself, who now moved steadily towards me as if caught in the breeze. He reached towards the pistol, and I braced. His hand slipped, instead, into a pocket from which he drew . . . a cell phone.
Cut, cut, cut.

With apologies to Louis L’Amour, my purpose here is not to write a Western. That much is obvious, considering Mr. L’Amour would have risen from the dead to wallop me with a decomposed saddle blanket had I continued.

My ironic purpose, however, is not to wrassle with literary cowboys, but to document the incident that recently happened to me a few days ago on the lonesome prairies of Tacoma.

This gentleman was one of the promoters of the so-called “open carry� laws. In increasing numbers, these folks are challenging the status quo by moseying around in public places, armed with a handgun. Concerned and vocal critics of these folks are wondering aloud if the town, any town, is big enough for the unarmed and the “openly armed.�

The justification for openly carrying a firearm in public is solidly based on the Second Amendment to the Constitution, and further expanded in our state’s constitution – Article 1, Sec 24, if you care to do a little light reading. These laws have encouraged advocates to share, display and even tattoo their allegiance to said gun rights.

Thus, say its proponents, “open carry� is well-founded. I would go so far as to say it could be considered reasonable. Reasonable, yes, assuming that it’s 1872 in a town filled with tumbleweeds and Texans in equal portion, where a man can stand tall at a bar with a shot of whiskey or lie still in a pine box with posies.

In short, except for the potholes, Tacoma bears little resemblance to any place 150 years ago, west or east of the Pecos.

But today, citizens openly displaying a holster bearing their six, 10 or 17 shooters, as the case may be, are anachronistic. Despite ubiquitous photos of “open carry� advocates sitting comfortably in a coffee shop, this action exemplifies a disconnect with today’s reality, much as an 1870s cowpoke texting on the range.

First, and foremost, is the sincere concern and fear of unarmed individuals. How many passers-by would simply choose to pass on by, rather than stop and take a table next to an armed a) patriotic American choosing to exercise his or her constitutional rights; b) unsavory sort who relishes the expressions of fear on others’ faces; c) unstable individual with little or no firearms training, questionable judgment and maybe an unbalanced medication issue?

The melting pot, or chunky stew, that is America guarantees that a random sample of any group will contain all of these options.

For police officers such as myself, who sat through lengthy written tests, oral boards, polygraphs and batteries of psychological exams, all for the purpose of proving our physical and mental fitness to carry the same firearm, the issue appears unbalanced.

The idea may have made sense in the bygone frontier era when police departments were, by and large, nonexistent, but with hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers on duty in our country, “open carry� can get complicated.
I have responded to 911 calls involving “open carry� individuals and had to address the sincere and rational fear on behalf of the unarmed caller. But was there a threat? The answer is, it’s complicated.

With all respect to the law-abiding citizens who openly carry firearms, it is no longer 1872. While businesses are within their rights to prohibit this activity, common sense and respect for the sincere concerns of others should suggest other options for those wishing to exercise their rights.
If the problem is the inability to pass the background check for a concealed weapons permit, then maybe the pistol needs to stay back on the ranch.

Police officer Brian O’Neill of Gig Harbor is a former reader columnist. E-mail him at btoflyer@comcast.net. His views do not represent that of his police agency.
 
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amzbrady

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2009
Messages
3,521
Location
Marysville, Washington, USA
In the bank no, but outside yes hypersensitivity could definately be the case, i just want more OCers in GH to help make it more common, personally I'm not comfortable OCing everywhere but I do cuz I want to support OC because I think its important to do so

Where at in GH? I have open carried about everywhere you can go between Moclips to Montesano. I Bank at Bank of America, never had a problem in Aberdeen, My boss's banked at Timberland in Ocean Shores and never had a problem there either.
 

5o56x45

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2010
Messages
51
Location
CA
Took the day off and got a little dressed up and wanted to OC all day as I Havent before, went to the car wash and gas station just a lot of stares and nothing more, them I realized I needed to go to the bank of America on point fosdick in gig harbor, wasn't nervous till I got in there as it was extremely busy. I started to fill out my slip when a guy about my age (22) or so said excuse me banks are gun free zones! I simply said actually there's no law stating that, and he just said oh.... I didn't know that, I'm with you man. I could see some older gentleman in the bank seeming to approve not that I needed it but it was nice, everyone else in the bank seemed very nervous so I broke the silence by cracking jokes with the people behind me in line after that walked to Safeway then back to my car with a lot of eyes on me but no swat team on me ha! Prolly since I didnt stick around but maybe gig harbor pd are bein careful, I need some more OCers in the harbor!

I have had trouble in Bank of America only 2 times for lack of a better word but I wouldn't really call it trouble. Both of them were because I walked in the door while I was taking off my motorcycle helmet. I was not carrying a firearm either time. The woman said that it makes them nerviouse when I walk in the bank with a bike helmet on. I went to to Bank of America once while OCing without my bike helmet and they didn't say a word.
 
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