ed2276
Regular Member
Hi all! May name is Ed. I am new to posting on the forum (though I have been a lurker for quite some time).
I had my first open carry experience this last weekend. I was returning from a Thanksgiving visit to my folks in Cheyenne,WY. I open carried my Kahr P-9. I felt very comfortable with it on at first, since I only stopped at rest stops and to pump gas. Finally, I had to go inside the Chevron in Fillmore, Utah. It was very crowded inside, and to tell the truth, I felt really uneasy going inside. I didn't know how people would react. I thought of children crying, adults angrily lecturing me, and the clerk kicking me out.
Actually, this is not the first time I open carried. I had made the same trip from Cheyenne to Las Vegas a few weeks ago after I went to Cheyenne after my brother-in-law died there. On the way back to Vegas I stopped at the same Chevron and went inside to get a subway sandwich and drink. I chickened out, unholstered my handgun and placed it in the trunk of my car. Then, I covered my holster with my jacket and went inside. This last time, I finally got up the courage to leave my pistol in the holster and open carry inside.
It turned out that absolutely nothing happened! I don't think most people in the store even saw my weapon. I was wearing a dark wind breaker and dark jeans and my holster and gun are black. I just don't think many even noticed I had it. The clerk saw it when I went to the counter to check out. She just smiled and checked out my items. There were a couple of customers who saw it, but they didn't say anything to me about it. It may be because I was wearing my "U.S. Air Force Veteran" ball cap at the time. I don't know.
Even though there wasn't any negative reaction or confrontation while I was open carrying, I still felt weird carrying it openly. I was really self-conscious about it. I had openly carried before as a uniformed reserve police officer, and I never really thought about it when I was carrying while on duty. I was doing the same thing I did when I was a cop...carrying openly. It was just the change in circumstance...open carrying while not being a cop...that made me feel self-conscious about it. Did anyone else have the same kind of feeling when you started to open carry?
Anyway, I will continue to open carry now that I got my feet wet.
I had my first open carry experience this last weekend. I was returning from a Thanksgiving visit to my folks in Cheyenne,WY. I open carried my Kahr P-9. I felt very comfortable with it on at first, since I only stopped at rest stops and to pump gas. Finally, I had to go inside the Chevron in Fillmore, Utah. It was very crowded inside, and to tell the truth, I felt really uneasy going inside. I didn't know how people would react. I thought of children crying, adults angrily lecturing me, and the clerk kicking me out.
Actually, this is not the first time I open carried. I had made the same trip from Cheyenne to Las Vegas a few weeks ago after I went to Cheyenne after my brother-in-law died there. On the way back to Vegas I stopped at the same Chevron and went inside to get a subway sandwich and drink. I chickened out, unholstered my handgun and placed it in the trunk of my car. Then, I covered my holster with my jacket and went inside. This last time, I finally got up the courage to leave my pistol in the holster and open carry inside.
It turned out that absolutely nothing happened! I don't think most people in the store even saw my weapon. I was wearing a dark wind breaker and dark jeans and my holster and gun are black. I just don't think many even noticed I had it. The clerk saw it when I went to the counter to check out. She just smiled and checked out my items. There were a couple of customers who saw it, but they didn't say anything to me about it. It may be because I was wearing my "U.S. Air Force Veteran" ball cap at the time. I don't know.
Even though there wasn't any negative reaction or confrontation while I was open carrying, I still felt weird carrying it openly. I was really self-conscious about it. I had openly carried before as a uniformed reserve police officer, and I never really thought about it when I was carrying while on duty. I was doing the same thing I did when I was a cop...carrying openly. It was just the change in circumstance...open carrying while not being a cop...that made me feel self-conscious about it. Did anyone else have the same kind of feeling when you started to open carry?
Anyway, I will continue to open carry now that I got my feet wet.
