The man went looking for a confrontation with those doo doo meanie icky open carriers, and he got one. Score one for the Antis. The whole camera-following-we're-not-name-calling episode harkens back to my kids in the back seat and "I'm not touching you...." and "I'm rubber, you're glue..." Do you think I won't pull this car over?
If the man wants to stand and honestly debate the merits of openly carrying firearms, fine. I don't think anybody here believes he was/is willing to change his beliefs, however, so that's probably a waste of breath. In fact, I'll buy y'all lunch if that guy believes in any non-governmental weapons carrying, open OR concealed.
My opinion, FWIW, is they should have left him alone. If the guy wants to wander around on a public sidewalk videotaping citizens engaging in First- and Second Amendment-protected activities, while the (I think this was in) Austin Police are not violating their Fourth Amendment rights, far out, man! He has First Amendment rights too. Carrying on with whatever they were doing while ignoring him would have completely ruined his purpose for being there while completely reinforcing our points that we (open carriers in general) aren't there to intimidate anybody. Should he have been recorded? I believe it was a good idea to record him, but following him around and getting right up in his face was not the way to do it. He should have been recorded from across the street, or at least a reasonable distance.
[What's a "reasonable distance"? If you're out in public, and you're somewhere you have a right to be, and you have no expectation of privacy, and you see somebody recording you (which they have a right to do), at what distance do they become threatening to you? Ten feet? Twenty feet? "Do unto others..." is a reasonable guide here.]
Record the guy from across the street. Down the sidewalk a ways. Just not in his face. First, the guy can reasonably claim that your in-his-face recording doesn't show the icky doo doo meanie physically intimidating antics your partner was doing while you were also blocking his camera. Second, if, God forbid, the incident had escalated to a physical confrontation, you've pretty much sealed your own fate by following the man around and getting in his face instead of allowing the threat to escape.
The only reason to get that close to someone with whom you are not acquainted is for intimidation, and that goes against what we're trying to do.
Handling non-physically-aggressive confrontational people takes experience and you have to know what you're going to say beforehand. Remember, these people don't want to debate the merits of one form of carry over another; they want to goad you into an ugly confrontation so they can show how untrustworthy you are and how easily you can be pushed to violence.
"Look, sir/Ma'am, I'm not looking for trouble and I'm not causing any trouble. I'm just trying to get a burger/do some shopping/go about my business/whatever I'm legally doing. I'm not threatening anybody, and I apologize if you feel threatened, because that was not my intent. I'm merely carrying the means to defend myself and my loved ones because, as I'm sure you've read in the papers and seen on TV, you can never know when or where violence will visit...."
I don't think the folks in the video handled the situation as well as it could have been handled, but at least there was no violence.
stay safe - phil