imported post
reefteach wrote:
reefteach wrote:
I thought it would be easy to find OCDO members at the picnic, but so many people were open carrying there that I couldn't sort them out.
Same problem here..
I'm guessing about 150-200 people were there. And about 2 dozen people were open carrying. Many people started concealed, and eventually transitioned to open carry:monkey
They came over to the "dark side":lol:
I was standing about 20 feet from the governor, open carrying a Taurus PT145 in tan Bianchi holster while eating a hot dog. Several people mentioned before hand that because of the press, open carry would be a bad idea. I think it was a great idea, and I'm glad so many people felt comfortable doing it. It really put gun owners in a positive light. I wonder how many soccer moms noticed people lawfully carrying at the park.
So much for some of the doom and gloom predictions. Supposedly, according to some people; anyone OCing was going to ruin the event, and OCers should plan their own picnic since it was a picnic for CC. "Unfortunately" for that arguement, several mods from over on the OFCC forums were OCing as well, so there goes that... Maybe they understand it's not about choosing "sides"? :idea:
State representative Michael DeBosespoke there. He is the Cleveland politician that voted against concealed carry. Then was mugged at gunpoint, and turned pro-gun. He said "I'm not packing today butI can see aWHOLE lot of YOU are! This is the safest park in Ohio!"
I enjoyed speaking with him. I thought it was great that his wife won the training session! But he REALLY needs to get a gun and start carrying!A license that says he's allowed to carry isn't going to stop him from getting mugged again! But at least he's headed in the right direction, right? I was standing near the parking lot when he arrived, and no one noticed because it was while the governor was trying to leave. He came up to me and I welcomed him to the picnic. The first thing he said was "Oh man, I'm overdressed!" I laughed and told him not to worry about it. (He was wearing a suit and tie, and the governor was in jeans and a collared shirt) He seemed a little uncomfortable at first, but he warmed up to the group very well. I am sure he is not used to speaking to a pro-gun group, so that may have contributed to it. But I hope to see him do good things for Ohio gun owners!
There was a sheriff there, who got bored and left before it was over.
I wonder if he was there in case some of the other people at the park started to get worried or thought they should call the police?
One interesting thing to concider: Where were the republican politicians?
Lots of Ron Paul shirts and hats.
What about the pickup truck COVERED in Ron Paul stickers? That's sure to get a few: :shock:
I did meet BB62 for sure.
Only person I met from opencarry.org was Leatherneck. Maybe that was because I felt a little weird walking around staring at people's chests trying to read different styles of handwriting...:question: Did have one funny incident. While I was sitting with my wife (who swears I'll never get her to go to another one) in my VERY comfortable red lawn chairs (with footrests, oh yeah..) a guy came up to me to let me know he thought my gun was falling out of my holster. It wasn't but I thanked him, and told him it was fine. He said, you really should check it. I looked down again, looked back at him, and said yes, it's fine. He just walked away shaking his head. I don't know if he was upset I was OCing, or what, but he definitely wanted me to do something more that tell him it was ok, but oh well. I think he was just trying to help. I've got pictures I can post, but I can't seem to figure out how to copy and paste them from My pictures file. If anyone can help me out, I'd be glad to put them up.