Welcome aboard!
Officer "Smith" said:
In California... it is nearly impossible to obtain a concealed carry permit.
Because of this, we have had a number of issues with folks who have taken to open carry
So people were trying to follow an unconstitutional law while still having some means to defend themselves.
I think the problem was with the unconstitutional law, not with the citizens.
If you are carrying an unloaded weapon, you are a target.
Unless a criminal takes the time to get behind me & observe that the magazine well is empty, it'll look just like a loaded pistol. (
And with a revolver, they don't even get that clue.) With the criminal tendency to go for easy targets, and the general assumption that anyone with a gun in public must be a cop, criminals avoid attacking people who look able to defend themselves.
Anyone who is illegally carrying a CONCEALED weapon can be on you before you have time to load, and they can take your gun from you without you being able to do anything
Agreed. So by its laws the State is endangering the health & safety of its citizens.
Shame on them.
One of the legitimate responsibilities of government is protecting the rights of citizens. Another is protecting their safety, at least to the extent of not doing something to endanger them.
(Let me see if I can phrase that better - gov't isn't responsible for actively trying to keep people safe, but it should not make policies which put people in danger.)
I read this evening about an elderly woman in Michigan who had gotten a purchase permit & carry license, but had bought something she couldn't control or use. Because of the time & red tape involved in getting a permit to purchase, she hadn't yet gotten permission to get something more suitable to her physical abilities... and she was murdered when someone broke into her home.
When a pistol is openly carried in a populated area in California, people freak out.
While it is an every day sight to see someone walking around with a gun on their hip in Texas
It's already been pointed out that OC isn't generally allowed in TX. My understanding is that it's OK on private property [home, ranch] & when "travelling", but there's no definition of that. I just looked through the TX PDF on
www.handgunlaw.us & they don't specifically say where OC is legal, only that in general it must be concealed, which includes not being "discernable to ordinary observation".
And that "people freak out" line has been used in many places to try to deny open carry.
As a counter, I'll offer my observation from carrying around my metro area: people generally don't notice. Those who do usually also manage to realize I'm behaving just like everyone else - pushing a grocery cart, for example, or standing in line at the bank - and don't freak out.
Here are videos of me OC in various places around Milwaukee.
At a home-improvement store,
30DEC10.
Same day, at the
grocery.
Same home-improvement chain, different store, different day;
16NOV10.
At my bank
21OCT10.
These were all done with a pen camera, so people had no idea they were being filmed. I see nothing resembling fear on anyone's face. These were taken about 18mo after the WI AG issued a memo saying that OC /= DC & OC started being more common. We didn't have cc until last NOV (2011), so all of these are me with a full-size Glock quite visible on my hip.
The majority of the open carry folks in California seem to have an agenda.
Mine is probably the same as yours: go to bed in my own bed that night in approximately the same condition I woke up there that morning.
But even if someone has an agenda which is more objectionable to some, so what?
Political rallies are objectionable at times & are also protected free speech.
Every single one I have contacted was less interested in exercising their second amendment right, and more interested in trying to catch the police in a mistake so they could sue for a civil rights violation. Every last one has had a video recorder of some sort
Video or audio recorders are for our protection like your dash cam can be for you.
I won a suit because I had video/audio evidence (
made by that same pen camera) which showed that the sworn statments by PD employees were largely fabrications, having little resemblance to reality. (An open records problem, not civil rights.)
And as others pointed out, there wouldn't be anything to sue about if the laws were followed.
And again, even if their agenda is to police the police, it's not illegal.
Personally, my reasons for carry are about 96% personal protection, 2% because I can, and 2% education of people around me.
Other people have other distributions.
One of the best ways to educate someone is to be a good example. When I carry I am generally more deliberate about being pleasant than when I don't, because I want to make a good impression. Even if that is only "I saw someone grocery shopping today, she was wearing a gun, & nothing bad happened".
Some would refuse to even tell me their name.
What's the first line of the Miranda warning?
What's the 5th Amendment?
All were incredibly discourteous.
Could you be more specific? Was it just not doing everything you wanted them to, or were they yelling, swearing, calling you names, being sarcastic, talking over you, invading your personal space, etc.?
(
N.B.: those are all things which officers have been caught on video doing to citizens.)
make California a SHALL ISSUE state and eliminate the need for open carry altogether.
Give everyone a motorcycle & eliminate the need for bicycles altogether.
Give everyone a kilt & eliminate the need for pants altogether.
OC/cc is (
or at least, would be, if rights were not infringed) as much a personal choice as "what shirt should I wear today?".
There are reasons OC is better in some situations, & reasons cc is better in some situations.
My grouping/division is probably different from yours.
Our circumstances are different.
Our choices will be different.