Excellent for both parties! I'm somewhat shocked that the anti-open carry crowd hasn't bashed this post yet.
As people have said, probably because most people aren't anti-open carry, they are anti-angry-rude-aggressive-behavior.
MissMichella, for example, open carries all the time. I disagree with her reasoning on why it is a good idea---but I don't have any problem at all with her doing it. And I do think that if more people like her start open carrying, the reasons I have against open-carrying will probably decrease (since the negative reactions of the general public against males carrying firearms will be worn away by seeing more people open carrying). That doesn't mean I'd start open carrying in public in cities
but it certainly doesn't mean I have a problem with her choice of open carry.
People can open carry all they like. And just like firearms are a tool that increases your effective force, open carry is a factor that
increases the effect of your behavior. If your behavior is loud, in-your-face, and aggressive, then other people's perception of you is affected more if you ALSO have an obvious weapon while you are being loud, in-your-face, and aggressive.
Same if you were carrying an axe. (The specific tool is immaterial.)
In the public's eye, "gun owner" is a lumped-together group of homogeneous people. We aren't, of course, but the general public sees us that way. If someone open carries and demonstrates bad behavior, that reflects on all of us, no matter how unfair that may be.
I'd be perfectly happy if 10,000 people were OCing all through Nebraska---and were normal, polite human beings. (Better yet, one million people OCing every day in Nebraska.) The public's perception of gun owners would most likely change (slowly, but it would change) over time due to more familiarity with firearms and gun owners. The problem is, of course, that a vocal
small minority of open carry folks AREN'T normal, polite human beings. (Just like a vocal
small minority of people of CCW folks aren't normal, polite people either---but since they aren't openly carrying, their effect is much smaller.) And that small minority cause problems for both the majority of OC folks, and all gun owners.
These days, it is entirely too easy for a large group of people to be characterized (or mis-characterized, unfortunately) by the actions of single individuals who behave badly.
People want to open carry? Great! It is completely within their rights, they should do what they want. Even better, if they are normal, polite people they'll be good ambassadors for the rest of us. I personally think differently about the effectiveness (from a self-defense perspective) regarding OC compared to CCW, and so I make a different choice. But I'm not anti-open-carry.
I'm anti-@$$%ole. (Please pardon the term, but it is a specific fit.)
From a public perception standpoint, if we could get a huge number of 1) cute bouncy college girls, 2) grandfatherly-looking-Santa-Claus-types, 3) professional businessmen in slacks and ties, and 4) mothers with beautiful cute toddlers---all to all open carry every day, we'd win over the public almost instantaneously, as long as everyone could keep their tempers in the face of irrational screaming hoplophobes talking about how horrible they were.
