"In your face" tactics seldom bring about the desired reaction from folks. The open carry of long guns in the news recently hasn't done anything positive for our cause. Unless I've missed something each reaction from corporate offices has been to ban it. A majority of comments heard from the public agree. That's a step in the wrong direction.
Maybe we should get folks used to seeing small guns, ie;, handguns, on our hips without panicking before we break out the AR's and AK's? I don't know what the answer is but it's kind of obvious carrying long guns in public isn't working.
Honestly, as noted earlier in this thread, I don't think it is the OC that is causing the negative press as much as the OC at places that would rather be neutral in the fight. When Starbucks and Chipotle banned OC in their establishments the press releases didn't say they didn't support our right to carry. The reason they asked for people not to OC in the stores is because is draws them into a fight between people.
Don't get me wrong, I believe firmly OC is needed and is my right in this country. But maybe the best way to win the fight is like boiling a frog... turn the heat up one notch at a time. It much the same with the all the profanity we hear on TV shows that would never have made it through the censors 30 years ago. We start with the OC events on the premises of places that DO openly support us and then as people realize that we aren't all freaks for wanting the to do what we have already have the to do (and that our firearms won't magically discharge at any moment) we begin doing OC in other places that have opened their doors. Someone mentioned having a designated spokesman that will handle all the media questions so that it doesn't turn into a "redneck joke" in editing sounds like another great idea.
Gary brought out the picture from Switzerland. Don't I wish we could carry that way. (Lord, knows there have been many a time I would love to shoot my computer.) but a big difference between us and Europe is that they have had a more recent, and far more memorable, encounter with people who want to kill them in their homes. They live with that reminder in their backyards every day. We do not have anything that truly says, "Remember World War 2 and what it did to this city?" or "Remember what the Soviets did to this city 25 years ago?". I lived in Europe for a few years. There are still buildings in the cities with bullet marks on them from the 1940s. This difference means that the American public has become soft and complacent with regard to the rights and privileges the founders of this country fought to insure we kept.
We need to defend our rights and keep defending them. Sometimes we need to offend to defend, but we also need to "boil the frog" so that we can win the war. How do you think we got to the point where we have to have these conversations today? The anti-gun movement boiled us frogs.
Pardon me while I go back to lurking again.
