Why do you need a gun? To protect youself, and others, from violent people. I'd rather said violent people not know I have a gun because I openly advertised my possession of a weapon to the world around me. I'd also rather not have innocent people around me see my weapon and think that I might be up to something other than protecting myself with it. Concealing the weapon is just a better choice.

The argument is usually that if someone is open carrying, a potential assailant will see it and reconsider targeting you. On the other hand, it "could" make an attacker choose you over someone else, shoot you in the head from behind, and take your gun as the loot they were after. Point being... displaying it means they KNOW you're armed and they'll be more likely to shoot you before you find an opportunity to draw. Carrying concealed, they might be less likely to shoot you immediately. You can toss your wallet behind them or several steps to the side of whichever hand they're holding the gun in (to force them to aim their arm across their body as they go for the wallet thus limiting their aiming radius), then draw and fire when they are distracted. It's the reason air marshals don't advertise their presence. If Hijacker Haji knows who he is, he's gonna be the first person to get stabbed.

If a state has Open Carry how many people actually do it? Not many, I myself rarely do it when I am not working. I do open carry at my place of residence because it's my house, my yard, and I can do that per the law (Florida). I do it while fishing, camping and hunting, going to and from the range, per the law. Florida does not have open carry with or without a permit, however even if it did, I would conceal carry 90% of the time and for the reason I would rather keep it out of the ordinary sight of another person while out doing thing's such as shopping, movies, etc.

Statistic's prove that states that have Open Carry have less crime, you can view this on the FBI website. Also the 2nd amendment cleary says, "Shall NOT be infringed".

We currently have 5 states that ban Open Carry, Florida, New York, South Carolina, Illinois and California. District of Columbia also prohibits it.

We have 45 total states with Open Carry laws, 30 of those states do NOT require a permit to Open Carry.

EDIT: forgot to mention, 11 state's currently have constitutional carry and another 22 have bill's waiting to be heard to pass constitutional carry. Some restriction's apply in some states for constitutional carry.

No matter the debate/argument behind Open Carry, there is no statistic's that prove you will or will not be attacked by open carrying a firearm.

The saying is as follows, "an armed society is a polite society" and quite frankly I agree with that. I am around people hundred's of people a day with firearm's 275 day's a year and not a single of one us shoot at each other or kill each other and we all open carry while working.

The way I see it and the way it should be, Each person who carries should be allowed to conceal or openly carry a firearm un-harassed unless there is probable cause that the person carrying is suspected of committing a crime, about to commit a crime, or has committed a crime.

In 8 year's of driving over the road, I have only seen 2 open carrier's, 1 in Arizona and 1 in Wyoming. People think state's with Open Carry would be like the wild wild west are purely ignorant and should go educate themselves instead of spew off false information.

Guns ended the Middle Ages.

Ohio has open carry, you occasionally see someone wearing a holster. Crime rates in Ohio are rather low.

When one of the 2 major political parties had their convention in Cleveland, it is said that there were hundreds of people exercising their right to open carry in the city during the entire week. It was quite peaceful according to the news.





Conceal carry and open carry are a big deterrent to crime.

Four Concealed Handgun Permit Holders use their guns to stop violent crimes in the last week - Crime Prevention Research CenterCrime Prevention Research Center

WINNER; this is correct. I had a friend who was there, he took plenty of picture's and there were about 300-350 people open carrying. They had a few issues out there such as a few haggler's there causing a stir, but other then that it was pretty calm. Now the city itself had the deadliest weekend 5 people killed and 20 shot, but it was not anywhere close to the convention center or anywhere near where the open carriers were. Those crimes were committed mostly in East Cleveland which is extremely rough as it is.

I'll open carry if I'm going out in the wilderness. Usually my cowboy revolver. But generally I conceal when in town, at which point it's a 1911.

That's kinda one of the laws they passed during the oft-claimed but not-so-much evidenced anti-gun Obama presidency. You now have the right to carry your gun in state parks whereas before it had to be secured in the glove box, trunk, or lockable hard saddlebag.

Not saying he's been the NRA's bestest friend in the whole wide world either though. He pushed for some things that he didn't get, primarily an expansion on the assault weapons ban... which is what we're gonna have to deal with during any and all future Democrat presidents reigns. They won't stop pushing for it.

I could definitely be wrong but walking around dressed like that strapped with an assault rifle seems like a bad idea. I can say, without need of an opinion, that, if that dude was walking around New Orleans like that he would be eating cement a lot with an Officers boot on his neck. I understand that his clothing is just part of his culture and that's great! I don't think the cops down here would think it's great. I've seen terrible things happen to people down here whom were much less of a spectacle. The other dude in the tie could probably get away with it though. He would be stopped often but I doubt cops would be as concerned.

The dude in blue though. If the cops didn't eat him alive some punk would shoot him for his gun. He'd be dead before he could shoulder his firearm and wouldn't have a fucking clue where it came from. All because he drew waaaaaay too much attention to himself. You survive here by absolutely NOT being that guy.

Who passed that law? What state? Notice you said "STATE" parks?

Most state's allow you to carry into state park's, which has nothing to do with federal parks.

However I believe if you change the word from "state" to "federal" Ex: Yellowstone National Park, you would be correct about Obama signing that bill on 5/22/2009 and it became law on 2/22/2010.

You just had state in place of federal, that's the only problem here.

You can legally carry in any federally owned park, but remember, in that bill that Obama signed, it also gave lead way to state and local law's who can prohibit them in those federal parks.

Keep in mind, do NOT go into any federal facility(building), owned or leased in a state park with a firearm, if caught you will go to jail.

The bill he signed was called "Credit Card Act of 2009" and in the bill was the national park's firearm's bill that was added into it. I followed this when it happened and was surprised Obama signed it!

Before we get any further, we gotta clear some definitions up:

1) Assault Rifle = fully automatic rilfe. A semi-auto AR-15 != assault rifle. That terminology has been in play by the media for awhile now. I have a semi-automatic shotgun for upland game bird. I don't consider it an assault shotgun, like an AA-12 would be.

2) M16 vs M4 vs AR15: They are all AR-15. AR doesn't stand for assault rifle, it stands for Armalite Rifle, model 15. Eugene Stoner, who engineered the first AR15 (actually, the 7.62x51mm chambered AR10 was first) worked for Armalite. M16 is a military designation for a rifle-length (20" barrel) AR15. M4 is a military designation for a carbine-length (16" barrel) AR15. They do not necessarily have to be full-auto; in fact, the current M4s being used are semi-auto and 2-round-burst fire only.

3) Clip vs magazine (mag): Unless you own an M1 Garand or some other older, not-so-common firearm, chances are your firearm accepts magazines, not clips. Clips do not fully enclose ammuniton, and are discarded by the weapon when the last shot is fired. Magazines are the opposite. You detach them when they are dry, and generally keep them. Or they are fixed on the firearm, like a magaine tube on a shotgun or lever-action rifle.

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@focalor

I think wicked_lord is right...you probably meant national parks. State parks are entirely up to the state. Where I'm at, it's always been perfectly legal to carry on a state park (some of them even allow hunting).

I don't usually head out to state parks though, I'm mostly talking way out in the back-country. Raw wilderness. You're lucky to find a dirt road kind of thing. Out there, I carry a big revolver for moose, black bear, mountain lions and what not. Probably not suitable for a grizzly, so I think a revolver chambered in .454 Cassul is on the list of guns to buy haha. But usually if I'm out there, it's cause I'm hunting, so I usually have a pretty good-sized rifle on hand too. The sidearm is in case I get jumped. But all these lands are usually national forest or BLM, which, even though they are federally managed, are under state jurisdiction (hunting and fishing regulations, gun laws, so on and so forth).

Yeah, I used the term "assault rifle" a bit loosely. I meant to say

"...walking around dressed like that strapped with a big-ass gun..."

That guy kinda reminds me of this little teeny Misfits cover band that used to exist down here. The bassist was like 8 or 9 (years old) and it looked like the bass was wearing him.

State, federal, bleh, I meant ONE of them. Been so long since it happened that I didn't recall which. I don't get out to any national parks much. I duuno if there ARE any near me. I'm not terribly far from the NE Georgia mountains, and I used to go camping a lot up in what I "think" was the Chattahoochee Nat'l Forest. It was an old 1 lane dirt road winding through the mountains that went from Helen GA all the way to Hiawasee or Blairsville GA supposedly, I dunno, I never dared to take it far enough to find out. There was a WMA check-in station or something about 7 or 8 miles from the start of the road up on Blood Mountain I think, and just past that the road got butthole-clenchingly treacherous. Was NO FUCKIN' WAY I was gonna take my brand new 2WD Ram 1500 down there and roll it off the shoulder to certain death. Anyway, I didn't carry with a permit back then, but I always contemplated bringing a pistol or shotgun along in case a bear showed up. I never did though. Looking back, it's kinda shocking I never had a run in with any bears. We were pretty reckless. We'd drink all day, cook shit on the smoker for 8hrs or so, cook on the other regular grill, and pass out at night with those dirty greasy grills sitting there as smelly welcome mats for bears. It's a wonder we never woke up to black bears stomping the tent flat, lol.

I don't own any AR's but I've been considering getting one maybe chambered in something small to do some coyote exterminating. Past 3 years the deer hunting around my house has been nonexistent because of these pushy little mangey fucks. Theres at least 2 or 3 separate packs claiming turf in this area, always howling at night, getting in fights with each other by the pond behind my house, and lately they've been venturing close to a neighbors house and trying to pick fights with his dogs which are luckily locked in chainlink kennels. Years ago, I plugged 3 at once with a friends old 30-06 BAR and the rest seemed to move out of the area for a couple of nice quiet years. But now they're back 10 times worse than before. They're BIIIIG sumbitches too, almost look like those coywolf coyote and wolf hybrids. Anyway, a semi-auto in a small low recoil caliber would work swell on these shits if I could stalk up on a whole group again.

Actually, I just got one these Henry rifle catalogs in the mail the other day. You can go to their site and order one for free, comes with a free Henry logo decal too, which is the real reason I ordered it... I like free shit, hehe. But they have lots of 22mag lever actions. Never used a lever action before, but they seem like well made decent priced rifles, might have to take one for a test shoot soon.

Yeah those Henrys do look nice! I handled a Big Boy chambered in .45 Colt (Long Colt, obviously not ACP). The action was pretty damn smooth. Lever guns are some of my favorites. Old school.

Colt's latest AR to hit market is absolutely bare-bones. I think it's around $700. You'll have to put sights on it. But if you're just looking for something to pop coyotes with close to medium range, that's probably not a bad place to start.

AR = Armalite Rifle. Only liberals would ever think it means Assault Rifle.

I have quite a few AR15's chambered in .223/5.56. I carry my CORE M4 AR15 for duty while working. Its my personal AR, I provide all of my own firearms for work since I am a big glock fan, and if my job provides its a S&W Pro-Series 9mm, which I like smiths, just hate the triggers. All my smiths have apex trigger kits that I installed with 3.5lbs trigger pull.

Blairsville, oh the memories, Brasstown Bald Mountain, plenty of memories and my first upclose and personal bear encounter, yes he almost got shot but luckily when I yelled back up it ran off, 30ft is way to close for comfort and the last thing I wanted to do was shoot it because I am in his habitat so I understand I am violating it.

I use to rent a cabin up there. Fun times.