Once in Arizona, before concealed carry became legal there but when open carry was, I was with a friend from Ohio (also then a no-concealed-carry state) who took advantage of Arizona law to open carry his Colt .45 auto. We were in line at a convenience store on the way to Gunsite when I saw a big dude fix his eyes on my friend’s gun, point at it, and move in with extended arm as if to grab it. I stepped between this bozo’s front and my friend’s back, facing the former, and he decided to back off. But it was a lesson in how bullies, punks, and showoffs may respond to an open-carried pistol when it’s worn by someone not visibly an “authority figure.”
The anti-gun people claim to be peaceful, but if you read their websites and twitterstreams, an amazing number of them seem to be vicious bullies. You’ll see statements like “If I see anyone open carrying a gun, I’ll assume he’s the next mass murderer and clobber him from behind!” You’ll also see them recommend “SWAT-ing”: “Call the cops and tell them there’s a man with a gun there who’s about to murder everybody.”
In Tampa in 2015, a 62-year old black man with a carry permit was observed to have a concealed handgun by a 43-year old white guy, who took it upon himself to tackle the older man and take him to the ground in the entranceway of a Walmart while screaming, “He has a gun!” I suspect it was more an “anti-gun” thing than an “anti-black” thing, but it hasn’t gone to trial yet, so I don’t know for sure. The guy who attacked the legal carrier was charged with battery. It’s a miracle no one was killed, but it lets us all know there’s another danger to open carry out there today.
Open Carry
Part II: The Case Against
We discussed the “pros” of open carry. Now we have to discuss the “cons.” There are physical hazards to open carry. Opponents of the concept say, “The openly carried gun will make you a target. Either the bad guys will grab your gun or they’ll shoot you first.” Advocates of open carry say “No, that’s never happened.” Unfortunately, they’re wrong.
TV station KOIN in Portland, Oregon, reported in early 2015, “William Coleman III was robbed of his Walther-brand P22 just after 2:00 a.m. October 4 in Gresham by a young man who asked him for it—and flashed his own weapon as persuasion. Coleman, 21, was talking to his cousin in the 17200 block of NE Glisan St., after purchasing the handgun earlier that day, when a young man asked him for a cigarette, police said. The man then asked about the gun, pulled a gun from his own waistband and said ‘I like your gun. Give it to me.’ Coleman handed over the gun and the man fled on foot.”
This was not the worst fate to ever befall an open carrier. A few years ago in Richmond, Virginia, Blaine Tyler was open carrying when he walked into a convenience store one night. Two 16-year-old punks with already-serious criminal records ran up behind him and one snatched Tyler’s pistol from its holster and ran. Tyler, 48, reflexively chased the teen gun-grabber, who turned and shot him dead with Tyler’s own pistol.
Two incidents involving Indiana gun shop owners who open carried, come to mind. In one case, the assailant asked for an item displayed behind the owner, and when the latter turned to reach for it, he snatched the owner’s open-carried Colt Gold Cup from his holster and tried to shoot him with it. Fortunately, the gun was cocked and locked and the attacker didn’t know where the safety was on a 1911 pistol. The disarmed owner dove for another gun under the counter, and survived the following shootout. In the other incident, the multiple armed robbers had scoped out the owner’s open-carried HK P7 9mm, surprised him at gunpoint, and disarmed him. They were marching him into a back room with the obvious intent of executing him there when he grabbed a hidden .357, and turned the tables, winning the ensuing gunfight. Do you have fortuitous access to a second gun, as these good men did, if someone gains control of your open-carried pistol?
We’ll never win over the “antis.” Our task is to win over the vast middle ground. I open carry in public a few times a year to gauge the public mood (not with my police badge in front of the holster, either). I’ve found most people really don’t notice the gun, but some do, and some show signs of alarm. The open carry of firearms by people not visibly identifiable as police or security is an aberration of the norm, and “aberrant behavior” involving deadly weapons in a society where the lawfully armed are constantly painted as dangerous by the mass media is going to have a predictable result.
When open carry has become such a contentious topic within the gun community itself, it is no surprise for us to see the negativity the general public has for it at this time. It’s an area in which—seen in macrocosm—we in the world of the gun need to progress cautiously.
Your comments to this magazine are obviously welcome. If they weren’t, the editor would not have assigned me to write on so contentious a topic!
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