Many people still want to argue about open carry versus concealed carry. Each side has strong opinions about their position. And I’m not telling someone that they need to change their position.
I would suggest looking into the potential implications of your position, though, if you advocate for open carry over concealed carry.
Why? Because, sometimes, people get hurt when their firearm is out in the open. And I’m not talking about the person carrying openly taking shots at people.
Today, we have a story about a horrible situation where a person openly carrying what looked like a firearm was on the wrong side of receiving the consequences of carrying openly. Jill McLaughlin writes,
Santa Ana police responding to a report of someone walking around with a shotgun killed the man before discovering the firearm was fake, the department announced Dec. 1.
The man, described by police as a Hispanic male in his 30s, was loading what appeared to be a shotgun, but police later found it was an airsoft gun, which shoots plastic pellets and is similar to a paintball gun.
That’s right, the man had an airsoft gun which, then, got him shot by police who thought that he had a firearm.
Sometimes you can’t tell the difference between a fake firearm and a real firearm quickly, and it sounds like that was the case here.
Which brings us back to the open carry versus concealed carry debate.
In today’s story, the man wasn’t carrying a pistol, but he was carrying the airsoft gun openly, so, really, what’s the difference between that situation and having a fake pistol holstered on your hip where everyone can see it? Both situations look like you’re carrying a firearm for all to see.
And that’s what leads to problems.
Whether it is a criminal trying to take your gun from you because they can see it (it happens more than you would think), or it is a situation like today where someone else opens fire on you because they see you as a potentially lethal threat even if you aren’t, or if you lose the advantage of surprise when in a situation where you have to shoot someone to save a life (which can mean the difference between actually saving a life or being disarmed before you can save a life).
All of these open carry situations have problems that carrying concealed doesn’t have.
And that’s why I recommend concealed carry over open carry. The life that you save may be your own.