Appropriate Open Carry of a Defensive Firearm
Rob PincusDescription
In almost all circumstances, people are better off carrying defensive firearms in a concealed manner. Carrying a firearm in order to create confrontation or make a political statement is something very different from carrying for personal defense. Carrying a defensive firearm openly can make you a target and/or draw unnecessary attention. While there are times when you must open carry your firearm, choosing to do so when concealment is an option is usually a bad idea.
Here comes another important tip from the Personal Defense Network. I am unaware of any valid reason why someone should plan on going out of their house armed to defend themselves or others and choose to carry in this manner. Openly with no retention device whatsoever. It's really just kinda foolish. There are a lot of people who think that this is acceptable, this is okay. Now, let me throw the caveats out of the way. If there's a legal reason why you can't conceal a gun the only option you have is to carry a gun openly, great but still not in this way, behind your body, behind where your hands normally move, behind that point of the hip without any retention devices whatsoever. Now, a lot of people will tell you when they see this video or maybe in the comments below it, "Well, show me one example of a gun grab." Well, there was one very clear example of a gun grab recently in Florida which was very well-documented and really can be found pretty easily over the internet. And what we're talking about is, a lot of people who are advocates of open carry will tell you that no one has ever come up behind an open carrying person and tried to grab their gun. Well, in fact someone did have their gun grabbed, very clearly in a very high profile way. We also know that a lot of people have been confronted in public and have been asked, well why are you carrying a gun? And it's led to arguments about, you know, someone being, trying to maybe make up for some lack of toughness, someone trying to be able to make up for some lack of security in their lives. Someone looking for a confrontation, someone trying to pose as, you know, being a lot tougher than they really are or really just trying to make a statement that, "Hey if you mess with me, you're really in for some bad trouble." All of those things may be true or may not be true but just the simple fact that you could walk into a public environment and create a confrontation, goes against everything that we really talk about when we say, responsibly armed, responsibly prepared to defend yourself or others in public. That's the reason you should be carrying a firearm. Defend yourself or others, if you need to. You shouldn't be carrying a firearm to make a political statement. You know, a good friend of mine and then fellow PDN contributor Grant Cunningham made the observation that, carrying openly just because you can as a political statement is kind of ridiculous because you are now lobbying for something and being an activist for something that's already legal. You're not Rosa Parks sitting at the front of the bus in order to protest a wrongdoing. If you can legally do this, you don't need to do it to assert your right. You can assert your right to carry firearms and you can assert your pride about carrying firearms and assert the fact that you're a responsible citizen and you're a good normal member of the community who happens to own guns and think it's okay to carry guns, by wearing a t-shirt that says so. You can get a tattoo, you can put a bumper sticker on your car, you can hand out flyers on the street corner. You can do a lot of things to raise awareness that don't actually bring a lethal device into play. Carrying openly, just for a political statement again, I think is reckless. Let's talk about appropriate open carry. There are times when carrying openly is going to be appropriate. I already talked about the legal issue. If you can only carry a gun openly legally then that may be your thing. But remember that if you choose to carry that gun openly, you should still have a retention device and you should be doing so in a responsible way. Not in a way that is designed to elicit a response. We know that in the state of California people who chose to carry openly, even with an unloaded gun as the law did allow for, with video cameras trying to incite police confrontations and trying to challenge police to infringe on their rights to carry an unloaded gun, actually had that law changed. And it is now no longer legal to carry the gun openly loaded or unloaded in that state directly because of the eliciting of a response that people were doing. Wasting law enforcement officer's time, making a big deal on YouTube and telling themselves how awesome they were, actually ended up getting that right taken away. And that's another one of the things that you hear. Well there's no way that this will create a negative reaction, it does. How do we carry appropriately then? What are we gonna do in an open environment if we're gonna carry? Well first of all, what's the environment? If you're on horseback, if you're on a motorcycle out in the middle of the western part of the United States, you're by yourself, there's really no practical way to conceal a gun. Maybe you're going hiking through the wilderness. Maybe you're hunting. If you're hunting, obviously you're carrying openly. Here's that big rifle, you're walking the ridge lines, looking down the valley, you're glassing with binoculars scouting for game. You're obviously carrying a gun openly, that's appropriate. You're on a trap field, you're carrying a shotgun, you're getting ready to walk up to the trap field and call pole, it's appropriate to carry openly. You're going to the convenience store, you're going to the grocery store, you're going to the shopping mall, it's probably not that appropriate. But if you find yourself in one of those situations where you have to, at least use an appropriate holster. A holster like this one, which has a built-in retention device is very easy to get your hands on and exactly the kind of holster at a minimum that you would wanna use, if you were gonna be carrying openly. So that if someone did come up behind you and try to grab the gun. And again, I don't recommend carrying behind you if you're open carrying anyway. Even if I move this gun to here and someone were to get their hand in front of me, I'm distracted, I'm paying a clerk, I'm getting something out of my wallet, I'm making a phone call, checking the text messages, all the things that we all do in the real environment. Well at least this gives me an extra second or two to react, to respond, to be able to get my hand on that gun, to be able to address the threat, address the person who's trying to take my gun. It's not just gonna magically pop up out of the holster. The retention device gives me the option of actually getting an extra second or two to respond appropriately. At the end of the day, the easiest way to carry a gun to defend yourself or others responsibly in a public environment, untuck the shirt, put on a jacket, cover it up and carry concealed, carry responsibly and carry a gun only to defend yourself or others, if you need to. Be sure to check out the Personal Defense Network for more important tips, just like that one.
I have carried a gun virtually every day since 1984. There are only two times that I carried a gun openly, as a uniformed officer on duty. If I was off duty, I carried concealed. Now as a retired officer, I only carry openly when I am on my own rural ranch property. All of my holsters have retention devices.
Thanks for a honest, intelligent, valuable video. Of late, a vocal minority in the 2nd Am community have made us all look like a bunch of racist morons and fake tough guys. As this video said, the purpose of carry is protection when needed, not to lecture anyone on what we believe. In the end, being responsible serves all of us.
Wow... People like this is exactly why our rights are under constant attack. The founders believed that only cowards and criminals would carry concealed weapons and a video like this make me think they were right.
I agree with the reasons for not carrying openly, for many of the reasons mentioned. However, if it is a legal right, then you are not wrong for exercising that right. Nor is it "ridiculous" to do so. Rather than argue from the standpoint that it is "reckless" to exercise this right, it would be less divisive or condescending and more productive to simply point out the reasons for not doing so, as was done at the beginning of the video, instead of preaching against fellow gun owners exercising their legal rights. Nor does California need a "reason" to take a gun owners' rights away. See Proposition 63 which made legal gun owners into criminals for owning formerly legal firearms.
I agree entirely. Right on Rob!!!!!!
I have open carried in Louisiana for many years without incident. I find it more convenient and comfortable than concealed carrying. If you supposedly have the right but never or seldom utilize it, then it is of very limited value.
I agree about CCW BUT I can't come up with the $156+FEE for prints and wait 6+ mo I had a nylon gun belt and bought on Ebay a "Gould & Goodrich" triple retention holster for $10. I agree about retention I have seen a guy 300+ lbs and having sweats that were to big had a ruger single six in a clip on holster and walking behind him(had to go that way)every 5 secs he had to pull up his pants. Another had a colt single action in a open top holster you could go up behind either one and grab gun and run, I was tempted to ask if they ever thought of that but both looked like thay were looking for a fight with someone. During the 2016 election a bunch of us were holding up big 6' X 4' vote trump signs first time I had a side arm. second time we had stuff thrown at us(Batteries,sockets, rocks cursing and threats) next time side arm no trouble at all.here in Southern Colorado it's pretty common except in the Denver area because of the influx of Californicates who have passed the STUPID extended mag ban and 62 of 64 sheriffs said they will not uphold the law.The governor's aid told him he promised his friends he would get the gov to pass the law so he did.
I live in MI and can legally carry open. I don’t. I don’t like attracting attention of any kind. I’ve watched people that do CO and watch the reaction of people. Most don’t notice but the ones that do stare and sometimes point and on one occasion had to have a “discussion” with the individual. Not what I need. I would like to OC when it’s hot and humid but chose to be comforted not comfortable. There is a new polo shirt that would help tremendously just need money.
I intentionally open carry when I am camping/backpacking/hiking. As a woman - I am not making a political statement, I am letting any random stranger in the woods that I might come across know that I will not be an easy victim so they should look elsewhere.
Here is the elephant in the room; just because concealed carry is "legal" in some states does not mean that it comes without requiring you giving up some of your rights (the right to privacy). If the second amendment is correct, then Constitutional Carry is what we all should have and the dollar cost and loss of privacy to obtain and maintain a CCW is not necessary. Most people that I know that open carry do not for the purpose of showing off, but to retain their rights that a CCW would violate. So I would say, not so black and white as [my hero] Rob makes it in this video clip. Additionally, I see no issue with a guy walking into a coffee shop with an AR safely slung across his back. However, walking in with an AR on a single point sling and your hand on the grip…. Definitely seems a bit more menacing and inappropriate.