(no subject)

[stormdog]

Following up to my post about weapons at Pride and a discussion on Facebook:

So what if gun laws mandated open carry for all guns? I can find lots of discussions about where open carry is allowed, whether it should be allowed, how to get a license, and things like that, but nobody's talking about the idea of making concealed carry simply illegal and allowing open carry everywhere guns are allowed. It would make it a lot easier to enforce rules and laws about being armed, and for people to make risk assessments about their location and activities in regard to the presence of weapons. "I see a bunch of people with guns. I'm going to leave now."

Comments

[basefinder]

Hmm. I'm not sure how "It would make it a lot easier to enforce rules and laws about being armed" since you wouldn't know who was carrying concealed.

[stormdog]

I assume that, should open carry be mandatory, that very few people would be carrying concealed since it would be some kind of civil/criminal violation. But it's true that it would still be unknown who and how many are doing so.

[basefinder]

I guess I'm just jaded, cuz I would assume that many people conceal weapons illegally now and they aren't likely to stop doing so just because open carry becomes legal. The only behavioral change would be from the rule-following concealed carry license holders who switch to open carry under the new law. The bad guys concealing their guns won't care that the law has changed. (If anything, they just know to avoid preying on those who are open carrying, and seek out those who are not.)