nrawling
Regular Member
imported post
That's actually why I think that opencarry.org is so important. Every person carrying openly in an open carry state helps to socialize the other people to the presence of guns. The irony is that the guns have always been there anyway, but people prefer to think "out of sight, out of mind". In Switzerland or Israel, the presence of firearms (even select-fire) is commonplace. Here in Connecticut, I'm not allowed to leave my home with a pistol without a permit from the State, and I can't even imagine what would happen if I walked around the block with my deer rifle slung on my shoulder.
There are those that will try and draw distinctions between the security needs of Switzerland and Israel with those of the United States, but I cannot agree with them. The reality is that we face an even more subtle and pervasive threat in this country than the historic enemies of Switzerland, one that increasingly similar to the terroristic attacks in Israel.
I am more than willing to concede that concealing your weapons can give you a tactical advantage, but I suspect that open carry can provide a much stronger detterent to offensive acts in the first place. I think that the work of Mark Solomon and Oleg Volk on concealed carry and firearms is very beneficial to the RKBA community, but one of the most audacious moves for public acceptance of RKBA is simply the open carry of weapons.
That's actually why I think that opencarry.org is so important. Every person carrying openly in an open carry state helps to socialize the other people to the presence of guns. The irony is that the guns have always been there anyway, but people prefer to think "out of sight, out of mind". In Switzerland or Israel, the presence of firearms (even select-fire) is commonplace. Here in Connecticut, I'm not allowed to leave my home with a pistol without a permit from the State, and I can't even imagine what would happen if I walked around the block with my deer rifle slung on my shoulder.
There are those that will try and draw distinctions between the security needs of Switzerland and Israel with those of the United States, but I cannot agree with them. The reality is that we face an even more subtle and pervasive threat in this country than the historic enemies of Switzerland, one that increasingly similar to the terroristic attacks in Israel.
I am more than willing to concede that concealing your weapons can give you a tactical advantage, but I suspect that open carry can provide a much stronger detterent to offensive acts in the first place. I think that the work of Mark Solomon and Oleg Volk on concealed carry and firearms is very beneficial to the RKBA community, but one of the most audacious moves for public acceptance of RKBA is simply the open carry of weapons.