denwego
Regular Member
imported post
Well, not many people in the forum here seem to talk much about open carrying in Colorado, so I might as well pitch in with a bit of encouragement from Boulder, of all places...
I carry concealed much of the time out of convenience, since living on the front range in the shadow of the mountains means wearing a coat from September through May. During the summer I'm out in the more rural areas of the state where carrying openly has never been much of an issue, but once you get closer to Denver (although not in Denver itself, alas), you encounter more and more transplanted west-coast denizens, as well as the typical inhabitant of Boulder who looks and acts as if the town's a socialist commune.
Anyways, today was a beautiful 65F Veterans' Day (God bless you veterans!), so I took off into the mountains to go shooting - Garand, M1 Carbine, a k98k, and my M1911A1. When I was finished, it was nice enough a day that I certainly didn't feel like throwing on a jacket, so I kept my 1911 on my hip while I went about the weekend's errands at the grocery store as well as stopping in for some coffee at Starbucks.
Despite the gun-fearing nature of towns around Denver, I hardly got a second glance as I went about my business. There wasn't a single reaction in the Safeway grocery store down on 30th and Arapahoe, despite it being crowded on a Saturday afternoon. At Starbucks, one 50-ish woman let her eyes go wide when she first saw my pistol, but didn't say anything; as I was leaving, an elderly man smiled and said, "I didn't think you young people liked anything but Glocks," which of course got a good laugh from us both.
So, with such an uneventful story, all I can say is you shouldn't let other people's being unaccustomed be a discouragement to exercising your rights... even in a place like Boulder, you can take the plunge and help show people critical of firearms that normal, decent folk can go around armed and make the community safer!
Well, not many people in the forum here seem to talk much about open carrying in Colorado, so I might as well pitch in with a bit of encouragement from Boulder, of all places...
I carry concealed much of the time out of convenience, since living on the front range in the shadow of the mountains means wearing a coat from September through May. During the summer I'm out in the more rural areas of the state where carrying openly has never been much of an issue, but once you get closer to Denver (although not in Denver itself, alas), you encounter more and more transplanted west-coast denizens, as well as the typical inhabitant of Boulder who looks and acts as if the town's a socialist commune.
Anyways, today was a beautiful 65F Veterans' Day (God bless you veterans!), so I took off into the mountains to go shooting - Garand, M1 Carbine, a k98k, and my M1911A1. When I was finished, it was nice enough a day that I certainly didn't feel like throwing on a jacket, so I kept my 1911 on my hip while I went about the weekend's errands at the grocery store as well as stopping in for some coffee at Starbucks.
Despite the gun-fearing nature of towns around Denver, I hardly got a second glance as I went about my business. There wasn't a single reaction in the Safeway grocery store down on 30th and Arapahoe, despite it being crowded on a Saturday afternoon. At Starbucks, one 50-ish woman let her eyes go wide when she first saw my pistol, but didn't say anything; as I was leaving, an elderly man smiled and said, "I didn't think you young people liked anything but Glocks," which of course got a good laugh from us both.
So, with such an uneventful story, all I can say is you shouldn't let other people's being unaccustomed be a discouragement to exercising your rights... even in a place like Boulder, you can take the plunge and help show people critical of firearms that normal, decent folk can go around armed and make the community safer!