Open Carry and Midwest City PD

[David2012]

With Open Carry, I can see the elderly... the physically weak... or someone carrying their weapon in a sloppy manner being targeted by a bad guy for their weapon... but a reasonably healthy person with a sense of awareness about their surroundings shouldn't be any more of a target than a openly armed plain clothes LEO, security guard or PI. You very rarely read stories about them having been selected as 'targets'.

My only concern about open carry will be that a few of the anti gunners & A-holes will make false claims that someone threatened them with their weapon. Even with open carry it would still be possible to make a claim of 'Brandishing'. Someone open carrying gets into a verbal arguement and unthinking starts resting their hand near their weapon... that could be percieved as a threat... that you were making sure the other person saw your weapon for intimidation purposes.

People who open carry will need to learn to hook the thumb of their strong side hand into their belt well in front of their weapon, in the lip of their front pants pocket... or else cross their arms. What ever they do, they just need to keep their hand away from their weapon. Same thing for when talking with the police.

 

[hrdware]

Exactly. Same as getting pulled over for no reason, you still show your okdl and insurance. Not a big deal.

Actually, it is a big deal. It is unconstitutional as it violates the 4th Amendment. SCOTUS has ruled that law enforcement can not ask someone for their permit/license for an activity absent RAS that a crime has been committed. They have also ruled the the mere presence of a firearm is not reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed.

 

[hrdware]

How is police officer even going to know if you even have a valid license if they don't ask?

Why would they need to know? They don't get to ask everyone in a car if they have a license to drive.

 

[hrdware]

I'm going to throw my 2 cents out here for what it's worth, personally for me I do not have a problem with it, for one I assume everyone is armed anyway, if it's on a hip for everyone to see then it's no longer an assumption and as Long as it's not being pointed at me I'm cool with it. Now, the issue I have with it is not legal, it's tactical, the bad guy is going to view your firearms just as I viewed it, with that you will get 1 of 2 reactions, either he will leave you alone because your armed, or he will target you for your firearm or to eliminate you as a threat upon his criminal endeavor. As armed citizens we don't have the luxury of having the first play, our first action is going to be a reaction to the criminals action, so with that I advise that you keep a ace in the hole and keep you weapon concealed. Do I want open carry? Yes because I'm now protected if my gun prints or pops out for whatever reason. Just thoughts from a cop

Open carry individuals are not targeted for their firearms, nor are they the first ones shot in a holdup. This doesn't happen in other states and won't happen here. The majority of bad guys want a soft target, not one that can fight back. These people don't have normal thought processes and during the commission of a crime, they are not thinking about who may be carrying, they want to commit the crime and get out before the cops show up. The untrained human mind does not generally see things that are out of the ordinary upon first glance.

If this kind of thing happened in other states there would be reports about it and other states would be doing things to protect their citizens.

 

[hrdware]

My only concern about open carry will be that a few of the anti gunners & A-holes will make false claims that someone threatened them with their weapon. Even with open carry it would still be possible to make a claim of 'Brandishing'. Someone open carrying gets into a verbal arguement and unthinking starts resting their hand near their weapon... that could be percieved as a threat... that you were making sure the other person saw your weapon for intimidation purposes.

All the more reason to carry a personal voice recorder that will record the entire day.

 

[Onequickfiveoh]

Actually, it is a big deal. It is unconstitutional as it violates the 4th Amendment. SCOTUS has ruled that law enforcement can not ask someone for their permit/license for an activity absent RAS that a crime has been committed. They have also ruled the the mere presence of a firearm is not reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed.

Actually, it's not a big deal, unless you have something to hide. I've got nothing to worry about so have at it. Hell if they are bored come the hell over to my house. It wouldn't bother me. But then again I stay on the right side of the law and don't get bothered to begin with. Just my two cents. It's always people looking for a fight who get one. Then make a big public scene that could have been avoided.

 

[Jefpainthorse]

Actually, it's not a big deal, unless you have something to hide. I've got nothing to worry about so have at it. Hell if they are bored come the hell over to my house. It wouldn't bother me. But then again I stay on the right side of the law and don't get bothered to begin with. Just my two cents. It's always people looking for a fight who get one. Then make a big public scene that could have been avoided.

Sounds like someone should have stayed awake in "Civics" class.....

 

[CODE_3]

Why would they need to know? They don't get to ask everyone in a car if they have a license to drive.

Carrying a firearm in the open and not having a valid license is not the same thing as checking to see if everyone has a valid DL.

 

[otis147]

Carrying a firearm in the open and not having a valid license is not the same thing as checking to see if everyone has a valid DL.

yeah, the 2nd amendment doesn't protect our right to drive.

 

[twoguns?]

Sounds like someone should have stayed awake in "Civics" class.....

Thanks , I was gettin to that point , but they usually just Flame me.
What was that quote ...first they came for the strippers, I didnt do anything because I dont watch them....