Open Carry and Midwest City PD

[Onequickfiveoh]

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

Mmkay think as you please. Makes no difference to me. One of those you do your thing I'll do mine. Funny thing is I've never been bother by any cop. Well not since I was 16. Some of us choose to grow up.

 

[kroberts2131]

I'm so sick of open carry and its not even Fall yet. Who cares if a cop asks for your license? Just show it to him or her and go on with your day. The people who keep worrying about the cops "infringing their rights" are just as bad as the anti gun crowd.

 

[loudshirt]

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.

I agree for the most part that your "untrained" or "opportunistic" criminals will move along to an easier target or not even notice. My previous job at Loomis I open carried either an XD or Glock in a serpa holster and was amazed at the people that took a min or two to notice I had a gun or acted surprised that I had one. In my current job, I am still a security guard, our uniform and equipment looks better than some police departments and I still get the surprised people when I talk to them for a couple of min and they realize I have a gun. I do however believe that if you were ever in the wrong place at the wrong time where a "professional" criminal wanted to commit a crime it might be a different story.

Wanting open carry so you are protected if you print or if your gun pops out. That is honestly one of the silliest reasons for wanting open carry. As a cop would you ticket someone for printing? Or if you saw someone who was reaching for the top shelf at wal mart and their shirt came untucked? Has anyone in Oklahoma or any other state for that matter ever been prosecuted for accidentally printing or accidentally exposing their firearm?

The open carry vs concealed carry debate is just like the tastes great/less filling Miller lite debate. Everyone has their own opinion and will more than likely not budge.

 

[abajaj11]

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

Good analysis if you are the only one open carrying.
What if there are 2 or 3 or multiple people open carrying at the same time in the place you are at? Don't you think that has a much larger deterrent factor and a much smaller being-singled out factor?

 

[abajaj11]

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.

Anti-gunners and a-holes do not want to mess with those "evil people" who carry guns. they certainly do NOT want to falsely set them up for prosecution and potential jail time.
This has not been a serious problem in the 40 + states in the USA that have some form of open carry.

 

[David2012]

Anti-gunners and a-holes do not want to mess with those "evil people" who carry guns. they certainly do NOT want to falsely set them up for prosecution and potential jail time.
This has not been a serious problem in the 40 + states in the USA that have some form of open carry.

In the past, that was true. But these are different times... the OWS nut jobs and anti-gun people have shown that many of them don't think in a rational way.

 

[okietom]

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

I agree, but on Nov. 1st I am going to open carry because I can. I will leave my house with a pistol on my belt.

 

[Siglawmen]

Just because there are no reports of this happening doesn't mean that it has or has not happened, or that it won't happen. Im sure if you did some checking in some assault and armed robbery cases there are some cases of this happening somewhere. If you are trying to predict a bad guy, well that is you first mistake. The truth is what we call "predators" are actually scavengers they go for the soft target and fight is for them to get away, but occasionally there is the true predator out there that wants to do you harm, when you meet that rarity it's not going to matter if you have a m4 strapped around you neck you are going to have a fight on your hands. So wouldn't it be better to keep your element of surprise? Aka your ace in the hole. We can what if to death, but scenario: you are out to eat and this true predator that is out to destroy everything shows up. he walks in and sees your gun on your hip, who is his first target going to be? The person that is a threat to his mission. Now, do you have a chance of taking the first bullet anyway? Sure, but there's no need in giving up your element of surprise. Reaction cannot be faster then action, our first action as responsible armed citizens as always a reaction so for me personally, I'm going to wear my poker face and not show what I have prepared for these people.*

And no I wouldn't do anything for printing or a gun popping out when someone reaches to the top shelf, however if someone makes a complaint it's a different story. Statements will have to be takin, report will be made yada yada yada. And yes if they say they want a report made on it its required to do a report on it, However open carry guess what? That person is protected, in todays world it's all about covering your backside.

Fact is if you wanna open carry you will have that right and choice, and im not going to argue that its wrong or whatever because frankly i dont care, my choice is to not exercise that right, because it doesn't fit my tactical plan.

 

[yukonjack]

After hearing rumors about MWCPD citing people for disorderly conduct if they open carry, and with the comments made by Assistant Chief Porter earlier this year, I decided to call and talk to them about their policies.

First they will not be citing disorderly conduct just because you are open carry. They have also backed off of the checking everyone for a permit just because they are open carry. They will take each on a case by case basis and determine how to handle each situation. If you are eating at McDonalds with your family, they probably aren't going to say anything to you. They will respond to all MWAG calls, and depending on the situation, may or may not make contact and may or may not ask for a permit. I was also told the DAs office was having a meeting to figure out how they were going to handle this new law and if it changed the departments policy, they would call me back.

I also learned from the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police that they are developing training for their officers and their focus is not to question or detain a person solely for carrying a firearm.

Why anyone need to open carry at McDonalds when they are buying the kids Happy Meals is just plain stupid. There is no need for that. Carry where appropriate and you'll never have any problems. If you're carrying everywhere "just because you can" then you're probably suffering for the little pecker syndrome. There is treatment for that.

 

[mugsy]

Why anyone need to open carry at McDonalds when they are buying the kids Happy Meals is just plain stupid. There is no need for that. Carry where appropriate and you'll never have any problems. If you're carrying everywhere "just because you can" then you're probably suffering for the little pecker syndrome. There is treatment for that.

You mean like how carrying in a...oh let's say...a movie theater, for example, is inappropriate because there is no reasonable expectation of a threat? I am not trying to ridicule you, just pointing out that your judgement really shouldn't replace mine about where I should carry, and vice versa. Predicting threats is very dicey business since the average individual has little to no "operational environment" intelligence and so most preparation is in a vacuum.
I look at it like any operational risk management - is the threat likely? In this case probably not. What is the result of the threat not being mitigated - result could be catastrophic. What is a reasonable mitigation effort? Carry your personal sidearm. That is my logic - there are, of course, many other things you could do as well.