Malintent
Veteran Member
"open carry" is not much of a right beyond simply having the right to own a firearm, that applies to the transport of the weapon. In NY, there is no open carry, and guns must be transported in a locked case, unloaded. In states where there is a lot of hunting, open carry is more common.
You also have the constitutional right to "free speech". This does not give you the right to yell 'FIRE' in a crowded movie theater when there is no fire.
You also cannot exercise your "free speech" when filing your taxes or signing any legal document that contains a willful omission or error... you are not free to lie on these documents.
Same thing with open carry... it gives you certain rights, that end abruptly where everyone else's rights begin.
I have the right to not feel intimidated by a gun wielding kid with some chip on his shoulder because he thinks he is some kind of patriot by acting inappropriately for the local culture for purposes far beyond the transport of his gun.
Whether you agree with open carry laws or not, they are the law in some states and they make the open carrying of firearms legal. So the presence of a gun in an open carry state is not reason enough for the cops to go ballistic and act like they found the FBI's Most Wanted.
correct. the presence alone is not enough to be a problem. That is not what anyone is talking about here. We are talking about the gun being present in an unusual location (no where near any hunting area, along a busy street where no one normally does this). How do you reconcile the idea that "open carry" means "wave your gun around in crowded city streets" and "stand your ground" means shoot anyone that looks threatening"?
I'm not opposed to open carry laws where they are designed to lift unnecessary burden on legal gun owners that choose to walk to the place they intend to legally fire their weapons. I am opposed to the idea that these people are somehow immune to reasonable questioning by police officers when something seems out of place of the norm for the local area. It's called "conducting an investigation" People are briefly detained all the time while cops try to do their jobs... and in my experience, they start out polite during their initial investigations.