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Armed and Safe is a gun rights advocacy blog, with the mission of debunking the "logic" of the enemies of the Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms.

I can be reached at 45superman@gmail.com.You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/45superman.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Open carry on the march

Looks as if open carry could soon be legal in four states that now prohibit it.

Four Southern states — Texas, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas — are considering legislation that would allow people to carry handguns openly in a holster.

These generally Second Amendment-friendly states are among the last six holdouts against open carrying of guns. Openly carrying handguns is legal in most states, even those that ban concealed firearms. New York and Florida also bar openly carrying handguns.
I do feel compelled to point out that Illinois only allows open carry in unincorporated areas--I'm not sure I would classify IL as a state in which "openly carrying handguns is legal," but I suppose that it's technically true.
The four other states that ban so-called open carry "are extremely gun-friendly. They understand the individual-rights aspect. Yet for whatever reason, the carry laws in these states are restrictive," says John Pierce, a co-founder of OpenCarry.org, which promotes gun rights.

Most states have strict laws governing concealed weapons. Illinois and Wisconsin ban carrying them entirely, according to the National Rifle Association. Concealing a weapon "was seen in the early days of our nation as something of an unwholesome act. People would bear arms openly," Pierce says.
John, by the way, is a Gun Rights Examiner colleague of mine (Minneapolis). Of course, no discussion of the right to keep and bear arms possibly becoming less infringed would be complete without Paul Helmke's "contribution."
Says Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which opposes open-carry laws: "We don't want more people carrying guns either openly or concealed because the more guns you have in a situation, the more likely you are to get gun violence."
Brilliant, Paul--just brilliant. By that "logic," one could argue that trees should be banned, because the more of them you have around, the more likely one of 'em could fall on somebody.

My suspicion is that Helmke's greatest objection to open carry is that he is horrified at the idea of the carrying of defensive firearms becoming seen as normal. He doesn't like concealed carry either, but when the public has little idea about how many people are doing it, it's easier to dismiss those who do as just some paranoid fringe. If open carry were to become a normal practice, armed self-defense can no longer be dismissed as . . . abnormal.

Another of my Gun Rights Examiner colleagues is also quoted.
Grass-roots movements supporting open carry have emerged via Internet and e-mail campaigns, Pierce says. The online Texas petition now has more than 55,000 signatures. OpenCarry.org raised $25,000 through online donations to pay for advertising in Texas, says OpenCarry.org co-founder Mike Stollenwerk.
Mike is our DC Gun Rights Examiner.

Perhaps the best news is that rumor has it that all versions but the Texas one will not require a license. Imagine that--a right that shall not be infringed, without a licensing requirement.

Almost sounds like the government securing the blessings of liberty, or something. That was once popular in this country.

9 comments:

Ride Fast said...

[...] Open Carry - Some Free States Action [...]

TexasFred said...

I sent my Rep a message today, I want it, WE need it and he better vote for it... Too many of us in his district that are serious gun people...

The_Chef said...

VA is a non-license Open Carry state.

I'm going to start exercising that right more.

Anonymous said...

Oregon is also open carry with no license.

As a general rule I carry concealed when I'm out and about yet switch to open carry when at home on the property.

Chopping wood, checking the mail, playing fetch with the doggie, everyone who bothers to glance from the road will see me in an old fashion cowboy style leather holster with the wheel gun flavor of the day.

Anonymous said...

Come visit our Open Carry website in Arkansas!

www.ArkansasCarry.com

tom said...

I'm fighting on both ends of the candle. I want Open Carry in Texas WITH NO FOOKIN PERMITS.

I never needed a permit to carry my .22 to the woods and shoot jackrabbits and squirrel when I was seven years old in THE STATE OF TEXAS, why should I need a permit to openly carry a firearm as a middle aged grumpy old fart?

I want Texas Open Carry WITHOUT license just like it's legal to carry concealed in your vehicle NOW, ALREADY, SINCE Sept 7, 2007 without a concealed permit.

I'm sick of these socktuckers and REAL fart smellers making more databases of gun ownership.

Time for some cleansing, methinks.

If they make me get a permit for open carry on top of the hassle of getting a concealed permit, I'm going to carry my .450 Marlin Revolver on my hip every day just so I have an excuse to show the socktuckers I bought a permit and scare the shit out of hoplophobics on purpose.

Carry it with the god damn hammer back on a loaded chamber to perfect the endeavor or else put my hand on it in it's drop holster and cock it and start to draw to show them my legal open carry gun whenever asked about it, while explaining it's the only way to get to my Open Carry permit that is fitted into the holster behind the wheel of the revolver and some bullshit about how if I don't cock it the gun doesn't draw properly so I can show them my permit.

Never liked hall monitors. Never will.

Mike W. said...

None of them should require a permit. Delaware is an OC state. If you can buy it legally you can carry it. (except in Dover, but that's a grandfathering/pre-emption issue)

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