Posted: 10/26/2006 8:27:44 PM EDT
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I know that when you get a CCW in GA you can legitimatly carry in the open. I would feel a little uncomfortable with my pistol out in the open. How many of you actually carry your weapon not concealed? To add, do you think that if I walked around with my sig 45 in a holster, shirt tucked in for the whole world to see; that a cop would make me conceal the weapon or force me to leave the establishment? |
If you have a CCW....why would you carry it in the open? |
Deja vu.  I do. I open carry when I walk my dog (every morning and night). I've open carried at the grocery store jsut to see what kind of looks I get. No one has freaked so far. For the most part I don't want people to know I am carrying. That way I have an advantage.  BTW, welcome to the HTF. Haven't seen you in here previously.  Mark |
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Do ya'll use a holster with one or more retention devices? All my holsters are intended for concealment, so they don't have any retention features. I only open carry when taking the trash out to the street. I do use a less than stealthy OWB holster when I'm playing with my kids in the yard. eta: NavyGuns, are you/were you a GM? There are at least two Navy vets here on the GA board (Larry and me). If we count the Marines, there's quite a few more. 
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| I have gone about it both ways. Open carry can attract some unwanted attention, but for the most part nobody does anything. I mainly carry concealed for the following reason : If I am about to rob a store or shoot someone and I see a guy with a weapon showing he'd be the first to get dropped before anything else happened. Just my thoughts on the subject. |
How does that work? I thought the GA Constitution had a preemption clause relating to firearms so that lesser governments couldn't make more restrictive laws than the state. |
It is, but big city libs are retards and don't care about that kind a stuff. |
You got a link to that? I can't find anything on MuniCode. |
The GA State laws are preemptive. Preemptive legislation prohibits communities from enacting laws that are more stringent than or vary from the state law. From the damn Brady website even regarding GA’s gun laws: LOCAL GUN LAWS - PREEMPTION May cities enact laws stronger than the state's? No State law forbids city governments from enacting any local gun laws, even though the state has failed to pass responsible state-wide laws. This preemption of local government authority makes it impossible for cities to enact sensible gun laws to make their citizens safer. While I have no doubt some uninformed officers might try to hassle someone open carrying, the law says it is fine with a GA Firearms License. Mark |
I use fobus holsters. Good retention and decent concealibility and good price. I don't like leather. When carrying open you must take care and protect the weapon. Goes with the responsibilty of carrying open. |
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I have a question, why would you want to open carry? In Georgia you can carry open with GFL, but if you enter a plce like Wal-Mart and the management ask you to leave then you have to leave or it is called crimminal tresspassing. You also tell everyone in the world around you that you have a gun, at that point your gun is a target for taking. The element of suprise has a lot going for it, keep it hidden until you need it. If you never need it thats even better. As for the Fobus Holsters and having gone thru many Force of Force Training they will RIP right in half under a little pressure. If you spend $500.00 to $700.00 (or more) on a pistol why would you skimp on it's support gear? Using police encounters around 50% of encounters happen within 5 feet which equals extreme close quarters the gun needs to be hidden. Again FOF has shown that within 5 feet someone can and will grab the gun, a gun that is hidden in a holster that will support two grown mens body weight is essential to wepons retention. JMHO |
I rarely open carry, but i will occasionally strap it on for a quick local trip, like to the store for some bread or something. I also open carry to the range. Times when i don't feel like changing clothes since i tend to "dress around the gun". I do not open carry in places where there would be lots of people in close proximity to me, like a busy walmart. I also like the idea of people seeing someone other than an LEO carrying a weapon peacefully. It also reminds bad guys that the cops aren't the only ones they have to worry about. When i OC i don't even get a second look. But that may be because i am kind of tallish and skinny and still keep a military haircut. |
This strikes me as odd....I have been carrying for 7 years and never even had to think about drawing down...and have been in some sketchy arguements/confrontations. What situations have you been in where you had to draw your weapon and not use it. I am a firm believer, and was taught by my father and the marine corps. If your gonna draw it. Use it immedieatly (sp). If your not in direct danger of your life...dont even pull it out. I like to think that everybody has the same thoery as me, if you draw down on my you better shoot me before I get mine out, because at that point I am "In fear for my life" I would like to point out that, If I heard something outside my house, and went out with my pistol I wouldnt just shoot them....I guess I would have to say in a violent confrontation, I wouldnt hesitate that if I was gonna draw, I would shoot. But, in a situation where the other person doesnt have a weapon or isnt acting violent towards me. i may use it to coarce them away... Which makes me wonder, and this is for you Leo types. If I heard something outside, my house and went to investigate, could I do a citizens arrest? Inside my house there would be no question as to what would happen. But outside If I had them cornered at gunpoint, would I call the police and have them arrested? |
My service in the military also taught me not to brandish my weapon unless you are going to destroy the target. I feel that most law enforcement are not gun hobbiests. I also feel that L.E.O. are not trained to kill because of liability and legal issues. At the same time I feel that presentation of a weapon can aviod further conflict. |
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Just about everyone that carries a CW dresses around the gun and I know what it's like to have to run do a honey do while sitting around the house in sweats or something. That’s where a good small pistol like my S&W 642 with barami hip grips comes into play. Slipped into the belt line of the appendix and a t-shirt over it and it is totally concealed. I do not go with an open carry. I neither need nor want some old guy nodding at me with his approval or to scare some soccer mom. I was in Arbor place mall once and seen a guy with open carry on the right side, his infant nestled in his right arm sitting at Star Bucks. Now could he draw that gun if he needed, not unless he dropped the kid? Someone else could walk up and take it, shoot him and his kid unimpeded. I then got my coffee and sat; sure enough security approached him and asked him to leave. He started in on he knew his 2nd amendment rights and could carry his pistol, he had a permit. I also watched as he was escorted out by Douglas County Sheriff Deputies. All the time I sat there with a t-shirt over a 5 inch government, two magazines, clinch pick knife, folder, OC Spray and a 6oz. SAP. Not to mention the un-necessary attention he and his family got, the anti-gunners “OMG he had a gun in the mall around my kids”. This stuff only serves the ego, and like they say it’s all fun until someone gets hurt or in trouble. Massad Ayoob and others have written articles where open carry people have had there gun taken from behind as hey stood in line at the convenience store. Why because some people in the real world just do not get that and wonder is this guy for real, is he going to rob the place, why does he have a gun? It happens. |
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Ken, I'm with you. If you're going to open carry, use a holster with retention devices or grow eyes in the back of your head and develop some serious fighting skills. I just don't see the wisdom in civilian open carry. It seems to me to be either lazy or intentionally seeking attention. "Because I can." Just seems like a poor reason to my way of thinking. |
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I am also a firm believer in Not carrying open. The first thing I think of when I see someone open carrying is "Rookie" as someone stated above. if I was gonna rob some place. the first person I am gonna shoot is the one thats open carrying...along with the fact that I dont want anyone trying to take it. I dont go out in sweats, Must be the corp stuck in me, but it just looks sloppy to me. And I also dress aorund my gun. I have been at the mall and had my shirt start riding up over my gun. I took my wifes purse and went into the bathroom removed the gun and put it in her purse,the purse then went into the back of the stroller where it was easily accesible...and there is no was in hell I am letting go of that stroller..."You can take this stroller, when you pry it from my cold dead hands" I try to keep the lowest profile I can and flashin a heater on your hip aint gonna do that. Side note to this conversation: I was in K-mart a week or so ago and my som had to go to the bathroom. I took him in and I was knelt down buttoning his pants and aparently my shirt had ridden up and my pistol was showing. Well a guy came out of the stall and kinda slowed down and looked at me as he walked by. When i was coming out of the bathroom, I heard him telling the guy a the layaway counter "Theres a guy in the bathroom with a gun on his belt" as I was coming around the corner I heard him say, "well as long as its on his belt and he doesnt pull it out theres nothing we can do about it" By this time I was around the corner and the guy looked like he was gonna shit himself, the guy behind the counter just nodded at me and greeted me in a professional manner. The other guy stared at me everytime I saw him in the store...almos to the point where I was gonna ask him if he had some kinda problem, but I didnt see him again. Odd thing was that the guy complaining was a kinda redneck lookin late 40s guy and the guy behind the counter was a matrosexual looking early 30s asian looking guy...I would have figured it would be the other way around. |
I don't know if I'd use a Fobus holster for open carry. Watch and learn.  video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5224947140792220101&q=fobus+holster |
Damn. |
Thats some sorry shit....I wonder if he bought him a new holster after demonstrating his little trick..... But once again, If they dont know you have it....They cant take it. I think it would have been easier to just snatch it out of the holster. But that does show how easy it is eh? Someone try that at the next hometown shoot.... |