Openly Carrying Guns Can Be Unwise, Even When It’s Legal
justasimplepatriot (#20): if it’s that likely a scenario, then surely you can reference some news accounts of it actually happening?
And Clayton, you really ought to come hang out in Western Washington for a while, so you can get a closeup of how “liberal Seattle” views this question. The short version is: quite favorably to gun rights. Outgoing Mayor Nickels of Seattle is massively unpopular for his anti-gun stance. I was at the public hearing for his prior attempt at a gun ban, and there were even people there who (a) weren’t gun owners, (b) just happened to wander by the hearing room and give a listen, and (c) signed up to speak against the ban because it angered them so much to see law-abiding handgun carry being attacked.
Meanwhile, just about every major law enforcement agency in King County (including, yes, Seattle PD) have issued training bulletins reminding officers that peaceable, non-threatening, holstered open carry is completely legal. It sure appears, from my vantage point nearby, that open carry activism is having a net beneficial effect.
