PJ Media

Desensitization…yes. Agree.

There’s a correct way to go about it, and that would be incrementally.

When I lived on a cul-de-sac in the DC ‘burbs, I was in the habit of sitting on the porch keeping an eye on the neighborhood kids, (my own among them), playing hoops and suchlike after they’d gotten out of school.
Occasionally, I’d be open carrying, not as an overt political statement, but simply because I’d taken off my coat and didn’t feel like going through the hassle of unthreading my holster from my belt, locking up the gatt,etcetera.
And besides, with a nipper in the house the safest place for a handgun was on my belt.

I didn’t necessarily advertise the fact, but my neighbors knew that I was the “Official Cul-de- Sac Gun-Nut”.

Being a seaman,on vacation I was usually at home during the work-day, and shared the ‘hood during these hours with the stay-at-home “Mommy Squad”.

Only in one instance did any of them ever ask about my piece, and I explained to her that I was really wearing the heater mostly because of the hassle involved in “demilitarizing” myself, I then pointed out that as long as I WAS carrying, the kids in addition to my own playing out front could be considered to be protected by an armed guard. The discussion then moved on to other more mundane neighborhood gossip.

It must have been the right answer for her, because I noticed that her kids could henceforth usually be counted on to be running around like maniacs with the rest of the little squealing booger-eaters.

I reckon that if I’d have spooked her, she’d have told her children to stay away from in front of the nasty gun-wearing man’s house

When you desensitize the Mommy Squad, and put them into a comfort zone about open carry, you not only get them, but you get their kids as well, who will go about their kooky kid activities.
They’ll notice your pistol, but it won’t be a big deal…and THAT’S what we’re aiming for isn’t it?
Present and future citizens with neutral or positive childhood memories of folks carrying firearms.

It was a much easier “sell” with a .45 than it would have been with an FAL or an AR-15 slung over my shoulder, though. I do not as a rule dress like some half-assed Rambo…unless I’m hunting.

I wrote once that I’d like to install pastel grip panels and have smiley-faces, “Hello Kitty” and cartoon bunnies and shit engraved on my firearms…the point being that people who saw it,(like juries, in the second-worst case scenario), might say:

“Awwww, that’s so CUTE!”

as opposed to shrieking in fear and diving for cover when the Prosecutor holds my gun up in the air in open court as “People’s Exhibit #xxx”.

Anything to help the verdict go my way, y’know?

If you want to open carry and get a neutral or positive response, be pushing a baby stroller or holding your child’s hand.

That way other parents will figure that if you flip out, it will be because of the kid, and then the one you’ll most likely be using the gun to shoot is yourself.

Gotta give folks something that they can relate to…