frankie_the_yankee wrote:I have no problem with legalizing open carry (though I would seldom do it myself) but I would not favor unlicensed open carry.
I think unlicensed open carry makes it too easy for criminals and other disqualified persons to "blend in" on the street. Criminal records and records containing other disqualifying information are not readily available to the cop on patrol who might want or need to check someone out. That is one of the main purposes of the background check requirement for getting a license.
Having a license is strong evidence showing that the person passed the background check at some time in the past, and so can be presumed to be a qualified person.
Beyond all that, unlicensed open carry would draw little or no political support from what I can tell. I see no groundswell in the general community beating the drums for it. So I would say it would have almost no chance of passage.
But we might get licensed open carry someday.
And I'll take one more whack at the horse. To me, unlicensed pretty much means untrained. I don't want joe blow going out not knowing the laws or even how to shoot correctly. I see enough total idiots at the range to know that they'd all carry with this method, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere within bullet travel of them. I'd like to see licensed OC, but realistically, it will never happen due to the obsene number of "man with gun" calls the already overloaded police force would have to deal with. And honestly, is it really that hard to conceal?