Strat9mm wrote:Charles L. Cotton wrote:Strat9mm wrote:I could answer by hypothetically asking, well, exactly how much is a saved human life worth if it's lost because someone could have carried openly, sooner, but didn't?
Not one single life will be saved by open-carry. Please don't buy that three-legged horse the open-carry folks are selling.
Strat9mm wrote:But the real question is, what does preparing updated training for -future- licensee's have to do with those of us who are already licensed, and would presumably be able to open carry immediately without any further required training.
You're correct that current licensees will not receive any additional training. However, a bill cannot have one effective date for one group of people (current licensees) and a different effective date for everyone else. CHL instructors cannot renew until after the legislative session ends in June and there simply isn't time for 3,000 + instructors to renew prior to Sept. 1st. That would mean that DPS and CHL instructors would be violating the new law by not teaching a required topic, i.e. weapon retention, to every new student we teach prior to being recertified.
Strat9mm wrote:Given how much the training and renewal requirements have already been cut, are we going to have to go through more training when we aren't even up for renewal? Perhaps I missed something.
No. The Code setting the minimum and maximum times have not changed, nor have renewal courses been reinstated.
Chas.
Not a single life will be saved by open carry?
Here's a scenario...
CHL open carries into a convenience store.. low-life with a knife is about to rob it and spots the CHL who is open-carrying, about the same time said CHL spots the low-life.. and keeps looking at him.
Guess what happens?
The described scenario is quite likely as of course, are innumerable others. But just because other scenarios are possibilities does NOT negate the possibility of said scenario never occurring.
Correct, not a single life will be saved.
Very few robberies are carried out with a knife rather than a gun, especially in your setting of a convenience store. Even if the events you describe were to occur, the hijacker would likely wait until the person carrying openly leaves the store, then do what they have planned. If not, they go to another store and do what they have planned. If the plan was not to murder the clerk, then no lives were saved. If the plan is to murder the clerk, then no lives were saved.
The absurd testimony today was that an innocent person carrying a handgun openly would have time to respond to a deadly attack while someone carrying concealed would not have time. I think his precise words were "they would have to dig for their gun." The testimony was as silly as their so-called public service announcement video with the young mother with her child in a park. It was as joke! Of course he had to imply that the gun was stuck in a purse or some other inconvenient place, rather than in a belt or an IWB holster.
Here's the reality of being at the scene of an armed robbery. If a hijacker or more likely a team of hijackers enter a store or restaurant and see you are armed, one of two things are going to happen. You will be disarmed, or you will be summarily shot. If you try to draw on someone who already has a gun on you and they know you are armed, then you will die. You aren't Clint Eastwood, it won't be Hollywood, you will die.
If I'm in the store or restaurant, the hikacker(s) will not know I'm armed unless/until I decide to act. Their attention will not be drawn to me and I may well have the opportunity to draw and engage catching them by surprise. It only takes a second or two of a inattention for me to draw and engage an unsuspecting attacker. If his focus is directly on me, there are methods to feign compliance and to trick him into glancing away giving you time to draw and engage. I won't mention them here, but these are tactics I teach in my advanced classes. I have been to countless tactical schools and courses, I served as a police officer for 10 years, shot in USPSA and IDPA competition, and have been a firearms instructor for 40 years. I'm not engaging in speculation or an academic discussion. Do yourself and your fellow open-carry supporters a favor and don't try to sell open-carry on any basis other than it may be a convenience to some people. Trying to argue there is a tactical advantage or that it will reduce crime works against your cause.
One carrying openly is always at a tactical disadvantage and to argue otherwise shows a lack of training experience.
Chas.
