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Open Carry

grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 53,466
edited January 2013 in General Discussion
Can you open carry in Pa. with a protection permit?

Comments

  • grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 53,466
    edited November -1
    I've decided I am going to open carry more. It is a right and I am going to exercise it. I'm sure the Charleston (WV) police ain't gonna like it but T.S.! I can find no city ordinance to prohibit it. Here is the Amendment to the WV state constitution.
    quote:3-22. Right to keep and bear arms.

    A person has the right to keep and bear arms for the defense of self, family, home and state, and for lawful hunting and recreational use.


    Pretty easy to understand.

    Anybody else OC regularly?
  • grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 53,466
    edited November -1
    Wonder if this was that guy going around Oregon testing Police.

    quote:A 26-year-old man accidentally shot himself in the thigh when his pistol went off as he used the restroom on the second floor of an Internet cafe in downtown Eugene earlier this afternoon.

    The man, a Eugene area resident whose name was not released by police, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

    The man was openly carrying his gun in a holster on his leg, which is not illegal, a police spokeswoman said.

    Witnesses said five people were inside Indras Internet Lounge at 271 W. Eighth St. when the man shot himself just before 3 p.m.

    James Sherburne, a manager at the business, said the man was inside a bathroom when the gun went off.

    "He drug himself out of the bathroom and we helped him tie a tourniquet around his leg," Sherburne said. "He got lucky, I think."

    Eugene police and firefighters arrived at the scene a few minutes after a customer of the business called 911.
  • grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 53,466
    edited November -1
    Packing in public: Gun owners tired of hiding their weapons embrace 'open carry'

    Those who wear their guns in full sight are part of a fledgling movement to make a firearm a common accessory.
    By Nicholas Riccardi
    Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

    June 7, 2008

    PROVO, UTAH - For years, Kevin Jensen carried a pistol everywhere he went, tucked in a shoulder holster beneath his clothes.

    In hot weather the holster was almost unbearable. Pressed against Jensen's skin, the firearm was heavy and uncomfortable. Hiding the weapon made him feel like a criminal.

    Then one evening he stumbled across a site that urged gun owners to do something revolutionary: Carry your gun openly for the world to see as you go about your business.

    In most states there's no law against that.

    Jensen thought about it and decided to give it a try. A couple of days later, his gun was visible, hanging from a black holster strapped around his hip as he walked into a Costco. His heart raced as he ordered a Polish dog at the counter. No one called the police. No one stopped him.

    Now Jensen carries his Glock 23 openly into his bank, restaurants and shopping centers. He wore the gun to a Ron Paul rally. He and his wife, Clachelle, drop off their 5-year-old daughter at elementary school with pistols hanging from their hip holsters, and have never received a complaint or a wary look.

    Jensen said he tries not to flaunt his gun. "We don't want to show up and say, 'Hey, we're here, we're armed, get used to it,' " he said.

    But he and others who publicly display their guns have a common purpose.

    The Jensens are part of a fledgling movement to make a firearm as common an accessory as an iPod. Called "open carry" by its supporters, the movement has attracted grandparents, graduate students and lifelong gun enthusiasts like the Jensens.

    "What we're trying to say is, 'Hey, we're normal people who carry guns,' " said Travis Deveraux, 36, of West Valley, a Salt Lake City suburb. Deveraux works for a credit card company and sometimes walks around town wearing a cowboy hat and packing a pistol in plain sight. "We want the public to understand it's not just cops who can carry guns."

    Police acknowledge the practice is legal, but some say it makes their lives tougher.

    Police Chief John Greiner recalled that last year in Ogden, Utah, a man was openly carrying a shotgun on the street. When officers pulled up to ask him about the gun, he started firing. Police killed the man.

    Greiner tells the story as a lesson for gun owners. "We've changed over the last 200 years from the days of the wild, wild West," Greiner said. "Most people don't openly carry. . . . If [people] truly want to open carry, they ought to expect they'll be challenged more until people become comfortable with it."

    Jensen and others argue that police shouldn't judge the gun, but rather the actions of the person carrying it. Jensen, 28, isn't opposed to attention, however. It's part of the reason he brought his gun out in the open.

    "At first, [open carry] was a little novelty," he said. "Then I realized the chances of me educating someone are bigger than ever using it [the gun] in self-defense. If it's in my pants or under my shirt I'm probably not going to do anything with it."

    As Clachelle pushed the shopping cart holding their two young children during a recent trip to Costco, her husband admired the new holster wrapped around her waist. "I like the look of that low-rise gun belt," he said.

    The Jensens' pistols were snapped into holsters attached to black belts that hug their waists. Guns are a fact of life in their household. Their 5-year-old daughter, Sierra, has a child-sized .22 rifle she handles only in her parents' presence.

    Clachelle is the daughter of a Central California police chief and began shooting when she was about Sierra's age. She would take her parents' gun when she went out and hide it in her purse because the firearm made her feel safer.

    "I love 'em," Clachelle said. "I wouldn't ever be without them."

    Kevin Jensen's first encounter with guns came when he was 11: His grandfather died and left him a 16-gauge shotgun. The gun stayed locked away but fascinated Jensen through his teen years. He convinced his older brother to take him shooting in the countryside near their home in a small town south of Salt Lake City.

    "I immediately fell in love with it," said Jensen, a lean man with close-cropped hair and a precise gait that is a reminder of his five years in the Army Reserve. "I like things that go boom."

    Jensen kept as many as 10 guns in the couple's 1930s-style bungalow in Santaquin, 21 miles southwest of Provo. In January 2005, he decided to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon, mainly for self-defense.

    "I'm not going to hide in the corner of a school and mall and wait for the shooting to stop," he said.

    When Jensen bought a Glock and the dealer threw in an external hip holster, he began researching the idea of carrying the gun in public and came upon OpenCarry.org.

    Its website, run by two Virginia gun enthusiasts, claims 4,000 members nationwide. It summarizes the varying laws in each state that permit or forbid the practice. People everywhere have the right to prohibit weapons from their property, and firearms are often banned in government buildings such as courthouses.

    According to an analysis by Legal Community Against Violence, a gun control group in San Francisco that tracks gun laws, at least eight states largely ban the practice, including Iowa and New Jersey. Those that allow it have different restrictions: In California, people can openly carry only unloaded guns.

    Utah has no law prohibiting anyone from carrying a gun in public, as long as it is two steps from firing -- for example, the weapon may have a loaded clip but must be uncocked, with no bullets in the chamber. Those who obtain a concealed-weapons permit in Utah don't have that restriction. Also, youths under 18 can carry a gun openly with parental approval and a supervising adult in close proximity.

    Most of the time people don't notice Jensen's gun. That's not uncommon, said John Pierce, a law student and computer consultant in Virginia who is a co-founder of OpenCarry.org.

    "People are carrying pagers, BlackBerrys, cellphones," Pierce said. "They see a black lump on your belt and their eyes slide off."

    Sometimes the reactions are comical. Bill White, a 24-year-old graduate student in ancient languages at the University of Colorado at Boulder, wears his Colt pistol out in the open when he goes to his local Starbucks. Earlier this month a tourist from California spotted him and snapped a photo on his cellphone.

    "He said it would prove he was in the Wild West," White recalled.

    But there are times when the response is more severe. Deveraux has been stopped several times by police, most memorably in December when he was walking around his neighborhood.

    An officer pulled up and pointed his gun at Deveraux, warning he would shoot to kill. In the end, eight officers arrived, cuffed Deveraux and took his gun before Deveraux convinced them they had no legal reason to detain him.

    Deveraux saw the incident as not giving ground on his rights. "I'm proud that happened," he said.

    Cases like this are talked about during regular gatherings of those who favor open carry. At a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, more than 40 civilians with guns strapped to their hips took over a corner of the restaurant, eating pasta and boisterously sharing stories.

    __________________
  • grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 53,466
    edited November -1
    I forgot to mention in the gym bag derringer reply that open carry of firearms is allowed in 38 states. I wouldn't want to press the issue though. Interestingly, Texas, Florida & Illinois are not among them. Eddie
  • grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 53,466
    edited November -1
    If you could open carry, would you carry an old west cowboy style double gun belt with 2 SAAs in it? [:)]
  • grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 53,466
    edited November -1
    What is the legal age with a pistol and then with a long gun just asking[?][?][?]
  • grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 53,466
    edited November -1
    Saw some guy in Wal-Mart with a 1911 on his hip.

    He had no clue I was as close as I was, if I was a bad guy I could have had that gun out and in my hand before he knew it not even a retaining strap.

    Open carry may be legal but there are just too many folks who don't have a clue.
  • grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 53,466
    edited November -1
    An open carry rally was held today in Melbourne, Fl. It was billed advertised as a fishing gathering, but it was about firearms according to newspaper. A state lawmaker says he will introduce a bill to allow O/C.
  • jimdeerejimdeere Member, Moderator Posts: 25,583 ******
    edited November -1
    Now wait a minute......
  • andrewsw16andrewsw16 Member Posts: 10,728 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    DUMMASS! Playing with the wrong gun while sitting on the loo. [:D][:D]
  • NeoBlackdogNeoBlackdog Member Posts: 16,566 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Prolly tried to hitch his britches up and got his finger tangled in the trigger! Another good argument for a holster that covers the trigger...
  • reloader44magreloader44mag Member Posts: 18,783 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I wonder if he shatt himself
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