• GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    I can understand why someone would open carry more and kinda prefer to know who has a gun. I’m from normal places where just no one has a gun, but wouldn’t open carry be a deterrent, don’t really see the advantage of hiding your gun if you have one.

    • mars [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      5 months ago

      I saw a clip of a guy open carrying in a gas station, someone walked up behind him, pulled the gun from the holster, and ran out. Just an anecdote but it’s part of why I cc. Guns are expensive.

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        Lol at the dude who got his gun pickpocketed. Probably bought a gun with the intent of shooting a burglar, getting it swiped in public is pretty hilarious. Maybe secure your deadly weapon better. I still don’t really get the point of having a gun if you don’t tell the world. I’ve never carried any weapon that could be read as a weapon cause you’re not allowed to have them and in the circumstances one was necessary, I taped a baseball bat to my hand. The point was, during the time I was genuinely in real real danger, I made a POINT, to let it be known I was armed, if I had my baseball bat rebar replacement with me, it stuck out enough to be seen. If it’s there to make conflict not happem what’s the use in hiding it?

        • booty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          5 months ago

          If the gun is concealed then it’s a tool you can use if you are ever in the situation where you need it. Which is so exceedingly rare I wouldn’t personally bother but it does exist. If the gun is carried openly then it is a public statement which influences other people’s behavior. Both have benefits and bring complications.

            • Barx [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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              5 months ago

              It can do the same things as open carry but without signaling “I have a gun”. Those things can be useful separate from the statement made by open carry. Example: you can kill someone that is a serious threat to you but can also avoid intimidating people you’d rather not intimidate.

              IMO the usual non-reactionary reason to carry at all is that you live in a place where dangerous situations come up often enough that you feel the need to have the ability to shoot aggressors to protect yourself and your community. Someone wants to rob you or a neighbor by pointing their own gun to your temple. Someone starts swinging a pipe at you haphazardly and won’t stop. Someone much bigger than you keeps trying to fight you. “Stealth” is often perceived as valuable in this environment. You will have to surprise the aggressors. It’s also harder for someone else to grab your gun from its holster.

              Open carry is still very useful, especially as part of an organized cadre protecting an action. One or two people open carrying at an action become targeted by cops. A group of 7 is a deterrent and the cops actually tend to act more cautiously.

              • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                5 months ago

                And you consider this likely enough for an expensive purchase and to always carry something that can kill people, including yourself, with incredible ease? People willing to do violence pretty much always just wanna tske your stuff and chances are whatever you have on you, assuming you don’t have an expensive gun, is probably less of a loss than the time and money spent in court if you shoot someone. Also no one really knows how they’ll.panic until they do and it’s just as likely for someone to empty a gun into the sidewalk and get robbed anyway. As far as a guy who just wants to randomly harm people and doesn’t have their own gun? Seems unlikely where people can carry guns, so I guess on the off chance you can be The Good Guy With a Gun who happens to stop a mass shooting, it seems pretty useless and playing into common conservative fantasy. Having a gun is a thing, keeping it on you all the time just in case you get the chance to kill someone feels weird.

                • booty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  5 months ago

                  And you consider this likely enough for an expensive purchase and to always carry something that can kill people

                  No, in fact if you were actually reading my comments you would know that I consider it “exceedingly rare” and explicitly said I do not consider it worth carrying a gun

        • Kuori [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          5 months ago

          if you’re openly carrying then you are high on the list of priority targets should shit go down

          if i was gonna start a fight somewhere i’d def clip the person who is obviously armed pronto, js

        • mars [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          5 months ago

          Makes sense. I live in a relatively safe area, so I don’t really feel a need to deter anyone. In my mind it’s just another option I have if I ever need it, useless in most situations but helpful in others.

          And yeah iirc the guy that got robbed was a cowboy type, it was pretty funny.