Amazing how "gripping hand" is necroposting two threads just to stir up the same old ********. But whatever, we can all play the game for a few rounds.
Okay, fair enough.
Looking at my original post, I can see how it seemed confrontational. I apologize.
I've carried a firearm for longer than a lot of you have been alive
So? Carrying a gun for decades doesn't give you some magical perception. You still have to use your mind to think through something that challenges your little mental window on the world.
and I'm just trying to understand how OC is "educating the people." I came to this forum expecting an articulate explanation and defense of the practice that I haven't been able to find anywhere else.
My experience in MS is that people are very curious when they see me carrying a pistol, and a respectable number have asked me about it. Never had a rude encounter (amazingly), just honest, courteous curiosity. I try my best to explain succinctly the basis for the right to OC, and my reasons. I might not "convert" anyone, but at the very least they see that a visible firearm can be a normal part of everyday life, and maybe a spark of freedom is ignited in their minds. A few people have been
very positive about my open carry, and were pleased to see someone being so open about the right to bear arms.
Can you try to look at it from the perspective of the general public and specifically people unfamiliar with or afraid of firearms? They see someone they don't know, who's intention, capabilities and temperament are unknown to them with a weapon and you expect them to automatically understand that you're one of the good guys, thereby "lowering the public's fears". Is it possible that you're creating a barrier to the just the dialogue you express an interest in sharing? Yes, I understand your rights "shall not be infringed", but what about theirs?
As other forum members have already stated, the reactions of others to me is not my concern. But I'll play your game. The "general public" can see I am one of the "good guys" because I don't do harm to anyone as I go about my daily business. If I didn't have a visible sidearm, you'd still be as much in the dark about my intentions until my actions and words show them. The presence of a gun does not change that one bit.
Do you have the same fears about people without a visible firearm? Because it's a statistical possibility (at least in most areas of the US) that you encounter armed people multiple times throughout the day.
Help me out here. I've never carried openly in public and don't see the point. Can you explain it dispassionately or am I the enemy simply because I dare question your opinion?
If you end up treated as "the enemy", it's because you came storming into an open carry forum preaching the same old tired gospel of "teh publiks is skeered". And reviving old stale threads, at that.
Look around the forum a bit and find the existing discussions, where this topic has been beaten to death a thousand times, before you start posting thinking that you have some brand new idea we've never heard before.