Keep it hidden

Given today’s date, I guess I need to put the disclaimer that this is not an April Fool’s joke.

I put out my teaser list last week, with a promise to cover it in fewer than 10 weeks. Demands on my time are making that a struggle, but I’m still going to try.

The first item, “Keep it hidden”, refers to your carry firearm. Last year, there was a group clamoring for open-carry in Texas, to join the few other states that allow their citizens to openly carry a handgun without any permit. The only states that I know currently permit (or do not prohibit) open carry are Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Vermont (if you are in another state that permits open carry, please feel free to enlighten me in the comments). I haven’t heard much from this group in the past 6 months or so, but the Texas Legislature is not currently in session. I expect they will be back sometime after this Fall, for the next session.

I am not philosophically opposed to open carry. In fact, I would be all for it, just as a matter of principle concerning my rights under the US Constitution. But I would never, ever consider openly carrying my handgun.

There are a several reasons for this, a few of which are quite selfish.

First, a matter of personal safety. An example: Suppose you were in a convenience store, and you and the clerk were the only two people in the store, and you are (legally) carrying your handgun on your hip in plain sight. If some low-life decided to rob the store at that time, and barged in with his handgun, and saw yours on your hip, who do you think he would shoot first? (You can’t outdraw an already-drawn gun, which I will cover in a later post.)

Second reason is the current anti-gun paranoia. Even in places where you can legally open-carry, you are very likely to run into significant hassle, such as a recently-chronicled tale of a fellow legally carrying in Pennsylvania who was hassled, assaulted, and falsely arrested when some “concerned citizen” reported him. Roughly half of the population even in the state of Texas believes that only cops have the right to carry a gun.

Now for a non-selfish reason: I believe that a concealed handgun is actually a better crime deterrent than an openly-displayed handgun. Doubt in the mind of a criminal is a powerful force, which is absent if the criminal can easily spot and avoid the citizens that are capable of stopping him.

Nothing deters a criminal more effectively than the possibility that his intended victim might kill him. Nothing. The threat of imprisonment (if he gets caught) doesn’t work as well. Not even the possibility of capital punishment works as well.

Addendum: Thanks to Hubert Hoffman for a comprehensive open-carry list in the comments. I note that he disagrees (a little, anyway) with my position on open carry, but he gives good reasons for his own choice of beliefs.