When I was a kid growing up in the 1970’s/early 80’s, my siblings and I were not allowed to have any toy related guns, no toy guns including water pistols. In fact, we were not allowed to make that gun sign with your hand, you know, when you are pantomiming shooting yourself in the head? One summer, gun deprived and away at summer camp, I became totally gun crazy and spent the entire month at the target range. When I got home I hid all my marksmanship certificates under my bed.
Why are we not supposed to be afraid of guns again? Why are we not supposed to be afraid of people lugging around objects which have no other purpose than to kill or maim, objects that you don’t even have to use maliciously to cause great injury or death?
“In fact, a citizen with a gun makes you more safe even than a police officer with a gun.”
Unless said citizen is:
(a) crazy person,
(b) criminal, and/or
(c) careless idiot.
And sometimes you can’t tell! Sometimes you can’t tell just by looking at him (if he walks into Burger King with an AK-47 slung over his back, please err on the side of caution).
I always thought at least PART of the idea of Open Carry was to scare the hell out of the “Bad Guys”. The fact that it also scares the hell out of everybody else is what’s called “collateral damage.”