Well, since I took all the time to peck this out for the other OC thread, I'll CTRL-V it here as well:
Several years ago I was walking on a Sunday morning through Wright Park in the Stadium District of Tacoma. The path around the park is wide enough for the park’s pickup trucks to use- just to give you an idea of how wide it is.
Two youts were approaching from the opposite direction I was walking, and when we passed there ~would be~ at least six feet between them (walking two abreast) and me over on the right side of the path. I didn’t give them much thought because it was pretty early and the thugs ‘should’ be home sleeping off whatever they had consumed the night before.
While they were fifteenish feet in front of me, the guy on the outside (far left to me) jump-stepped and crossed awkwardly in front of the other and was moving directly towards me, vs continuing around the bend in the trail. From about six feet away, and blocking the path in front of me, he suddenly veers back while throwing up his hands and saying, “Hey no problem man…”
It happened way too fast for me to have even realized what had just happened. I was walking with my hands inside the kangaroo pocket of my sweatshirt because it was cold, and as he got in front of me he was able to see the Sig 1911 I was carrying openly on my right side (in one of those leg destroying Serpa holsters no less).
Having given it some thought as I walked, and later at home, I believe he was either planning to play knockout game with me (without asking if I wanted to) or had decided my Oakley Juliets would look better on his face than mine (debatable). Open carry deterred him.
What with hindsight being 20-20 and all, I realized several things:
- Concealed carry would have been useless. I could not draw on every person that approached me in the park, and I could not draw and give chase after they had knocked me down and/or stolen my sunglasses/wallet/watch whatever. Pocket carry in my hand would likewise be a fail. Would I really want to shoot someone over a pair of sunglasses? Would I want that legal world of hurt that would avalanche my way? Would I want to live with having killed someone for such a petty thing?
- I also realized that even though I wouldn’t want to shoot anyone over the theft of a pair of sunglasses, the robber has no idea about my mental stability. For all he knows I think exactly the same way he does; violence is a viable solution to a problem.
- I walked several more laps around the park after the non-incident and if they had wanted to ambush me, I suppose they could have tried to- but I never saw them again.
So the anti-OC people can talk all the smack they want, dream up all sorts of wild fantasies of what might happen, and cop their smug attitude about their tactically superior concealed carry surprise- I really don’t care. You see, I don’t want to shoot anyone. If I can make it my whole life without shooting anyone- it’s jelly to me.
Concealed carry cannot directly deter crimes- either the kind for which deadly force is appropriate, or the petty kind for which deadly force will put YOU in jail. Reading some of the responses in the many ‘OC is bad’ posts in the many threads, I worry that there are people that are secretly hoping for the chance to whip out their gat and surprise some street thug.