An open carry observation

[Smoke]

Since we've moved on to General Open carry as opposed to a school resource officer open carrying in possibly an inappropriate holster.

I don't open carry ever. Not even at The Goat Ranch.

So I went into Hooterville to arrange for mail delivery right after we moved in here. Before I got to the Hooterville post office I pulled over disarmed and locked my gun in a lockbox under the back seat.

I am entirely aware that even having the gun in my car on post office property was a crime but I hadn't seen the post office yet and I didn't know if it was in a shared parking lot. It wasn't but I figured the odds were in my favor.

Long story short, I walked into the post office and got in line right behind some guy standing in the lobby Open Carrying.
No one in the post office seemed to care.

I can't imagine ever needing to go back to that post office again but if I do I promise you I'm not going to walk in there with a gun. Everybody in Hooterville (all 790 of them) could open carry to the post office with no repercussions. If I walked in there with so much as a squirt gun I would get busted. Because I'm that guy.

 

[jurnes]

I agree with most posts stating that open carry is a bad idea.

Thieves will "roll" a person for a few buck or an item worth almost nothing. So along comes a guy with a gun worth $500, 600-1000+ in plain sight.

Nothing but trouble!

 

[ISCS Yoda]

First, stop me if I'm wrong, an LEO in uniform is supposed to open carry, yes?

Second, again, stop me if I'm wrong, but a 6906 is a "TDA", a typical double-action pistol. The "decocker" is supposed to be disengaged. The safety is the long, double-action trigger pull, at least that is how I've spent a zillion years thinking about it.

There is such a thing as a safety-decocker but, as I recall, that is not what the decocker is on &W 3rd Gen pistols.

I think a proper retention holster of some kind is a better idea for this LEO but I certainly cannot fault his open carry. That's his job. I never do it but, in the immortal words of the late, great comedian Freddie Prinz, "it's not my job, man!"

 

[Doug M.]

I have referred to this before. I was once sent to contact a citizen who was really upset about an open carrier in a grocery store. I knew the caller was going to be a whiny pain in the butt from his area code. He was not happy when we told him that there was not only no basis to contact the carrier, but that in fact that it would be unlawful (civilly AND criminally) to make contact. He promised to contact his legislator (who was likely one of the problem children we haven the legislature if this was his constituent) and seek to end open carry.

We simply cannot afford that kind of attention from the kooks. As noted, it is also unsafe in many circumstances. In addition, I want to be left alone. I don't like most people and I surely do not want to interact with them or have them seek LE action because of me. I have bordered on open carry a time or two (taking my wife to the Yakima airport) using a duty holster that did not conceal well at all solely because I wanted that pistol on me, but I was not getting out the car or otherwise likely to do anything that invited attention. It is vital to me to be "gray" - to fade into the background as much as possible.

 

[Doug M.]

First, stop me if I'm wrong, an LEO in uniform is supposed to open carry, yes?

Second, again, stop me if I'm wrong, but a 6906 is a "TDA", a typical double-action pistol. The "decocker" is supposed to be disengaged. The safety is the long, double-action trigger pull, at least that is how I've spent a zillion years thinking about it.

I think a proper retention holster of some kind is a better idea for this LEO but I certainly cannot fault his open carry. That's his job. I never do it but, in the immortal words of the late, great comedian Freddie Prinz, "it's not my job, man!"

The failure to use a proper security holster in such circumstances is well beyond stupid; it is a solid basis for discipline. It is also a basis for discipline (preferably termination of employment) for any supervisory or command officer to allow it. Period, full stop. The potential liability if the pistol is able to be removed from the SRO is staggering, and any cop lawyer worth any portion of his pay would have to take some very vigorous action (a full on R. Lee Ermey screaming fit). (We have case law on such here from a workplace safety issue after an officer was killed using an improper holster.)

 

[45Smashemflat]

I open carry in the woods and fields while hunting or scouting. That's about it. When I do that, I tend to avoid any need to "wander through town" on the way out or in. Otherwise, it's concealed for all the same reasons given above.

 

[Lt.Donn]

Friends don't let friends OC

 

[KWW]

The failure to use a proper security holster in such circumstances is well beyond stupid; it is a solid basis for discipline. It is also a basis for discipline (preferably termination of employment) for any supervisory or command officer to allow it. Period, full stop. The potential liability if the pistol is able to be removed from the SRO is staggering, and any cop lawyer worth any portion of his pay would have to take some very vigorous action (a full on R. Lee Ermey screaming fit). (We have case law on such here from a workplace safety issue after an officer was killed using an improper holster.)

Discipline of the officer or his supervisor would depend on their department's policy. If the department allowed that type of holster, the liability is on the department. And no, I know of no department that allows uniformed carry with no retention requirements.

 

[Smoke]

Second, again, stop me if I'm wrong, but a 6906 is a "TDA", a typical double-action pistol. The "decocker" is supposed to be disengaged. The safety is the long, double-action trigger pull, at least that is how I've spent a zillion years thinking about it.

I may have read it wrong but based on what I read in the OP I was under the impression that the guy was walking around with the 6906 cocked and unlocked.

 

[lrrifleman]

This particular 6906 was carried hammer down, decocker parallel to the bore, so that the first shot HAD to be fired DA. What initially caught my eye was the action similarity to my 439.

 

[Muley Gil]

Discipline of the officer or his supervisor would depend on their department's policy. If the department allowed that type of holster, the liability is on the department. And no, I know of no department that allows uniformed carry with no retention requirements.

I retired from my PD in 2001. At that time, plain thumb break and the strap over the hammer retention holsters were still common. Some folks had higher level holsters, but it wasn't required.