I'd argue in many cases it is not the guns, nor the open carrying, but that the least stable people use it for the wrong reasons. Idiots parading a gun down the street with a camera hoping to catch a cop for Youtube, yahoo "look at me" types, and every jackwagon trying to make a 'statement". I'm an old, right wing, reactionary style person, and watching any person acting in such a radical manner for any cause makes me sick, be it a cause I am against or for. I find many of these goobers do not care about the cause, but simply the attention and the enjoyment of creating controversy. People who carry guns in a manner designed to garner attention and disturb the public are radical, plain and simple.
What about all the open carriers who act in a civilized manner and do everything in their power to avoid problems? What about concealed carriers flashing their guns at everyone to proclaim "see what I got!". Its not the gun, nor the type of carry, it is the defective individual, and like any cause, we attract them. In some cases, we do not even need an armed person acting innapropriately: have you ever observed any activists harassing and browbeating random people to support their cause in such an overbearing and aggressive way that it turns people off? We have them too.
Does open carry Gary Goodman, who carries a pistol openly on his hip, never drawing attention to it or talking about it, have much to do with Bert Badman who straps a tacticool holster on, fingers the damn thing regularly in public, and tells every single human being in earshot about carrying and open carry? Does Gary open carrying a more traditional rifle on a traditional sling in areas that are open to such acts relate to Bert carrying around a rifle, purposely modified to attract attention, and carrying it around in an inner city area where he knows it will make people feel uncomfortable and most certainly he will be confronted by police?
The point being, that Gary will not give us trouble, wither he is open carrying a long gun only in places and in a manner that is acceptable, or when he is carrying concealed. Bert is going to give us nothing but grief, no matter what he carries and how, be it an M-60 strapped to his back, or chasing people around a public park with rhetoric and cards.
I know that gun owners need to stick together, but I think its high time we start to purge the radicals that threaten us all. There is a point where those who take actions that endanger all of our rights, do not enhance our rights, and are a greater evil than good. At some point we must shed ourselves of liabilities, and refuse to condone some acts done in the cause's name. At some point the risk of disunity is not as great as the risk of internal disruption and harm from the radicals among us.
I think open carry will eventually return, legally, and see more public acceptance, with time., and I do not believe it to be the biggest cause, nor the greatest threat to the movement, but those supporters of open carry should realize the way they act and advocate can force the subject to be the latter or the former. We are better served to advocate quietly and respectfully, not loudly and disruptively.
As the old internet meme with the hissing cat goes, "This is why we can't have nice things".
