Why is that we tolerate all these concealed firearm laws that allow people to carry guns hidden on their bodies into schools, churches and shopping centers and other public places in the name of the second amendment? Whether or not I agree with the NRA and other “gun rights” advocates, I believe that there are better laws that ought to be enacted that would keep us better informed and in the end safer. Those laws are OPEN CARRY laws.

After all, who benefits most from concealed carry permits, and the laws that extend such permits to allow concealed carriers to bring guns into all public spaces? Not those who do not like or use or own guns, certainly. No, they only benefit gun users and gun owners, who get not only to bring their death machines into public spaces, where they can be brought out and used in any “declared” emergency, whether necessary or not, but can be brought there in stealth and secrecy.  This is because no one is brave enough to insist that what we really want and need are open carry laws, laws that not only allow gun users and owners to carry openly but in fact force them to do so.

OPEN carry laws would force gun carriers to reveal when they had brought a gun into a restaurant or church  or shopping mall, and if that brought consequences for the person with the gun, well, they would have to deal with those consequences, whatever they are. I frankly believe that if bringing a gun into a restaurant results in people moving away from your table or the gun-shy other patrons not wanting to stay in that same building, with other consequences as a result of those decisions too, well, perhaps then certain laws would eventually be changed to favor protection from guns at last.

But at least we would see what actually results when gun users bring guns into public spaces when they have to do so  out in the open.

Now, they have the benefit of doing it under cover and with the benefit of necessary secrecy, but this is not to the public good.  The gun user does not actually want to be outed. Let’s face it, if he did, he or she would acquire an open carry permit. But most feel that concealed carry is all they want, because they are aware of the public fear and stigma against carrying deadly weapons in public, and they know this feeling exists against weapons carried in public, even when  carried in secret. The thing about secretly carrying deadly weapons, of course, is that no one really knows you are doing it, so they can’t condemn or stop you or stigmatize you, can they? So you get to have your cake/gun and  use it too…

Let’s call for all OPEN CARRY FIREARMS laws now. Stop allowing gun users to keep us from knowing just who has a gun in public.