Open Carry at Cabelas in Hammond

[cce1302]

-First, I'd like to thank Turnandshoot4 for helping me decide to OC when I went to Cabela's this morning. I might have OC'd anyway, but his thread from a couple weeks ago confirmed it in my mind.


I was there for about an hour and a half this morning in jeans and a sweater, OCing my XD40 service in a Fobus. I exchanged pleasantries with several other customers, talked with a few employees, and otherwise made my way around the entire store. This occasion was identical to every day, whether I'm OC or CC. Nobody said anything, looked at me funny, hid their children's faces, or screamed "OMGWTFSHTFBBQMANWITHAGUN!" despite all the conjecture here that it is sure to happen.

I guess maybe it isn't whether a practice is common or not that makes it right or wrong. Maybe nobody noticed. Maybe they thought, "hey, that guy is exercising his constitutional RTKBA. Good for him." Maybe they thought I looked like a cop. Who knows.

Last I heard, there was only about one gun per 12 people in the United States, with most of those who own one, owning multiple. That means maybe 1 out of every 20 or 30 or 40 actually own guns, making us a severe minority. If we are ashamed that we own guns, and keep them hidden all the time, many sheeple (as has been evidenced here by stories of questions like "why do you own/carry a gun? only criminals have guns. guns are bad.") think that only criminals have guns and that they can only be used for bad things. The more we, the responsible gun owners are seen carrying, and are asked, "why do you carry?" the more informed the people will be.

If you want us gun owners to be looked at as a fringe group and as criminals, then keep hiding your guns and discouraging others from carrying openly. As long as we do that, OC will be rare, and people will freak out (so you say) when they see a gun and want them outlawed. but if they see guys (and girls) like us, walking around with our families, with our kids, they might say to themselves, "hey, that guy's just like me." or "hey, those kids are cute and well behaved. Oh, their dad's carrying an XD. Pretty cool."