My Thoughts on Concealed Carry

There is an age-old debate between the choice to conceal versus open carry. Each principle of carrying has its pros and cons. Today I'm going to discuss a few of those and you can decide for yourself which is the best method. I'm not here to tell you how wrong or right you are, I just want to share my point of view in the hopes that folks on both sides of this debate will hear each other’s perspective with an open heart and mind.

For too long I've heard people calling the opposing side one thing or another.  Bottom line, we are all Americans, we all value life and we all have the right to carry the way we see fit, without judgement.

Damn, that was good stuff.

Someone should write that down.

I open carried here in Ohio for several years. When I first started carrying a sidearm, conceal carry was an option; however, it was expensive. The training was lackluster (at best) and resulted in what felt like an invasion of my rights in order to keep and bear arms - a viable method for defending myself and family. I read up on all the rules ensuring I understood what I could and couldn't do, including where I could and couldn’t take my gun. I educated myself on the appropriate use of lethal force (applicable to my state) and took several private training courses. I thoroughly believe if you are going to carry a gun you should have training.

As of now (after roughly 5 or so years), the state of Ohio created a law that allows me to not have to wait until point of purchase to buy a gun if I got the CCW for Ohio.  I had been breaking the transportation laws with my pistol being loaded in the car, so I went ahead and bought the conceal carry permit. I took the very un-impressive training and paid the state to have a right I should have had all along yet, I still chose to open carry versus concealing.

My thought process; being a 2A advocate requires me to educate people about 2A laws. In the life I was living at the time, there was no better way to get a conversation started than to open carry in a public place (back then, people were quick to point it out and ask questions about it).  In this way, the practice of open carry become a method of raising awareness regarding the 2A law for myself and those willing to ask questions.

Many will argue that the guy open carrying will be messed with by the police all the time. I guess this could be a thing. There may have been some situations where police just don't like people carrying guns; however, I can say in my 20+ years of open carrying, I've yet to have a negative interaction with Law Enforcement. In fact, almost all of the police I encounter encourage people to carry guns. In 2024 they kind of expect you to be armed. Concealed just makes them have to ask.

In my life, it has always been about how I carried myself which kept me out of those encounters with the police. I've had and still have an open challenge to anyone who can find me an article where a person was shot first just because the criminal saw them armed (it's kind of an urban legend). It just hasn't ever happened (at least not documented). But alas, the challenge is indeed still open. #Provemewrong

Fast forward to 2023 in Ohio - we now have Constitutional carry -no permit required. If you can lawfully own a firearm, you can now carry it.

Whoorahhh, right?

I guess...

While I love seeing freedoms returned to Ohioans, it does come with a price. Now we can literally have any swinger on the field armed with as little as zero training. As a 2A advocate, it drives me nuts that granny who hasn't shot a gun in 30 years can now just strap up and run the streets (not that she doesn't have the right to do so). The sheer volume of people armed in 2024 with zero training scares the living shit out of me.  It creates a higher likelihood of opportunity for bad things to happen (to what are normally good people).

So, I guess this leaves us all with a question, where does one's right to keep and bear arms infringe on one’s right to not be accidentally shot???

If you're going to be armed, be trained.

You owe the rest of us that much.

With all of this said, to this day, I still prefer to open carry. It's more comfortable, my draw is slightly quicker and I get to show of my badass pistol and holster, and yes, I still get to have Pro2A talks with people who are not “in the know”. Granted, with as many people armed as there are now, these conversations are less frequent.

Even still, there are a number of reasons when having the freedom to conceal is a plus. At the end of the day, it is up to the individual what makes the most sense for them and the life they live. Again, this article isn't to tell you how wrong you are or how right I am. I’m just illustrating the different perspectives from both sides of the debate.

We're all Americans, we all are willing to defend life. We just have different approaches to it. None of which are more valid than the other.

Pros and cons (at least in my opinion) are limited on open carry (that is once you take away the urban legends of it all while remaining clear on the facts, based in reality). Open carry provides a quicker draw, more comfort, and acts as a visual deterrent to would be assholes. Conceal carry is great for the person who doesn't want to draw attention to themself. The pros are that nobody knows you're armed until it's time to let them know, (but this does not align with my core beliefs). I'm not out to get the drop on anyone, I just want to be left alone and if forced to do so, defend life. The cons of concealed carry are decreased comfort, hindered mobility, and clearing cover garments slows down the draw time considerably for those who haven’t had extensive training.

The take-away is to arm yourself, get training and carry your weapon. Doesn't matter to me how you carry as long as you train. The rest is 100% up to you and what your life requires. If you happen to be in a life situation that doesn't allow you to be armed, I suggest personal self-defense training. I hate the idea of a bad guy getting close enough to have to “go hands” but being a victim just isn't an option -not in a free nation like America!

--

Paul Riley

Therapy Range LLC

www.therapyrange.com