Speakertweaker is a Texan, the land where printing can get you in trouble. He agrees with me that open carry should be legal, but warns “Don’t overdrive your headlights,” using a Drivers’ Ed metaphor. Every time something like this comes up, folks seem to think I’m advocating never pushing beyond people’s comfort level. That’s not what I’m saying. But you do have to be cognizant not to push so far beyond most people’s understanding that they dismiss you, rather than thinking.
Most people don’t feel a need to carry a gun in public. We don’t live in a society that’s so absolutely plagued by violence that most people are thinking about carrying a firearm for self-protection everywhere they go. That’s why people have a difficult time wrapping their heads around carrying openly to a kids’ soccer game. The disconnect for people is that they assume that carrying a firearm is a large burden, when it is not. It’s less burdensome than carrying a cell phone. When people see that it is burdensome, even if it’s only socially burdensome, they aren’t going to conclude that people who carry firearms for self-protection are normal, they are going to conclude they are unusually fearful. That’s not really the image we want people to have of public carry.
