Rich B
Regular Member
What cases are you referring to here?
How does inadvertent exposure or printing give a cop more or different RAS than straight-up OC?
ETA: Found it:
GEORGIACARRY.ORG said:When a person is carrying a firearm openly, reasonable suspicion of unlawful activity must obviously involve some unlawful act other than the crime of boarding with a concealed weapon or the crime of carrying a concealed weapon.
The core of the argument is essentially that concealed carry *may* produce RAS if the gun becomes visible since criminals are known to carry concealed. Also remember that it is pretty widely accepted through history and court rulings that concealed carry is a 'less honest' form of carry.
Open carry is not a practice that criminals are known to engage in. Therefore it is less than reasonable for anyone to assume that a person carrying a fully exposed firearm in a proper holster is engaged in any sort of criminal behavior from the gun alone. The courts have even mentioned that open carry is likely to be the constitutional minimum (standard?) for carry outside of the home.
What's your take on someone who goes into Walmart wearing an OWB Holster and a coat (CC), get's hot, takes coat off and is now OC?
I don't see an issue with it at all, although I have seen firsthand that people seem to react a slight bit more (still no panic, terror or anything, mostly just double takes) when a gun suddenly appears on your waist band where it wasn't before. I think that is simply because it is surprising to people that don't conceal that a (fullsize?) firearm can be concealed on your person and that they have been 'fooled'.
I think this more applies to things like carrying openly in something like an IWB holster. Hell, I have heard of people carrying a pistol in their pocket that hangs out just to open carry. The argument has been that this tends to skew things towards RAS because it closely resembles how a criminal would carry by all outside appearances.
When I open carry, I either go full open carry, or concealed means concealed. It would be rare for me to be seen in public with a pistol grip hanging out of my waist band.
Last edited: