I’ve carried concealed under Oregon’s “shall-issue” CHL law for over 5 years.

For an average citizen, open vs concealed carry is usually a matter of personal choice – But here and in some other states a gun owner with no criminal history or other restrictions can carry a lawfully purchased handgun in the open without a permit.

I have two reasons for preferring to carry concealed:

• I feel I need personal protection because I’m a woman working with the public in sometimes risky environments, often alone (and I’ve been assaulted 3 times).

• Concealed carry draws less attention, reduces the chance of being disarmed or shot with my own weapon in a hostile encounter, and makes innocent strangers feel less threatened.

Concealed carry just lets me “blend in” more easily. For me that’s an advantage. I disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down most state regulation of concealed carry, but for now it’s the law.

@JLoon I got a similar response from a Facebook group. I understand the many reasons why owners choose to carry. I’m interested in gun owner’s reasons for choosing NOT to carry. I’m beginning to think there ARE no reasons or people prefer not to say.

(Thanks for your response.)

Your question as written makes it seem like you’re asking for reasons to carry either open, or concealed.

You want to know why someone would decide not to carry at all?

@JLoon That’s correct. I’m sure there are some gun owners who have decided NOT to carry. I’m wondering what those reasons might be.

A gun can be a bit cumbersome. For example, When I wear my Ruger .22 revolver, I wear it in a right hand holster on my left side. This allows me to carry it in the car with the barrel hanging over the seat edge and not affecting the wearing of my seat belt.
At times the extra weight hanging on one side makes my back hurt.
If I was to wear a gun at all times I would get a shoulder holster to go under my left arm that would carry a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver that had a 4” or 6” barrel. But, again, without constant threat of needing to use it, it would be somewhat cumbersome.

I’m not a gun owner, but if I was I can think of several reasons I wouldn’t want to carry:

1. Risk of theft. You can’t lose a weapon if it’s locked up in a gun safe.

2. Fear of an accident. A weapon can’t accidentally discharge in public if it’s locked up in a gun safe.

3. Bulk. Guns aren’t the heaviest things, but they do have some weight to them.

4. Forgetting about restrictions and accidentally breaking the law. There can be laws around where you can cary. If you’re carrying and it slips your mind and you enter a restaurant to take a quick pee, you could be in violation of some statue because the place happens to serve alcohol. That could turn into a much more serious criminal issue to deal with for something trivial like using a restroom.

5. Fears about safety if you’re stopped by police. Let’s say you’re carrying and get pulled over because your vehicle matches the description of one that was used in a crime or something. You could find yourself in a Philando Castile type of situation where you’re trying to communicate that you’re armed and complying with the officer’s instructions, but the cop is jumpy and kills you anyways.

6. Fears that the weapon may lead to tunnel thinking. Using a gun is probably the wrong tactical choice 99/100 times. Having one on you may entice you into taking actions that put you in greater danger than if you had just tried to escape.

7. Limits your activities.

@SABOTEUR – Ah, okay.

I think there are some good reasons for going unarmed in public – such as what @kritiper points out about physical challenge of just finding some way to carry that’s comfortable.

Others, similar to @gorillapaws list might be :
• Frequent point of entry security screening in public buildings.
• More potential for accidental discharge with increased movement & handling.
• Worry over shooting & wounding bystanders in any actual emergency.
• Negative reaction from friends & co workers who resent being exposed to deadly weapons in social settings.

If I see someone open carry in a store and they are not in a legitimate uniform of some type I will leave, call 911 and inform the police there is an armed gunman in the store.

If you’re that ammo-sexual that you need to open carry, might as well walk around with your dick out.

@gorillapaws A gun can’t “accidentally” discharge if the carrier knows how to carry it properly. For an automatic, you don’t keep a live round in the chamber. With a revolver, you keep an empty chamber under the hammer, or you use (like with my “New Model” Ruger single six that has to be cocked before it can be discharged) a pistol that cannot be fired without a finger pulling the trigger.

@kritiper “A gun can’t “accidentally” discharge if the carrier knows how to carry it properly.”

Good point. This didn’t actually happen. It’s CGI.

I will conceal if my AR 15 clashes with my jacket.

I choose not to carry because I don’t feel threatened.
My workplace, pre-Covid, doesn’t allow them inside either. Leaving them in the car is unacceptable to me, though many do.
I think people who carry are more at risk now, as there are many who feel like @zenvelo. Just make sure you don’t have them all ‘tegistered’ as the Feds are trying to coerce red states into divulging lists to them, against our state law.

Well, If I carry it’s concealed. Open carry is basically only something a jackass does. For me I only carry when I think it may be necessary which is not very often. If I’m taking a long hike or backpacking, especially alone I will carry. Sometimes if I’m meeting someone to buy or sell something I will.

I’m with @zenvelo.

I am a gun owner and don’t have any particular driving need to carry open or concealed. I will likely get my concealed carry permit eventually just so I don’t get sideways with the cops if I decide to go shooting. Too many weird rules they have to call something a concealed weapon. But right now, I don’t see the need to be armed all the time. I suspect that at some point in the not to distant future that will change, but by then gun control laws will likely be fairly unimportant compared to survival.

Reckless people who would call the cops like this are just one reason open carry is a bad idea. If a person is doing something perfectly legal and otherwise minding their own business and you call the cops on them knowing this is the case but you just don’t like what they’re doing is the very definition of a Karen. It makes you a shitty person also. Like, really shitty. I’ll say that people who open carry are shitty people too but you don’t have to be shitty also. Not only do you take the cops away from being ready for a real call you put that person and people in the general area in danger by reporting suspicious activity when there is none. There may even be legal consequences in certain states for doing this to consider. If a person has a gun unholstered that’s a different story.

@Blackwater_Park ”...reporting suspicious activity when there is none.”

Except that is false, you carrying a fucking gun into a store for no reason except you get off on the power and fright makes you an ammo sexual. You have no reason to carry a weapon unless you plan to kill someone. There is no good reason to open carry if one is not a cop or otherwise part of a trained and uniformed protective force.

@zenvelo Just because you want to clutch your pearls does not mean you have the right to call the cops on someone with a lawfully holstered firearm. That’s like calling the cops on someone putting a six pack of beer in their car with their groceries because they may decide to drink and drive.

Posting on this site is, even if I don’t agree is teaching me to accept other points of view.

Example. We can’t allow a good guy with a gun to stop a mass shooting because
the wrong person might be shot. Ok.

Example. We are so desperate to belong we say what we are told to say. Like Minneapolis
City Council president Lisa Bender. We are told to accept the state will protect us.
(and raise our children and watch over our healthcare and tell us what to eat etc.)

I understand tho why there is a second amendment that is to make sure the government
doesn’t control us the way in all of human history the ruling first estate subjugated people.
The so called elites want to be the undisputed first estate.

@WhyNow ”...there is a second amendment that is to make sure the government
doesn’t control us.”

This is a myth that gun advocates have spread for a hundred years. Under Article I § 8 of the Constitution, the states transferred to Congress the power “to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel Invasions” and “to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia.”

@WhyNow “I understand tho why there is a second amendment that is to make sure the government doesn’t control us the way in all of human history the ruling first estate subjugated people.”

This is an ahistorical interpretation of the second amendment dreamed up in a gun lobby think tank and pumped out as propaganda for people with inadequate understanding of the history to regurgitate so they can express their feelings of belonging. It’s kind of ironic when you had just complained about:

“We are so desperate to belong we say what we are told to say.”

If you were to hop in your time traveling elevator and sit down with Hamilton, Madison, Adams and Jefferson and tell them that’s what the 2nd amendment was for they’d say something to the effect of: “What the fuck are you on about? It’s about protecting slave patrol militiias—It’s literally the first thing mentioned in the amendment. What are you guys smoking in the 2020’s?”

The chittering has started. A myth? Time traveling elevator? Gucci!

I don’t need to time travel to hob with the founding fathers, I read a couple volumes of
their letters.

Skimming closer history I found Reagan was called a cowboy a derogatory way to cut ass
individuality! And THAT is the threat which must be dealt with. Elitists believe we are
endowed personhood by the state. We live and die by the whim of the state, there is no
higher authority.

Lastly, I don’t smoke not yet! Soon I will go to full time pot head and house head my
fav dance music.

There are a lot of anti-gun people who work very hard to call some of this gun lobby propaganda. Some of it is, but there are enough writings and correspondence between the founding fathers and people responsible for forming our initial gov’t to establish that the 2nd Amendment is indeed intended to enable the public to protect itself.

I don’t own a gun but if I did I wouldn’t wander about with it. I have no reason to. If I owned a gun it would locked up, and taken out only for target practice.

@Blackwater_Park ”...there are enough writings and correspondence between the founding fathers and people responsible for forming our initial gov’t to establish that the 2nd Amendment is indeed intended to enable the public to protect itself.”

Bullshit. This is a very recent re-interpretation of the 2nd amendment. For centuries it was interpreted as being about well regulated state militias—you know the thing it specifically talks about in the amendment.

@gorillapaws I don’t agree. There is some overstep by the gun lobby sure but the “recent re-interpretation” is from the other way around, claiming that it’s not about that. If you look at things like the federalist papers, drafts of the Constitution and other places, Jefferson, Paine, Madison and many others wrote about it stating specifically arming the public was for that reason. Also “the right of the people” as language used in the constitution appears in other places where nobody debates that it means the public. Like the first and fourth for example.

@Blackwater_Park You didn’t read the article I linked, did you?

@gorillapaws It’s an opinion piece. A hit piece really but there is probably some truth to it. Preventing slave uprisings was certainly not the only reason for the second amendment.

When the 2nd amendment was written everyone owned a gun. You just needed one to survive. We didn’t have grocery stores or first responders. Not like we do today.
I wonder what happened to cause the Constitution writers to even make it a thing?

@Dutchess_III Ask the parents at Uvalde how it worked for them to wait for the first responders.

Stop it. More guns is not the answer seawulf.

@Dutchess_III And, apparently, neither is waiting for the first responders. I have a lot of respect for police generally. But depending on the area you live in there are probably 1000 citizens (or more) per police officer on the street. And also depending on the area they might have to cover a very large area. I once lived in a county that was over 1300 sq mi in size and had a grand total of 2 sheriffs on patrol at any given time. If you had need of the police, they might have a long drive to even get to you.

I’d be willing to bet that what happened to the Constitution writers to make the 2nd Amendment a thing was a few things. They recognized the right of people to live and to protect themselves. They recognized that people might be needed for defense of the state or nation and having them armed and/or knowing how to use a gun would be important. And they just got rid of tyrannical rule by England. And in evaluation they recognized that people in power can become tyrants fairly easily, but having the populace armed would be a bit of a deterrent for that. And pretty much all of those things still exist. You still have the right to defend yourself, you still could be called up for service, and there is a very real risk of a tyrannical government forming up.