To me the argument of Concealed Carry vs Open Carry is an easy one. My main argument against Open Carry is twofold: (1) Even before there is trouble, the bad guy KNOWS you are armed and therefore you have lost the element of surprise and become a target. (2) When you do get into a life threatening situation with somebody, the chances of it being at ECQ (Bad Breath Distance) is statistically high (under 7 feet) and right away the Bad Guy, who may or may not be armed, will consider disarming you and killing you with your own weapon because now he knows there is a weapon available to use: YOURS.
Yes, cops face this challenge everyday and unfortunately very few of them have had adequate training at how to both PREVENT and DEAL with these situations, so how much LESS will the average armed civilian?
If you are being honest the answer is really, really low and the main reason for that is most armed civilians think carrying a gun is some kind of magic tailsman against danger, unfortunately most of them forget the most important word in GUNFIGHT is FIGHT, not GUN and although they may know how to shoot, their fighting skills are often very minimal.
The following video will show how fast things can go to shit in situations like these
As an armed civilian consider this same situation but subtract the armed assistance this cop had during this struggle and you can see why my argument is sound.
Out there on the street, it’s just you, your training and your gun.
Be Smart, Keep it Concealed!
Greg Ellefritz (who is an active duty cop) over at Active Response Training has some excellent articles on this topic. I suggest you guys read up on this and look at the stats yourself.
