Open carry question

[Ferrets are Cool]

This is going to come up sooner or later in my life. So, I thought I would ask for thoughts here. If I am sitting in a restaurant and a man or woman comes in with a gun strapped to their hip or worse, over their shoulder, I am going to feel unsafe.
Must I just sit there uncomfortably wondering if I am going to be shot, pay my bill and leave or is there another option?

Thanks

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. What is it you would want to do? What is your goal?

[uponit7771]

3. Same thing they did with the Missouri kid with open carrying an AR-15 near a Walmart.

[Ferrets are Cool]

4. In "my" perfect world guns would not be allowed outside

the home unless you were law enforcement. But I am sane enough to know that isn't going to happen. What is my goal? Hell if I know. I feel completely helpless right now. Voting seems to be the only recourse atm and even those are stolen now.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. No, I mean what would your goal be when you see someone out and about carrying openly.

You're pretty sure you'll have an emotional reaction; I'm trying to figure out what you want to happen after that.

[Ferrets are Cool]

16. Being a realist, I honestly don't know how to answer your question.

I would like to have the same right to "feel safe" as they are purporting to do by carrying a gun. But, I do not.

[uponit7771]

2. Call the police tell them you see a person with exposed weapon, unknown mental state with

... unknown amount of ammunition tell them you feel unsafe.

about that simple make sure people who do this open carry s*** understand that it's them might be feeling safe but not the general public the police will get the message.

[Ferrets are Cool]

5. What I haven't been able to find out is whether that is even legal. nt

[uponit7771]

7. It's absolutely truthful and legal. Just don't file anything false to 911 or the police

[jpak]

6. Shut up, get up and get out.

Don't ever come back.

[uponit7771]

9. Or call the police and tell then you see a person with an exposed weapon out unknown mental state

With unknown amount of ammunition and you feel unsafe

[MineralMan]

10. Get up, pay your bill, and explain to the management why you are leaving and

that you will not return as long as openly carried firearms are allowed in that place. Then do exactly that.

[Ferrets are Cool]

14. That is probably the best answer...

it does, however, feel like "they" are winning when I actually do that. I certainly don't feel comfortable calling the police either because if it is legal, what are they going to do? Who would ever have thought we would be in THIS place in America, right?

[Turbineguy]

11. Get up and leave and tell the restaurant people why.

Loss of business is a cost not yet calculated into the price of guns. Like the medical and other human costs.

[Ferrets are Cool]

15. Proably this. nt

[Turbineguy]

17. Around $60,000.

A few years ago I divided the published cost of gun violence in the U.S. by the number of guns sold and came up with that figure.

[Talitha]

12. Can't stores just post a "No guns allowed" sign in their window -

... or do the open carry laws allow them to go wherever they please?

In any case, I'd boycot the store and let the owner/manager know exactly why.

[Mike_DuBois]

13. I know Taco Bell posts a sign outside every door that open carry is not permitted

What? I like Taco Bell

[drray23]

18. stores are private properties and they can decide to forbid guns on their premises

gun owners have to abide by these.

[brer cat]

22. I think that varies by state.

I don't allow open carry in our antique mall in GA. Posting a sign is not sufficient; I have to approach the person already in the shop or parking lot with a gun and ask them to depart. It is covered under a trespass law and they must be told to leave before the trespass law is triggered.

[smirkymonkey]

19. I would get up and leave and tell management why.

I am so thankful I live in a state where this is not allowed.

On edit: Actually, my state (MA) does allow it with a permit - just found this out - but I have never seen anyone open carry ever since I have lived here.

Here is a map of where the states stand on open carry. This is just insane. Nobody needs a damn gun to go to a restaurant or a grocery store.

[hunter]

20. It's against the law where I live. Cops will show up for that call.

Our police don't show up for small stuff like fender-benders, stolen lawnmowers, shoplifting... they'll tell you to file your report on their web site, or in person at the police station.

One of our neighbors committed "suicide by cop" by bringing his gun to a local fast food place. When the cops stormed the place he didn't comply instantly with their orders so they shot him dead. No one knows why he was carrying the gun.

That's just one reason I always think long and hard before calling the police.

If I was in one of my bad places, the sorts where I'm a danger to myself and possibly others, I might confront an open carry asshole, possibly in a mocking way. What's he going to do, shoot me?

My brother used to own a little food place which was rough around the edges, the kind of place with regular customers who would order a minimal amount of food and slowly sip a few beers for a few hours, chatting with their fellow alcoholic misfits, the kind of place where a dozen bikers might show up and make a lot of noise before they were on their way again, the kind of place where people had sex in toilet stalls.

My brother kept an aluminum softball bat behind the counter which was a useful thing to be holding when asking certain sorts of customers, mostly belligerent drunks, to leave. If I ever had to work in such a place again (gods forbid!) that's probably how I'd deal with open carry fools and concealed carry flashers as well.

It always amuses me that open-carry fools only show up in places that are not actually dangerous, places where little old ladies feel perfectly secure shopping alone.

In rougher places I've lived some fourteen year old gangster might rob any open carry asshole of their fancy guns, same as they would someone flashing a wallet full of hundred dollar bills. Even where I live now openly advertising one's gun love is an invitation to have one's house broken into. The gangsters buy their X-Boxes at Best Buy like everyone else but they steal guns from fools.

[Ferrets are Cool]

21. +1