An excellent article from (surprisingly) The LA Times:
Packing in public: Gun owners tired of hiding their weapons embrace ‘open carry’
Those who wear their guns in full sight are part of a fledgling movement to make a firearm a common accessory.
By Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 7, 2008(… continued …)
As Clachelle pushed the shopping cart holding their two young children during a recent trip to Costco, her husband admired the new holster wrapped around her waist. “I like the look of that low-rise gun belt,” he said.
The Jensens’ pistols were snapped into holsters attached to black belts that hug their waists. Guns are a fact of life in their household. Their 5-year-old daughter, Sierra, has a child-sized .22 rifle she handles only in her parents’ presence.
Clachelle is the daughter of a Central California police chief and began shooting when she was about Sierra’s age. She would take her parents’ gun when she went out and hide it in her purse because the firearm made her feel safer.
“I love ‘em,” Clachelle said. “I wouldn’t ever be without them.”
Kevin Jensen’s first encounter with guns came when he was 11: His grandfather died and left him a 16-gauge shotgun. The gun stayed locked away but fascinated Jensen through his teen years. He convinced his older brother to take him shooting in the countryside near their home in a small town south of Salt Lake City.
“I immediately fell in love with it,” said Jensen, a lean man with close-cropped hair and a precise gait that is a reminder of his five years in the Army Reserve. “I like things that go boom.”
Jensen kept as many as 10 guns in the couple’s 1930s-style bungalow in Santaquin, 21 miles southwest of Provo. In January 2005, he decided to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon, mainly for self-defense.
“I’m not going to hide in the corner of a school and mall and wait for the shooting to stop,” he said.
When Jensen bought a Glock and the dealer threw in an external hip holster, he began researching the idea of carrying the gun in public and came upon OpenCarry.org.
Its website, run by two Virginia gun enthusiasts, claims 4,000 members nationwide. It summarizes the varying laws in each state that permit or forbid the practice. People everywhere have the right to prohibit weapons from their property, and firearms are often banned in government buildings such as courthouses.
(… continued …)
