Downtown Pittsburgh OC

[Thaigirl Hunter]

I want to sometimes open carry my 500 mag in the downtown area, southside,
northshore.

Has anybody ever tried it without helipcopters and swat team showing up?

I have lived down here for 4 years and have NEVER seen anyone OC. I
have asked 4 different LEOs and they told me ANGRILY "its against the law etc"
It was like a hot button for them when i mentioned it. Dr Jeckyl/Mr Hide
response.

I have my LTCF permit.

thanks for any help
TGHr

[D-FENS]

It's not illegal by any means so I doubt anything would come of it if you got picked up.

IMO, expect to get hassled though. I get a lot of head turning and stares for weaing my Leatherman and iPod on my belt from the cops.

Other folks have said the Police in the Firearms office have told them they'd get 302'd for Open Carry. That is 2nd hand, so take it for what it's worth.

IMO, if you can conceal Downtown, do so. Otherwise I'm fairly confident you will get some negative attention from the Police and local hoodlums.

EDIT: 27hand shares his experience (mention above) where a cop wrongly suggests a 302 as the standard procedure for Open Carry. Also a *very* well respected member of this forum.

http://www.pafoa.org/forum/concealed...ter-302-a.html

[Thaigirl Hunter]

Thanks defens, appreciate that.

I will go ask at the sheriffs dept where i got my permit.

Awhile back, here in downtown a security guard was shooting a BB gun in one of
parking garages trying to weed out some pigeons. Well Lib comes along and
calls 911 and ALL HECK BROKE LOOSE! Streets shutdown! SWAT , choppers
Hundreds of LEOs flooded the area.

take care
tgh

[MarcS]

hey, look who's back...

It's a way to get noticed, period.

[XD45]

going to the sheriffs firearm divison would be pointless, whether they say its legal or not doesn't matter because you already know its legal, and they can't tell you what an officer they probably never met is going to do when he sees your gun....

if you've got nothing to do for a few days and have an extensive bank account give it a shot, but there is a thread on here somplace about someone OCing and having a positive experience with PPD.. let us know what happens if you do

[D-FENS]

The Positive experience was by PeteG but he wasn't really Downtown, I don't think.

Also, where you got your LTCF at the Sheriffs Firearm Division is the same place that 27hand was told he'd be 302'd.

[Hawk]

(Comment not directed at anyone specific)
I was told along time ago that LEO's are not experts of the law. They are out there to protect and to serve, and leave it up to the courts and the law makers to determine what was legal or not. So be careful, LEO's can arrest or detain you "at will" regardless of what is legal. Can you sue for wrongful arrest or detainment - sure. Do you want that hassle - I don't. One can really screw up ones life by getting arrested or detained either legally or not, why take a chance? I'll never understand why anyone would OC if they had a license to carry concealed. Why attract attention to yourself? Don't you think it's smarter to be stealthy when it comes to self-defense?

Just my 2 cents,
Hawk

[Thekatar]

I was told along time ago that LEO's are not experts of the law.

Imagine that.

[PeteG]

I want to sometimes open carry my 500 mag in the downtown area, southside,
northshore.

Has anybody ever tried it without helipcopters and swat team showing up?

I have lived down here for 4 years and have NEVER seen anyone OC. I
have asked 4 different LEOs and they told me ANGRILY "its against the law etc"
It was like a hot button for them when i mentioned it. Dr Jeckyl/Mr Hide
response.

I have my LTCF permit.

thanks for any help
TGHr

I carry openly on the Southside from time-to-time. I have also carried openly in Oakland and Shadyside. I don't recall carrying openly downtown, except in a vehicle. As I have noted many times, I have had no incidents of any kind. (A policeman giving me a second look is not, in my book, an "incident.")

After all that has been said and written on the topic, WHY would anybody call the police to ask them about open carry??? One of the very few things that is reported with complete consistency is that police (of all types) give all kinds of different, often inaccurate information.

Open carry is legal; one does not need, and in any case will not receive, permission. People may as well stop looking for it. If you carry openly, you take your chances that you will have to explain yourself. Yeah, yeah, ... your rights your rights; get over it.

That being said, I still think one should have a frank and private conversation with himself before carrying openly anywhere. The topic of the conversation should be "WHY I AM DOING THIS."

I will carry openly when I am going or coming from some place where I am using the gun and I need to have it on my belt. (E.g.., teaching.) I will carry concealed under my winter coat, and convert to "open carry" when it gets hot and I take my coat off (as when I go inside for something). In every case, it is a matter of convenience.

There is an element of wanting people to see that responsible people can carry a gun in public without causing a spike in the crime rate; but I have never carried openly for that reason alone. I have also sometimes decided that in a given location open carry had potentially adverse consequences (e.g.: upsetting my host; raising the prospect that I would have to devote an inordinate amount of attention to protecting the firearm), and so I did not openly carry.

If one can as easily carry concealed as carry openly, it raises a question why choose open carry. The conclusion seems unavoidable that one who insists upon carrying openly when concealed carry works just as well is probably motivated by something other than considerations of personal defense or convenience.

I would hate to see people start carrying hand-cannons all over town, just for purposes of display. There are literally dozens of different hand guns, in effective calibers, that can be easily concealed if one's concern is actually personal defense. Carrying openly because the hand gun of choice is too big to conceal is manifestly not compelled by any kind of tactical or practical consideration (to the contrary, it is tactically superflous in any likely scenario, and patently IMpractical).

Having said that, I recognize that some gun-rights advocates (real ones; meaning they actually work at it, and whom I therefore respect) have suggested to me that I am "making trouble" by carrying my Commander openly in town. I have to recognize their concern. I see a substantial difference, however, between the utilitarian exercise of an important right and narcissistic public display of symbolic manhood. A putative "right" is illusory if one is afraid to exercise it where circumstances would otherwise warrant.

I would readily concede that narcisisstic display of manhood is, from a legal perspective, as good a reason to carry as personal defense. But from an ethical perspective, there is a world of difference. ("Ethics" in the sense that actions have consequences, and actors must be responsible for those consequences.) Each of us is not the only one affected by our choices, and just because an action is legal does not make it smart.

[Hawk]

There is an element of wanting people to see that responsible people can carry a gun in public without causing a spike in the crime rate; but I have never carried openly for that reason alone. I have also sometimes decided that in a given location open carry had potentially adverse consequences (e.g.: upsetting my host; raising the prospect that I would have to devote an inordinate amount of attention to protecting the firearm), and so I did not openly carry.

If one can as easily carry concealed as carry openly, it raises a question why choose open carry. The conclusion seems unavoidable that one who insists upon carrying openly when concealed carry works just as well is probably motivated by something other than considerations of personal defense or convenience.

I would hate to see people start carrying hand-cannons all over town, just for purposes of display. There are literally dozens of different hand guns, in effective calibers, that can be easily concealed if one's concern is actually personal defense. Carrying openly because the hand gun of choice is too big to conceal is manifestly not compelled by any kind of tactical or practical consideration (to the contrary, it is tactically superflous in any likely scenario, and patently IMpractical).

Having said that, I recognize that some gun-rights advocates (real ones; meaning they actually work at it, and whom I therefore respect) have suggested to me that I am "making trouble" by carrying my Commander openly in town. I have to recognize their concern. I see a substantial difference, however, between the utilitarian exercise of an important right and narcissistic public display of symbolic manhood. I putative "right" is illusory if one is afraid to exercise it circumstances would otherwise warrant.

I would readily concede that narcisisstic display of manhood is, from a legal perspective, as good a reason to carry as personal defense. But from an ethical perspective, there is a world of difference. ("Ethics" in the sense that actions have consequences, and actors must be responsible for those consequences.) Just because an action is legal does not make it smart.

Tactfully stated! Kudos’! +1

Hawk,