TedSheckler;1547580 wrote:I personally wouldn't want the hassle. It's personal choice and you can do as you wish, I just don't feel like alarming the uneducated public and don't want to deal with law enforcement if I don't have to. I'd rather just be on my way, doing what I'm doing and leave the bad guy's wondering.

I agree with this. I have no problem with those that open carry. I think it's awesome. But I probably wouldn't do it.

TedSheckler;1547580 wrote:I personally wouldn't want the hassle. It's personal choice and you can do as you wish, I just don't feel like alarming the uneducated public and don't want to deal with law enforcement if I don't have to. I'd rather just be on my way, doing what I'm doing and leave the bad guys wondering.

I understand that. Although, I think by open carrying you can be a leader in EDUCATING the public. But really, I've open carried a few times and I actually know a decent amount (5 or 6) who open carry almost exclusively. Find some, or if you see someone doing it ask them, it's a VERY rare occasion where they have a police encounter because of some panicked citizen. And by very rare, I mean that at least of few of them have never had issues and have been carrying open for multiple years. Of course it depends where you are too.

But HERE is a recent, local (for me--I actually know the guy who was stabbed) example of why I don't want to leave the bad guys wondering. Likely never would have even happened had the guy known he had a gun. As has been repeated many times over, an armed society is a polite society.

Me?;1547668 wrote:But HERE is a recent, local (for me--I actually know the guy who was stabbed) example of why I don't want to leave the bad guys wondering. Likely never would have even happened had the guy known he had a gun. As has been repeated many times over, an armed society is a polite society.

Can you open carry in Wal-Mart? I would assume they'd be "gun free" zones.

Yep, Walmarts are gun friendly.

Me?;1547677 wrote:Yep, Walmarts are gun friendly.

Good to know. Is that corporate policy?

Well, to be honest, I'm not sure what their corporate policy is but they do allow concealed weapons. Open, I'm not sure...but I know at my local Walmart no one says anything to people open carrying because I've done it a few times and know others who have as well.

I know for sure they don't post signs and they have no corporate policy against concealed weapons. I'm not sure if open carry is fine at my Walmart because of where I live or because of their policy.

As long as they don't have a sign posted not allowing guns (and I'm pretty sure all Wal-Marts are gun friendly), there shouldn't be any issue open carrying in Wal-Mart. The state says it's legal. I have read about many people open carrying. A couple have had issues with ignorant managers, but most say they had no issues.

Yeah, most people I know have never had any issues open carrying. The few horror stories that you read, that are few and far between, just stick in your mind and make you think twice though.

TedSheckler;1547698 wrote:As long as they don't have a sign posted not allowing guns (and I'm pretty sure all Wal-Marts are gun friendly), there shouldn't be any issue open carrying in Wal-Mart. The state says it's legal..

This is my understanding.

I think it all depends on the area you live in on whether or not you should open carry. If I seen somebody open carrying where I am from, I wouldn't think twice about it, nor would most other people. But if I saw somebody in Akron walking around with a gun, it would be a little bit different.

I don't think that's necessarily right. Most signage deals only with concealed carry. Open carry is obviously legal, but they can make their own rules on private property obviously. And just because they allow concealed carry wouldn't necessarily mean they allow open carry. Like I said, I know they don't seem to mind in my local Walmart, but I can't say if it's corporate policy or not.

Pick6;1547716 wrote:I think it all depends on the area you live in on whether or not you should open carry. If I seen somebody open carrying where I am from, I wouldn't think twice about it, nor would most other people. But if I saw somebody in Akron walking around with a gun, it would be a little bit different.

Yeah. I'm not going to open carry around Cincinnati (either very urban or very suburban) or Blue Ash (where I work, ridiculously suburban). I don't think the soccer mom's could handle it.

I am getting really pumped to take my course on Saturday. That ordeal with the psychopath driver really pushed me towards getting it sooner rather than later, and when sej mentioned she was taking it that day I couldn't not sign up.

Hopefully your instructor is good or else you're in for a terribly long day lol

Me?;1547729 wrote:Hopefully your instructor is good or else you're in for a terribly long day lol

He's a personal friend of three of my friends and they all have great things to say about him. Sure, that says nothing about his instructing ability, but it does make me feel pretty good going in.

No matter the instructor, it's still a long day.

True. Twelve hours is a long time.

Mine was awesome because we only spent about 5 hours in the class room and then did A LOT of shooting at the range. Based on my limited knowledge on a few threads here, you're going to find the classroom time almost unbearable and extremely redundant. You'll probably already know almost everything that is discussed.

justincredible;1547736 wrote:He's a personal friend of three of my friends and they all have great things to say about him. Sure, that says nothing about his instructing ability, but it does make me feel pretty good going in.

I've been called by a friend to take over the class.. Spelling and grammar doesn't count ... hope this helps mofo

And by 5 hours, I really mean like 4 because he gave us 15 minute breaks after every hour.

The videos are going to make you want to go work for the NRA and completely overhaul them though. They're like drivers ed bad.

I'm guessing the classroom stuff is about properly handling firearms and such? I assume/hope they'll go over laws, too, because I'm muddy on that stuff as of now.

Yeah, unfortunately for you (at least in mine and from what I remember), it was probably 80% safety stuff. Which is obviously unbearable to anyone who already knows how to safely handle a gun, and I assume you do. The laws are fairly straight forward though and don't really take that long to go over. We spent more time throwing out random scenarios and discussing the law as it related to those than actually breaking down the language of the laws.

Me?;1547743 wrote:Mine was awesome because we only spent about 5 hours in the class room

Then your class didn't meet the state law requirement of 10 hours in the classroom.

It bugs me about stuff like this. You want to follow the law and get licensed, but your instructor or class doesn't follow the law. I wish they would shut these places down.

10 hours classroom time, 2 hours range time...MINIMUM

My class lasted 14 hours. 10 classroom, 4 on the range.

TedSheckler;1547765 wrote:Then your class didn't meet the state law requirement of 10 hours in the classroom.

It bugs me about stuff like this. You want to follow the law and get licensed, but your instructor or class doesn't follow the law. I wish they would shut these places down.

10 hours classroom time, 2 hours range time...MINIMUM

If you agree with the way the state designates it, then you're an idiot. I don't mean to be offensive, but it's CLEAR to anyone with a brain and certainly any gun enthusiast that the range time is literally a million times more valuable than the classroom time. 10 hours in the classroom for a concealed permit is asinine. There isn't even enough information to take up the whole 10 hours. We still covered everything that was supposed to be covered.

I'll put my instructor and the way he did it up against ANY instructor that goes by the book and I guarantee the people coming out of the class I took are far more capable with a gun at the end of it. I have another friend who is an instructor and sat in on his class one day when my sister took it. He did it by the book. About half the class was nowhere near what I would call ready to carry a gun in public after 2 hours on the range. The classroom time literally did almost nothing for anyone except bore them to death.

And I could easily make the case that he followed the law. There was A LOT of instruction that took place on the actual range. It wasn't just all of us lining up and shooting aimlessly.