PeterNSteinmetz
Regular Member
Here is a question I was pondering today that I thought would be interesting to get members' thoughts about. From a statistical perspective, for the average law-abiding citizen, how much more dangerous, if at all, are people openly carrying firearms who wear badges than open-carriers that don't have a badge?
My thoughts are that non badge-carrying people who open carry are largely an extremely law abiding peaceful group. (Clearly concealed carriers as a whole would be less so since criminals are usually carrying concealed until the beginning of the criminal act.)
OTOH, people with badges and open-carrying have a much harder job, trying to deal with the criminal element. They are exposed to more situations where a mistake could be made and a law-abiding citizen threatened with or injured by a firearm.
This comparison seems like it could well inform the question of whether a person seeing an open-carrier without a badge should be more afraid than when seeing one with a badge.
My thoughts are that non badge-carrying people who open carry are largely an extremely law abiding peaceful group. (Clearly concealed carriers as a whole would be less so since criminals are usually carrying concealed until the beginning of the criminal act.)
OTOH, people with badges and open-carrying have a much harder job, trying to deal with the criminal element. They are exposed to more situations where a mistake could be made and a law-abiding citizen threatened with or injured by a firearm.
This comparison seems like it could well inform the question of whether a person seeing an open-carrier without a badge should be more afraid than when seeing one with a badge.