SIG Talk banner
  • Notice image

    SigTalk is a forum community dedicated to SIG Sauer enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about Sig Sauer pistols and rifles, optics, hunting, gunsmithing, styles, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!

Open Carry in Tennessee

5K views 28 replies 24 participants last post by  blackpeter 
#1 ·
I'm back home in Indiana after visiting family in central Tennessee for a few days. I had a nice time and visited a nice gun store.

Anyway, I went to a Walmart Saturday night and went to the gun section. Yeah, they were sold out of most handgun ammo. What caught my attention though was a man who had a handgun in a holster on his side, on the outside of his pants; I believe you call that open carry.

I applied to get my handgun permit and I hope I get it soon. I'm for gun rights but also for sensible gun regulation. But I'm not for open carry at stores like Walmart. I went to a new gun club/store in Indiana last week and the owner and other visitor were open carrying too. I don't mind that happening at a GUN club but not at stores like Walmart.

It just makes me feel uneasy. OK, he probably has a clean record. I assume you have to have a clean record to get a carry permit in Tennessee. But still, I felt like I was in the Old West and we are NOT in the Old West. As violent as it was in the 1800s and as violent as it can be today, we are not in the old west days.

I also want to say, maybe the guy was in law enforcement but I don't think so. Maybe a retired sheriff or something but I don't think so. I just can't see an off duty law enforcement officer open carrying like that.

Maybe the guy was mugged before or worse. I don't know. I'm saying I felt a little uneasy seeing that.

What say you all on this subject?
 
See less See more
#2 ·
different states, different rules.

interesting that you were uncomfortable seeing someone open carry but are applying for a handgun permit.

is your permit app to purchase a handgun or a concealed carry permit?
 
#3 ·
Many people lack knowledge and perspective (when I was in H.S. we called it History) and should take pains to learn some BEFORE using the Old West = Violence reference. The Old West was not really that violent (ignore the movies). It was a harsh and difficult life and death was not uncommon, but rarely was it by an others gun. Sickness, starvation, exposure are but a few. On the frontier the risks were great but the rewards were potentially sky high, a real draw for for those trapped in the East with limited futures at best. That was the real problem, a life that some were totally unprepared for in an environment that rarely allowed for a second chance. Gun fights on the main street? Romantic and great theater but with limited reality.

Guns out in the open? I don't mind them, better to see them than wish I had. As far as criminals, if they have one, and see ten others,and Still have to wonder who has the ones they can't see, well that's deterrent. IMHO
 
#4 ·
Being from IN. you should know that we are an open carry state and you should be/get used to seeing it.

You're hoping to get your license soon... don't hold your breath. It's taking up to six months (maybe more by now) and that's for the people that don't get rejected. It took me three months at the end of last year.

Have you received your local signature and sent to state yet? Are you applying for lifetime?
 
#9 ·
Yep, I applied for lifetime.

I just can't see open carry going over big in most of the country. All it's going to take is one store manager getting in a fight with a shoplifter punk kid and some bystander with a gun come up and shoot the shoplifter punk kid and it's all going to go to hell real quick for the rest of the law abiding gun owners.
 
#15 ·
Please allow me to give you an alternative perspective. It was illegal in Tennessee to carry in a place that served alcohol for consumption until around 2010. This included most restaurants. I don't want you to get the wrong idea. It is a crime to carry and drink in these places. During the debate over the bill the anti-gun movement used the same logic saying there would be blood in the streets. It hasn't happened. Put away your emotions and look around. So many fears of the anti-gun movement are unfounded.
 
#6 ·
Like what was stated before, open carry is a deterrent. And Hollywood has Americans convinced Old West shootings were common. They were very rare.

No criminal is going to open carry. Think about it.
 
#7 ·
Your post makes me feel uneasy about the younger generation.
 
#8 · (Edited)
What caught my attention though was a man who had a handgun in a holster on his side, on the outside of his pants; I believe you call that open carry.

I'm for gun rights but also for sensible gun regulation.

It just makes me feel uneasy.
Two things HoosierGuy, many of us would like to see open carry for THIS VERY REASON. You have been conditioned by the media to have that reaction to the sight of a gun. This emotional reaction is the very thing we are fighting tooth and nail right now with the fight for gun rights. It is an irrational reaction that too many people have in this country to the sight of a gun. We are trying to condition you and others to see the sight of a gun as a NORMAL thing.

Do you have the same reaction with you see a policeman carrying a gun? Well you should, just look at the stats on innocent bystanders killed by police and then look at the stats on innocent bystanders killed by LAW ABIDING gun owners.

Second, the whole "sensible gun regulations" thing is a con. We are now seeing what New York, Colorado, and Connecticutt legislators call "sensible gun regulations" and it is a code word for CITIZEN DISARMAMENT.

Don't be a "useful idiot" by falling into these traps. Learn the facts, resist the urge to act on emotions.
 
#10 ·
when i was taking my class for the Tennessee handgun carry permit many years ago, my instructor (one of the people who helped draft the first carry laws in Tennessee) explained the WHY of allowing open carry. Law enforcement has more important things to do than arresting people who accidentally show their concealed weapon. In the past 12 years of carrying, I have probably seen less than 10 people OC in Tennessee.
 
#12 ·
I think the stigma needs to be changed from "Open carry makes me uneasy" to "Open carry makes me feel safer".

The left wing media seems to be winning this war.

It is MUCH easier to open carry a full sized weapon. It is nice to not be so concerned about imprinting or trying to dress so you can conceal. Having said that, I have never open carried. But I do wish it became the standard.

There are advantages to concealed carry. They are commonly known. I have no problem if someone wants to open carry. To repeat, I wish that was the standard.
 
#20 ·
I think the stigma needs to be changed from "Open carry makes me uneasy" to "Open carry makes me feel safer".

The left wing media seems to be winning this war.
+1 I wish someone would explain to me, how anyone can be afraid of a gun but not other dangerous items, other than people have been brainwashed (or whatever term you like) into thinking it's OK to be afraid of a gun.

Don't get me wrong, when I pick up a gun or a skill saw, or chainsaw etc, I have the same apprehension, that I need to be careful, or something disastrous could happen, been when they are all sitting on a table, no apprehension exists for me. Some people are afraid to be near guns.
 
#13 ·
I don't open carry, for lots of reasons but I have to agree with the other posters. Your fear is completely irrational. I have friends that open carry in Tuscaloosa, apparently there is a big open carry movement there. Sadly most of them have to keep a copy of the law on them to prove to LEO's that it is legal. A baseball bat can be deadly but you don't freak out when you see a guy walking around walmart with a bat on his shoulder do you?
 
#14 ·
Some background on Tennessee. We apply for an HCP. The Handgun Carry Permit is just that. Open or concealed its all the same under Tennessee law. I open carry when camping and hiking, but not in the general public. That's my choice. You want to know what I think when I see someone open carry? I think "You go man! I support you."
 
#19 ·
I'll admit to you all that when I was a young kid growing up here in Indiana a common site was seeing trucks with shotguns hanging in the back window. I never paid attention to when I stopped seeing that but I don't think I've see that around here in a very long time.
 
#21 ·
We have open carry here in Delaware...yes..'in the Northeast'...it's not about the gun on the hip...it's about the person attached to the gun on the hip!. I also have a CCL, so it don't matter if I carry open or concealed but I preferr to conceal it just because of people's reaction that don't live here like yours. Contrary to belief...we ( gun owners) are considerate of the publics feelings. Please 'don't consider carrying a weapon if you feel uneasy about any aspect of it!
 
#22 ·
I like the idea of open carry. For many reasons. I once heard a quote from Carrol O Conner. He said the way to stop airplane hijacks was to arm every passenger. If 15 people are in a Walmart with guns hanging off there belt do you think people would start ****? I say they wouldn't, and if we all (not realistic) carried guns in this country crime wouldn't end but it would become extremely rare. It is safer for LEO's because they know right away who has what.

Yes the occasional idiot will rise up, but it wouldn't last long. I say plant them puppies on the belt and keep out in the open.
 
#25 ·
Yep.
 
#24 ·
It's interesting to see how fear has turned what used to be our rights into privileges that everyone gets to define how it is practiced and what form the "arms" in that amendment are actually referring to. Someone with a gun on their hip may make my brain pay a little more attention, but I can't say it would be out of fear. And the second amendment says "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." So theoretically, any and all laws preventing citizens from carry any and all arms the individual citizen feels comfortable with is unconstitutional, until that citizen deprives another person or people of their rights, in which case the criminal should be punished of their particular crime.
 
#29 ·
If open carry makes you uncomfortable don't visit Arizona..
LOL
My first day in Phoenix (from Massachusetts) I saw a kid on a bike with a holstered glock ride up to the grocery store I was just leaving.. I hurried my then wife to the car believing something bad was about to happen! LOL
I got over it pretty quick.
Since then I've lived in Austin Texas and here in St Paul MN. I felt safer in AZ...

Sure there was a little *** over the guy in the Circle K with a 1911 and 2 spare mags.. But it was a curiosity not a worry..

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top