Open Carry Guy Had A Very BAD Day.

[QKShooter]

Fairfax County Police Department

Public Information Office
4100 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax, Va. 22030

703-246-2253. TTY 703-204-2264. Fax 703-246-4253

FCPD-PIO@fairfaxcounty.gov

www.fairfaxcounty.gov

News Release: 06/211/0388/RJP/(1)

July 31, 2006

Man robbed in the Centreville area.

About 4:10 a.m. Sunday, July 30, officers were called to the area of Newton Patent Drive and Newton Tavern Drive. A 21-year-old Centreville-area man was robbed while walking on Newton Patent Drive. Two suspects approached the victim from behind, and placed a metal object up to the victim’s head. The suspects took the victim’s hand gun which he was openly carrying. The suspect’s then fled the area. The victim was not injured.

The suspects were described as black males wearing dark clothing.

Anyone with information about this incident or these suspects is asked to call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477) or the police non-emergency number at 703-691-2131.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[PatrioticRick]

Just another reason to conceal.

[srfl]

...not good.

[QKShooter]

I don't really want to start an Open VS Concealed carry war.
Truthfully ~ I expect that this sort of thing will go on the increase as civilized society further degenerates.

[JJ573]

I think this guy has way more problems than having shown his firearm to the bad guys.

Consider:

Most of us agree that the most important weapon we carry with us is a keen awareness of our surroundings. Those of us who carry have made that even more so our responsibility. Where must this guy's alert level have been?

Also, I do NOT care; open or concealed; if you are not LEO of some sort, I AM NOT giving up my firearm.

He is just super lucky they didn't take it and kill him with it.

This will NOT happen to me or anyone else with the proper mindset.

This young man either was not fully aware or simply neglected the more important responsibilities related to owning / carrying a firearm.

[PatrioticRick]

I don't really want to start an Open VS Concealed carry war.
Truthfully ~ I expect that this sort of thing will go on the increase as civilized society further degenerates.

Maybe just be more aware of your surrounding.

[MNBurl]

Open carry in condition 'white' is a very bad idea.

[djturnz]

Open carry in condition 'white' is a very bad idea.

I agree that condition white was more of a factor than open carry.

[pogo2]

I agree that condition white was more of a factor than open carry.

This is certainly true. The important fact here is that two robbers surprised a victim on the street, convinced him that they had a weapon (maybe they faked the weapon), and took his property. The fact that they took his handgun is incidental - they could have taken his wallet, his car keys, his brief case, or anything else of value.

[djturnz]

I guess even if he was concealed and carrying, as I think most of us do, strong-side behind the hip. They would have asked for his wallet and lifted his shirt to find his piece anyway.

[LTPhoon]

Open carry is a bad idea, period, because chances are good that you will give up your firearm at some point. With any luck it will be a clean deal without having to involve yourself and others in a needless shootout. Either way exposes the carry community to criticism from people who live to do so. This lapse of good judgement becomes the fault of liberals somehow, and around it goes. If society was as civil as most of us would like it to be, and attention to the firearm you were openly carrying was along the lines of "Say, that's a mighty fine Auto-KaBling .600 you have there, does it feed Hornady JHP well? Mine doesn't.", then OK. Even trained, attentive and fit LEO's suffer weapon snatches from Level 5a retention all the time; you can look it up.

[timothius]

Open carry in the streets of you home town at 4:30 AM is trouble. Open carry is for the woods when hiking, not in town. Although my state is an open carry state you don't see them in town especially at weird hours. I carry concealed in town and openm in the woods when I don't want to fiddle around trying to get my gun under my backpacks and other hiking gear.

[razorblade]

I've open carried only once in my entire life. I didn't like it. It seems that all eyes are trained on your gun. I don't like that kind of attention. I also don't like giving indicators to people with criminal intent that I have a firearm. Sure, if I were carrying concealed and they spotted a lump on my strong side hip, under my sweater, they can ASSUME it's a gun. But there is a possibility it's a blackberry, too. If I decide to open carry, it eliminates all doubt. I'm not Superman, nor Bruce Lee. You can have your firearm ripped from your holster from three well determined criminals just as easily as if it were one guy with a "metal object" pressed against the back of your head. Does anyone remember the video footage of the New Mexico Sheriff (correct me if I'm wrong) that pulled over a suspicious vehicle. Three of them, the tallest one slightly below his armpit, rushed him, wrestled his handgun away and murdered him. All caught on the dashboard cam.
In my opinion, if you carry, you have a responsibility not only to protect yourself and your loved ones, but you have a responsibility of keeping that firearm off the street. If someone is willing to kill for your gun, I doubt he won't stop with you once he gets it.
Also...
Carrying a firearm in public does not make you immune from crime. Unless it was the magical cloak of invisibility (mines on backorder from the Sportsmans Guide), you have no reason NOT to walk around in an "elevated state of situational awareness". Of course there could have been a dozen parts of the story that were not mentioned that contributed to the theft; bad lighting, forced to walk down an alley, had to negitiate through dense brush in a low-income housing area, guy was on cell phone, etc. But believe you me, if that was me, I would have been looking over my shoulder every 10 seconds. With or without my handgun.

[QKShooter]

I always believed that if there were no firearms except those in the hands of LEOs - then Law Enforcement Officers would start getting ambushed and gang attacked constantly by Bad Guys just to get access to their service/duty weapons.

[RSSZ]

Open vs. concealed war ??? Not from me.

Ya'll already know how I feel 'bout it.------