Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Open Carry Debate

The Open Carry Picnic took place on Sunday without incident but not without controversy.

Gun owners show support for open-carry law at picnic in Kalamazoo

The Gazette article on the event has garnered over 280 comments. (I don't recommend reading them all.)

Surprising to many people, open carry is legal in Michigan (and most states) without any permit required. Many states have interpreted their state Right to Keep and Bear Arms provision to protect open carry but not concealed carry.

2 comments:

Mike Stollenwerk said...

Unfortunately though, Michigan requires the concealee permit to open carry in vehicles - most states allow folks to carry loaded handguns in vehicles without any permit in some form (concealed or openly). Learn more at OpenCarry.org and click on maps tab.

Steve said...

Unfortunately it isn't a well enforced open-carry state. I like the idea of carrying openly but if you do it in Michigan you will get hassled all the time even by police. Its a shame more people don't understand the law but hopefully things like the open-carry picnic will help to set things straight.