A long as I have been alive, it has been legal in my home state of Ohio to “open carry.”  This phrase means nothing more than it is not against the law to carry a loaded gun around in public, as long as it is neither concealed from view nor brandished about in a threatening manner.

That means one could do this ….

But one could not do this …

It has been this way for my entire half century, even before licenses to carry concealed firearms were issued.

Oh, there are other restrictions.  You couldn’t drive around with a loaded gun in the car, couldn’t try to enter courthouses or certain places of business, etc etc.  Stuff like that.  But the main point is that it never caused a problem, and I’m somewhat at a loss as to how it could cause any sort of crises.

Now that I have moved to Texas, I was a bit surprised to find that the Lone Star State does not have legal open carry.  This is going to change in a week or so as soon as 2016 starts, but news articles like this are a bit of a surprise.  As the author states, …

“… the prospect of seeing armed citizens walking down the sidewalk, driving in their cars, eating at restaurants, or even depositing a check at the bank has some Texans—including police—on edge.”

So the good people of Texas are far more criminal and violent than those in Ohio?  Have I relocated to a savage land populated by a savage people?

Um, no, probably not.  I’m thinkin’ that the author of the news report was just trying to be a bit dramatic in order to add interest to the story.

In fact, it would appear that Texas has a few more restrictions on carrying firearms than Ohio.   According to Wikipedia, only those with concealed carry permits are allowed to carry openly.  Seems odd to me, but there you go.

Anyway, I’m not at all concerned by this development.  I think that concealed carry provides a greater societal benefit, as criminals tend to be warier when they don’t know if someone can resist their violent attentions, but I also don’t see why there would be any problems with open carry.