I have a pocket knife in my laptop bag. It's gone on at least 5 flights. One time I forgot I had a leatherman in another carry on...you'd think I was about to Jihad on them all, then they notice the jar of jelly I was bringing home, bastards.

my wifes grandmother tried to board a flight with a gun in her purse a few years back. he carried after her husband died, she felt safer:giggle:
the sad part is she got pretty far, i believe about to board the plane before they found it

Sam,

Yes the responses could be cut and paste from the essay. That's because the essay pretty well covers most of the angles and opinions one can have. You asked for our opinions.

My opinion is open carry is legal but not socially acceptable in every day situations. Every person you see will be staring at the gun and at you. People will react with offense, fear, curiosity and concern on a regular basis. The two people I've known that open carry are paranoid extreme right fringe nut jobs. Do you really want to be THAT guy?

You have to weigh if the hassle of open carry worth the possible security it brings you? What are the odds you will be in a situation to actually use or need the weapon. What are the odds when you carry vs not? Are there statistics for this? What are the statistics for escalated violence due to the obvious presence of a weapon?

I'll pull some fake stats out of my ass for arguments sake, let's say you are 1/2 as likely to be mugged if you OC. Is a one in 1,000,000 chance really worth the day in and day out trouble vs a 1 in 500,000 chance?

I have a CWP. I'm politically fairly conservative. I hunt, own shotguns, rifles, handguns. I'm not very left leaning in other words. Even I take notice and feel a little twinge of concern when I see the rare person OC.

Other argument I make against OC. If there is a significant movement toward OC and becomes more common it will become a big and visible concern for the left. The backlash won't be a fun fight for the gun lobby. Out of sight is out of mind. Far better to keep guns out of sight of the anti gun lobby.

I read the links, all of them. Just posting my opinions.

Don't really know what else you're asking for?

Pretty much said if thats what you want to do, go for it. Its just my opinion that you should prepare yourself for negative encounters from LEOs and some general public. No, someone isn't going to stand up and scream "HES GOT A GUN!!" but it might make some people pretty uncomfortable. I know people who aren't comfortable being inside someones house just knowing they own guns locked up in safes...