Open carry question

[infamous209]

What are the rules/laws on open carry? Obviously unloaded gun and mag but why carry if you dont have any bullets? can you have other mags on your person that are loaded? If not I am completely lost on why anyone would open carry a polymer rock.

[SScott]

edit

[Lone_Gunman]

You can have loaded mags.

[ke6guj]

What are the rules/laws on open carry? Obviously unloaded gun and mag but why carry if you dont have any bullets? can you have other mags on your person that are loaded? If not I am completely lost on why anyone would open carry a polymer rock.

I don't recommend UOC, but to answer your questions, the magazine does not ahve to be unloaded. You can have the unloaded gun on one hip and a fully loaded mag on the other. If drama happened, yes, you would initially have an unloaded gun, but you should be able to make ready and be on target in less than 5 seconds. that might be a couple seconds slower than if you started with a loaded firearm, and in some scenarios, that 2-3 seconds to load may be longer than you have, and you might end up shot. but in other situations, you might have those couple of seconds you need to load.

[infamous209]

Well thats good to hear! The only reason I will UOC is if Stanislaus denies me a CCW when I apply. Ill make them feel stupid

[mrdd]

Make sure you carry all of the loaded mags in the open, otherwise the weapon may be considered concealed.

[OleCuss]

Well thats good to hear! The only reason I will UOC is if Stanislaus denies me a CCW when I apply. Ill make them feel stupid

Umm. . . I'd recommend against that unless you've done a lot of prep work. The LEA's around here have not been very friendly to UOC and really may ruin your day - I've heard them say on the radio multiple times that their SOP is to prone you out. Maybe they've gotten the message about doing proper checks recently but I'd not count on it. And if you go out of your way to tick off a LEA - they generally find ways to make your life pretty miserable and I've known it to happen in these parts on multiple occasions.

One other point not made above (edit: mrdd did make the point) is that your magazines may not be concealed either. If your magazines are concealed you may be held to be carrying concealed in violation of the law.

That said, the sheriff is actually very CCW friendly. So if you've got a clean record you'll get your CCW.

In fact, that relatively friendly CCW policy may be why they've been tough on UOC. If you're clean you can get your CCW and you'll have no hassles. So if you're UOC'ing and making them respond to "(wo)man with a gun" calls they're going to maybe assume that you've either a bad record meaning that you can't get your CCW or that you've just got bad attitude.

Net effect is that you can UOC around here but talk long and hard to some of the real experts on that and research GFSZ's and the like and proper carry, how to cooperate with a proper check, what kind of recorder to carry and how close your buddy must be, etc. You also have to make sure that you're not wearing a jacket which might partly conceal the firearm, etc. Again, it can be done but you need to be expert on it before you do it.