There are actual reasons for people to open carry a gun. Main goal is to normalize it. Where I live a lot of people open carry, and it's no big deal, no one really cares or notices.
My neighbor moved here from California though, and she was initially terrified every time she saw someone carrying a gun here. But after awhile she got used to it as well. I haven't asked her what her current opinion is on guns, but I know she went from terrified to not caring, which would be considered a positive change from the people who are open carrying around town.
That said, I don't get the impression that most people who open carry are doing it for that reason, usually seems like it more because they want to show off.
I'll check back with you in 50 years on that societal change. Meanwhile, people that want to protect themselves against violent bigots within their lifetime should probably get a gun.
Because if someone lives in a place where their life is at threat just by being queer and existing to the point that they have to kill someone, they have no chance of finding a sympathetic jury.
Doesn't make it a bad idea to reduce the chance of getting in trouble. You're just putting them in a corner by chastising them for finding a way to protect themselves.
Chastise is probably not the right word, excuse me for my poor English vocab. You are telling them not to do something without providing an alternative that would also help them in the short term. That is, in some way, putting them in a corner.
Also, its not them taking a risk, it's them weighing the risk of being bashed with the risk of having to shoot a bigot.
If they decide that the risk of someone trying to bash them is much lower while open carrying, obviously that means the risk of having to shoot them is also lower.
I would suggest an alternative would be a less-than-lethal weapon like a stun gun.
And I would say that the risk of open carrying, beyond the legal issue, is that a bigot could shoot them first. Or just attack them from behind before they could get to the gun. So I would also suggest that concealed carry would be safer.
A less than lethal weapon would also, presumably, has less of a deterrent than a gun, wouldn't you agree?
Also, you're assuming that every bigot that dare to bash queer people would also want to be a murderer, which is not likely. Attacking from behind is more likely, but the same thing can still happen even if they are not armed.
With conceal carry, now you have the exact same probability of being bashed by bigots as not being armed, but you now are more likely to be tried for murder or manslaughter, which the exact thing you're using as argument against open carrying, so that doesn't make sense.
Normalize carrying a deadly weapon that can near-instantly kill several people at once everywhere you go... You realize how insane that sounds, right!? Other countries are laughing at us!
I see no reason to normalize open carry when even just owning a firearm, on its own, increases your chance to be killed by a gun for both suicide and homicide. Firearm ownership itself should not be normalized, as a matter of public health.
I get that it makes people feel safer, but it does not actually make them safer. If you don't have an obvious reason to have a firearm, like defending livestock, living in a high-risk environment, or as protection against wild animals, then you are objectively safer not owning one.
Good old Lemmy, where providing a different perspective gets you downvoted to hell simply because it's not the popular view. I'd even say we are much worse than Reddit when it comes to this, which is ironic.
Several Lemmy communities just straight up delete non-groupthink opinions, even if they don't violate any apparent rules. That's way worse here than reddit ever was.
Are you not familiar with how The_Donald operated or how r/Conservative still operates? There are plenty of subreddits that censor any and all dissenting viewpoints. It happens here too, but I think Reddit's much worse.
He's only offering a reason, not necessarily that he supports the reason. Are you guys so fragile in your beliefs that you can't even handle a simple suggestion of a benefit to an opposing view?
A suggestion of a benefit to open-carrying does not equal endorsement, nor does it mean opposing the view that open-carrying can be dangerous. Try to be more open-minded.
Are you guys so fragile in your beliefs that you can't even handle a simple suggestion of a benefit to an opposing view?
What was the benefit again? Normalizing doing it is not a benefit on its own.
"Can someone explain the benefit of wearing your underwear on the outside of your pants?"
"To normalize wearing your underwear on the outside of your pants"
So it's just a fashion statement then?
When someone asks "seriously, what is the argument for doing this, what is the benefit?" A response that exists solely of "to get other people to do it too" does not answer the question as to why that is desirable.
If we move the theoretical out of fashion and into safety, such as someone complaining about people insisting on lying face down in the middle of the street, a response of "they do this to normalize people lying face down in the middle of the street" should not be received well. All it's doing is advocating for making people less safe with zero justification as to why.
Main reasons historically were for work or hunting ... maaayybe to make sure you don't leave the gun somewhere or forget you have it while transporting it.
Congratulations on a take just about perfectly as shitty as most of the replies you've got so far. Just. Wow.