Additional scrutiny merely because someone is open carrying? All aboard the failboat!

"No one knows the mindset or the frame of mind an individual is in when they show up at a building openly carrying a weapon," stated Jim Baker, Superintendant of Huron Valley Schools in a Detroit Free Press article published on the 29th of October, 2014. This type of statement is commonly thrown around when people try to argue for prohibiting the practice of openly carrying pistols in schools. "They immediately go into a lockdown, call local law enforcement and let the police come and helps to better understand what the mindset is." Id.

The thought that people who are openly carrying a firearm (in or outside of schools) should recieve additional scrutiny is logical bankruptcy at best. At worst, it means that you're asking for a nasty surprise that could end up with you being dead.

If you don't notice someone openly carrying a firearm, does that mean they aren't armed? Does it mean your situational awareness should be any less around them as compared to someone who is openly carrying a firearm? I'll give you the answer to both questions: No.

After all, why would you? An individual not openly carrying a firearm could pose as much of a threat as one who isn't. In the case of schools, taking such an approach to situational awareness is asking for trouble. After all, do you think criminals are going to open carry a firearm into a school if they want to get in a ways before performing their nefarious acts?

Hell no.

Do you think law enforcement is going to treat someone who isn't openly carrying a firearm any more different than if they are? They shouldn't, for the very reason I spelled out above.

So if you think (yes school administrators, I'm talking to you, as well as to anyone else who has this same mentality) open carriers deserve more scrutiny, you're just setting yourself up for all sorts of potential fail.

Just remember - people planning on doing harm are going to do everything in their power to hide their intention. Those same people are also not going to care if concealed carry in a cPFZ is illegal.