Open carry requires practitioners to maintain a heightened sense of situational awareness, especially when carrying in a non-retention rig. Why? Because drunks do stupid things and because criminals might try to snatch your handgun. That’s what happened recently at a Homewood, Alabama Walmart where a man traveling with his family had his (openly) carry gun snatched after an altercation.
The man who grabbed the gun fired off a shot at the gun owner. Fortunately the shot missed the former open carrier and his wife and two kids. They all ran. Walmart security approached and the bad guy ran out of the store.
Cops caught him not far away. There’s no word on whether Mr. Open Carry got his gun back, but it’s highly doubtful.
From AL.com:
A 20-year-old suspect has been charged after authorities said he shot at another man inside a Homewood Walmart.
Navaeh-Ojore Timothy-Carl Payton, of Vestavia Hills, is charged with attempted murder, attempting to elude and disorderly conduct, said Sgt. John Carr..
The incident happened about 12:30 p.m. Monday at the Lakeshore Parkway store. No one was injured.
The adult male victim, who is from Georgia, was at the store with his family, including two children. He was openly carrying a weapon that was in a holster, which is legal in the state of Alabama.
Carr said another man approached the victim and had words with him. As the victim started to walk away, police said, Payton pulled his handgun and fired one shot.
Many years ago, I used to open carry where legal as part of public education. Then, at an NRA Convention, I went to downtown Louisville for an open-air concert. Working my way through a pretty good crowd of folks ranging from sober to seriously intoxicated made me think better of it and conceal the piece.
While I won’t say I haven’t open carried at all since then when traveling outside of open-carry-prohibited Illinois, it’s pretty darn rare. I prefer to eliminate even the slightest temptation to someone else to try to snatch my carry piece.
