Sorry this will be long... and please don't take to wrong.
I’m all for exercising our right to carry and we keep pushing/hoping for concealed carry as well. I just made my post to make sure Gfro was aware of the “wrinkles” that come with open carry in our fine state. Some people that I know who are all for getting a concealed carry law on the books, and would carry concealed if they could, simply will not as a rule open carry because they don’t want to deal with the potential hassles.
There are also very real risks in some situations; as an example the first time I was stopped for “having a gun”. I was driving down the highway when the gumballs came on so I pulled over, shut down the bike and set it on the sidestand. Now since I know most of the local LEO’s because of my job, I took my hands off the handlebars and turned to make conversation. Let me tell you looking at the business end of a 9MM in the hands of a very nervous cop who appeared to be about 12 years old ends conversation very quickly! Had I made any additional “wrong” move I have no doubt I would have found out first hand how effective the 9MM round is. Once he calmed down he told me he had stopped me because I had a concealed weapon. I asked him how he was able to determine I had a concealed weapon and he told me “because I can see it!”. To which I said “WTF if you can see it how is it concealed?”, his answer was “don’t be a smartass with me buddy”. At that point his shift supervisor arrived as backup for the "man with a gun" call. That officer did know me, explained to the first officer that my method of carry was indeed legal and made him apologize, but then had the ‘nads to suggest to me that I not open carry to avoid “problems” in the future. I told him that I would not surrender my rights because his officer was undertrained, which was the real cause of my “problem” not my sidearm.
Was I “in the right”?- yes
Could I have ended up dead?- you bet
As with every choice we make involving firearms; each of us has to weigh our own acceptable risks, the more information we have the better decisions we can make. For me the potential hassles will not stop me from open carry when I chose. Others may not want to deal with them.