Does Indiana allow Open Carry?

[Renegade1978]

Just in case you don't know, and nobody has said it yet (sorry I didn't want to read 8 pages of OC vs. CC junk):

Be careful if you are carrying in your church, it is possible it is a felony. If your church has any kind of daycare center or school, it is likely against the law to have a firearm. That is unless the person in charge of the school/daycare/child-ministry has authorized you to act as security.

I'm a pastor,but our church doesn't have a school or daycare. I carry (concealed) and I just met with the head of our trustees (a former police officer) and asked him to tactfully ask some others in our church who have permits if they would be willing to carry while at church. I'm reading too many stories of people walking into a church and opening fire.

 

[gblank]

As long as you have the permit, you can carry it however you'd like.
In States like Ky. they have to carry in the open unless they get their conceal carry permit. Meaning they dont have to have a permit to possess a handgun, like we do in In.

 

[Bosshoss]

well then you need to take a pistol retention coarse, so that you know how to hold yourself while carrying and what to do if someone reaches for your weapon.

I would if I decide to open carry, I actually kind of went the other way and took a course that included how to DISARM someone with a gun. Police officers carry open everyday and have more training than cilivians and yet in 2008, the latest year for stats, 10% of those killed with a handgun were killed with their own gun.
Officers Feloniously Killed - Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2008

also, you putting your hand on your pistol if you see someone open carry is a dumb idea, because if he is carrying it open then 9 times of 10 he has a valid permit. criminals moctly conceal theirs unless they are getting ready to rob someplace and then their gun is sideways in their hand,

Do you have any stats to back this up? Or is this just conjecture? I would think that someone who is capable of robbing a place with people in it or shooting people in a robbery doesn't care if they carry concealed or open before they enter the store. What about the 1 time out 10(your numbers) is he there to shoot the guy doing his wife or boss that fired him? Is he drunk or high? All I know is he is a guy with a gun. My situational awareness puts me on alert.

so if i was carrying and i saw you starring at me and presenting hostile body language and then with a hand in your coat then i would be watching you even closer,

I won't be in a gunfighter crouch, or agressive toward you I would just be a guy with his hands in his pockets. If you saw me starring at you I would probally nod and say hi. But I would be aware of you.


and i promise you that having mine out open that i would draw faster than you anyways. so please dont even touch your gun unless you are gonna pull it, that just makes people REALY NERVOUS in a BAD WAY.

You'll never know that I have my hand on my gun.

but there is much proof that open carry is tactically the best way to carry a weapon.

What proof? This is something that has been debated for years and is not something me or you can solve.


many more weapons instructors will recomend open carry than ones that say to conceal it.

That is way too vague a statement, their is times when open carry would be the best, their are times when consealed carry is the best. But saying open carry is the best peroid is nuts.


if you have to pull your gun are you gonna ask the criminal to give you a sec so you can lift up your shirt to access your pistol?? or what if it gets hung up on your coat??

Who said I would lift my shirt? It depends on how I am carrying. But if you think you can draw your gun faster than I can pull the trigger from a coat or jacket pocket you would be DEAD wrong. You see I saw you with your open carry and had my hand in the pocket and on the gun as soon as saw you( again I don't know you or what you are up to) I HAVE THE TACTIAL ADVANTAGE as you don't even know I have a gun.(POINTED AT YOU).
The above situation is you being the agressive one. I would only use my gun to protect me and my family.
We will never decide what is best, as I stated in previous post open carry in public is not for me. I do open carry when I am working around my property. That is just my opinion. However I would stand beside you to defend the right to open carry.


open carry is best. you might get weird looks but SO WHAT!! ive been weird ever since i joined the army, i dont care if people stare at me.

 

[blake2981]

Indiana is an open carry state. Although being in the law enforcement field, I would just be cautious with all that is going on around us. It may be a safer bet to conceal your weapon vs. showing it on your hip. I've gotten a lot of feed back that it makes others who don't know much about self defense feel uncomfortable to see a gun. I know all of us who carry a lot it is not a big deal and we all feel that those who are uncomfortable with it are the ones who will be asking for are assistance if something did ever happen. ***You do have to get an Indiana Permit to Carry though***Right now you can still get a lifetime handgun permit for $125, better get it while you can.

 

[Renegade1978]

Indiana is an open carry state. Although being in the law enforcement field, I would just be cautious with all that is going on around us. It may be a safer bet to conceal your weapon vs. showing it on your hip. I've gotten a lot of feed back that it makes others who don't know much about self defense feel uncomfortable to see a gun. I know all of us who carry a lot it is not a big deal and we all feel that those who are uncomfortable with it are the ones who will be asking for are assistance if something did ever happen. ***You do have to get an Indiana Permit to Carry though***Right now you can still get a lifetime handgun permit for $125, better get it while you can.

$125!!?? I paid $75 for mine just a few years ago!!

 

[melensdad]

...I've gotten a lot of feed back that it makes others who don't know much about self defense feel uncomfortable to see a gun...

Respectfully, I'd have to suggest that the more often people are exposed to honest upstanding citizens carrying guns the more comfortable they will become. As long as we hide away from others we will remain pariahs but if we openly carry and go out of our way to be courteous, to be every way upstanding, then we will set a good example and we will not make the bed wetting faction of our society uncomfortable.

 

[Joe Williams]

Respectfully, I'd have to suggest that the more often people are exposed to honest upstanding citizens carrying guns the more comfortable they will become. As long as we hide away from others we will remain pariahs but if we openly carry and go out of our way to be courteous, to be every way upstanding, then we will set a good example and we will not make the bed wetting faction of our society uncomfortable.

Yup. They have been trained by the government, the media, and even some gun owners to be afraid of guns. They must be retrained if we are to remain free, and the only way to do that is to let 'em see it every now and then.

 

[rwbrown]

just to add to the conversation i was pulled over by the avon police department on the way to work early one morning i guess they thought i was a big time criminal because i think the whole police force was behind me they had all the east bound lanes of 36 blocked they told me to step out of my vehicle and move to the back where i was told to stand there spread eagle at that time a young cop came up and patted me down he freaked out a little when he felt my g19 under my sweat shirt he told the cop behind us that i had a gun he said thats ok and ask if ihad a permit i said yes and he checked it out in the mean time the other cop was trying to disarm me and asked if there was a trick to pull my pistol out of the holster i said no just pull up it's a fobus holster and the gun snaps in around the trigger guard so it's not that easy to just come up and grab somebodys gun if they have the right equipment .anyway they told me that my car matched the description of a car that was used in a burglary and they cut me lose after a barrage of questions

 

[Delmar]

yes you can open carry but as soon as you get tired of being asked to see your paper work you will CC

I don't open carry that often, but nobody has ever asked to see my paperwork when I did.

 

[ddenny5]

It is tactically sound...If I was a criminal (and a murderer)...that's what I would do! Eliminate the greatest threat first.

I guess that would include police offers too. Maybe they should start carrying concealed.

 

[Flitmob]

I almost always open carry. It is for comfort. Mine. It may make others uncomfortable and I get looks sometimes but I do not really care. I have a permit. However, I am getting ready to scoop a sub compact glock and I will CC it because it will not be as invasive as some larger models.

 

[mtyt61783]

I LOVE TO OPEN CARRY, A SHIRT OR OTHER GARMET SLOWS YOU DOWN IN A HIGH STRESS SITUATION, JUST MAKE SURE YOUR HOLSTER ISNT NYLON, CAUSE THERE UGLY. I WISH SOME ONE WOULD TRY TO SNATCH MINE FROM MY HOLSTER, I WOULD SHOW THEM 10 KINDS OF HELL WITH MY FIST. IM NOT A BADASS BUT IM A MAN AGRESSIVE BY NATURE.

 

[mtyt61783]

SORRY BOUT THE GETTING ROWD UP IM THE YOUNGEST OF 4 BROS, ALL A YEAR APART. OPEN CARRY IN INDIANAPOLIS IS A GREAT IDEA. THE THUGS WANT NO PART IF THEY KNOW YOU'LL PUT ONE IN THERE A**. THE CAPS I BUST ARE LEGAL & PAID FOR.

 

[MilitaryArms]

John Farnam, quoting FBI and Dept. of Justice statistics among others. Feel free to do the searching yourself.

I regularly cite FBI statistics when debating anti-gunners and I've yet to find any statistics kept by them regarding the number of shooting victims and their medical diagnosis or survival rate. That's not to say they don't keep such statistics, but I've never seen or until now even heard of them.

Citing statistics then telling those who ask for the source "go find it yourself" isn't really useful. If you cite the statistic, do us all a favor and post a link to your source otherwise one must assume you're fabricating data.

I just conducted a Google search and found nothing to support your cite.

Handguns are puny and pathetic. No agreement necessary for the truth to be the truth.

There are literally millions of dead people world wide that would likely disagree with you... if they weren't dead.

According to the CDC out of the 16 states where they track such data (that's all they have data for, so I assume this includes the FBI) 4,829 people died of handgun inflicted injuries in 2007 (the most recent year they have statistics for). I'm going to guess that's more than 5% of the people shot by them in those 16 states.

They are exceptionally efficient tools for both defending one's life and, if you're so inclined, for taking someone's life either legally or illegally. As with all tools, it's only as effective as the person using it. If you're incompetent with the tool, it will be less effective. If you're proficient with the tool, it will be more useful.

A hole cut through someones chest is potentially lethal regardless of how the hole gets there (handgun, rifle, ice pick, knife, etc.). Most modern handguns of adequate caliber will punch a whole clean through an adults chest. The only thing one must do is place that hole in a vital area, which also happens to be true for rifles or handguns. Ask any combat vet if a rifle is a guaranteed kill if you hit someone with it. It most certainly isn't, as with most things firearms related it all about shot placement. But yes, rifles are considerably more powerful than hanguns and are far more forgiving of poor shot placement. But let's not dismiss the usefulness of a handgun for personal defense.

 

[MilitaryArms]

To say that a robber will walk in and shoot an openly armed patron of a business before carrying out their robbery is something of a stretch. Has it happened? I'm sure it has. People have also been struck by lightening more than once in their lives. That doesn't make it a common occurrence. I don't think it's rational to live your life in fear of the rare occurrence. It also assumes that most robbers are cold blooded murderers, which also is a stretch.

Just as with most things, people take the path of least resistance, criminals included. If they see an armed citizen in a store, I suspect the most common course of action would be to come back later or to find another establishment to haunt. I would say very-very few criminals will think, "all I have to do is shoot that dude in the head, go get my money and go home". Murder is a big rap and it brings considerably more heat from law enforcement. I would venture a guess that most robbers just want the money and don't want to be on the run for the rest of their lives.

But I could be wrong.

That being said, I'll carry openly when it suits me. Most of the time I conceal my weapon. But in the summer I often times will have a handgun openly carried on my hip if I'm on my way to my property to go shooting or something similar. Otherwise I'll probably have a LCP tucked in my front pocket of my shorts.

 

[melensdad]

To say that a robber will walk in and shoot an openly armed patron of a business before carrying out their robbery is something of a stretch. Has it happened? I'm sure it has.

I have combed FBI crime data, public sources, the internet and every other source I could come up with and have found exactly ZERO instances of this ever occurring. What I have found are news stories and research works that have also found exactly ZERO instances of any civilian ever being targeted because they were wearing a gun openly.

On the other hand, I have found numerous cases of Open Carry actually preventing crime or carriers stopping criminals.

 

[MilitaryArms]

I have combed FBI crime data, public sources, the internet and every other source I could come up with and have found exactly ZERO instances of this ever occurring. What I have found are news stories and research works that have also found exactly ZERO instances of any civilian ever being targeted because they were wearing a gun openly.

On the other hand, I have found numerous cases of Open Carry actually preventing crime or carriers stopping criminals.

To be fair just because you can't find a story on the internet doesn't mean it didn't happen. Not every single news event is published and not every story is accurately or completely reported. Most statistics tracked by agencies such as the FBI aren't all that detailed, certainly not at the macro level we're talking about.

I think we can both agree that if it has happened it's exceptionally rare and certainly noting to be overly concerned with. I wouldn't use it as an excuse to not carry openly.

 

[melensdad]

To be fair just because you can't find a story on the internet doesn't mean it didn't happen.

True, which is why I accessed the public records of the FBI crime statistic data. It is free to anyone who cares to get it. Not on the internet, but still available for anyone who has the desire to access it via mail.

 

[revance]

$125!!?? I paid $75 for mine just a few years ago!!

It is still $75... that person was including the $50 you have to pay your local LE. So total is $125, the price hasn't changed.

 

[musclecarr]

If you do carry in the open, be prepared to get harrassed by the police. You'll be an easy "contact" for them. They need so many "contacts" a day.