When a TikTok follower called out Ryan Gass on open carrying in Maryland, he responded this way:
You’re not wrong, and I actually agree with what you said to a certain extent. The reason why I open carry is because it’s effective advertising for the business in which I am. I’ve a firearm training business, and I help people get their carry permit from Maryland, which allows them to open carry.
When people see me open carrying, it’s unusual, and a lot of times, they end up talking to me and asking me different questions like “Hey! You can’t do that?” or “Hey! How can you do that?” or “Hey! How can I do that?” and I’m able to talk to them and engage them in that conversation. A lot of times, it ends up with them being in my class where I’m able to help them more safely, effectively, and legally exercise their second amendment rights to be able to keep and bear arms and safeguard themselves and their family, whether inside the home or outside the home.
In my fault videos, I’ll bring up more about this topic and why I open carry, along with why I actually prefer concealed carry. Is open carry a death wish? I don’t think so. And this is actually going to take a couple of videos to really touch on and talk about, and I’m glad you presented this statement.
So, are there problems you can have while open carrying? Absolutely!
Are there problems that you can have while open carrying that create an issue for your health and your well-being? Absolutely!
That’s why when you do open carry, you don’t just throw a firearm on your hip and go out there and expect that it’s going to be fine.
A couple of things:
Somebody may want to grab your firearm! I don’t understand it, and I would never want to do that, but somebody might see my firearm and say, “Hey! I want to grab onto that.” And that’s why I use a level 3 holster. I’ve a video on our YouTube channel PTPGun.com Firearms Training that we recently did where we talk more about that and show you the holster that I use.
Beyond that, even when having a great holster, you still need to be more aware of your surroundings, like what’s going on around you, who’s behind you, etc. You can’t be having your face (buried) in your cell phone all day watching these stupid TickTock videos that people like myself make.
Outside of the fact that I own a firearm training company in Maryland, and that’s why I open carry, I actually prefer personally to conceal carry. Why do I prefer to conceal carry? Because of part of the law what you brought up and that it can bring undue attention to myself from those nefarious people in society that would like to do myself and my family harm or those around me too.
Outside of my company and beyond answering people’s questions, I just don’t feel like hearing people. If I am out, it’s my own time where I’m just doing my own thing, shopping, doing this and doing that, but I don’t want to talk to people about my gun. A lot of people, when they notice a firearm, want to talk to you about it, and have a discussion about what you carry, how you carry, why you carry, do you like open, do you like concealed, etc. Though I enjoy talking to people about that because of the work that I do, outside of that, on a personal side, I’d rather just conceal!