Simply put, the law or license to carry a handgun issued in a lot of states, deals with a handgun not a long gun, so let’s take that piece out of the equation. There is open carry allowed in some states without a license.

Bryan L. Ciyou is a trial and appellate attorney at the Indianapolis law firm of Ciyou & Dixon, P.C.. He earned his BA with distinction and graduated through the honors program, along with his JD, cum laude, at Indiana University in Indianapolis, Indiana.

One of his key practice areas is Firearms Law wherein he represents a wide array of clients, including licensed manufacturers and dealers with criminal or regulatory/compliance matters, gun show promoters and businesses with firearms legal issues, and individuals involved in deadly force encounters. Bryan also consults across the United States with lawyers and those in the industry.

In this CLE class clip, Bryan discusses Legal Issues with Open and Concealed Carry Gun Laws

Watch the Full Firearms Law CLE Class

There’s also the case where individuals invoke the concept of Constitutional Carry, which has effectively been reduced to open carry without a license. Most states have a right to keep and bear arms in their constitution, but there are distinct policies for and against open-carry vs concealed-carry and those terms are both overarching terms.

The right to free speech and expression which support open carry. If you are a security guard and are carrying for purposes of showing there’s an authority figure, the risk is in doing that, there are individuals prosecuted in many states every year that open carry of some kind with a license or without, results in disturbing the peace, intimidation. Those distinctions largely play out in rural versus highly populated cities. What’s acceptable in a rural area and prosecuted for intimidation, or brandishing, is going to be very different than what’s going to be considered for prosecution in a higher populated city.

For concealed carry, from a self-defense or tactical standpoint, there’s not much serious debate on concealed carry outside of law enforcement, because of the right to do so with the license tactically makes sense.