California up until the beginning of 2012 had an open carry statewide provision, pretty radical for this state considering it may be just about the toughest state in the US to get a concealed weapon permit.
What contributed to the ability to carry openly was the fact that very few people even knew you could.
I found out about it from a police officer that had responded to me calling about an extortion attempt, a guy kept threatening me but I had been armed and derailing his attempts, but he'd say things like I'll catch you someday without a gun and then we'll talk. One of the cops that responded told me I needed to start open carrying so this guy couldn't catch me away from home without a gun.
One of my friends said no way when I told him it was legal for me to open carry, and he bet me I couldn't get away with walking around town, so we did. We have two cops walking up and down Main Street in Placerville, so I stopped to talk to one of them and told him my friend didn't think what I was doing was legal. I had to turn sideways so he could see the gun as it was low key at the 5:00 kidney position, he asked was it unloaded and I told him of course. He proceeded to tell my friend that it was legal with the unloaded provision, keep a mag handy and you are good to go.
So when the Starbucks cowboys started making headlines by carrying their Glocks as conspicuously as possible in places like Sausalito, liberal strongholds to be sure, I said that they were drawing unnecessary attention to something most people weren't aware you could even do. They were making it worse by refusing to show ID when asked by cops to see some.
All a cop is trying to do when they check out a call of a guy with a gun is to gauge what type of guy is this and what's he up to. When a guy says I know my constitutional rights and I don't have to show you ID it is adding another fight to the open carry and compounding the problem. The guy who's open carrying who says sure, no problem, here you go sees the cop glance at the license, hand it back, and ask what's up. When you explain that you are exercising your right to open carry the response is, okay, have a nice day and be careful.
So sure enough in San Diego, breeding ground for influential politicians, we have a young guy on the boardwalk who gets called in "man with a gun". Cop asks can he see some ID and our freedom fighter says I'm not required to show you any ID, no. The cop says you can show it to me here or we can go to the station, so off they go to the station. They get there, the cop runs down the situation to his supervisor who says cut him loose, he's legal.
Our cowboy gets an attorney and gets a $50k settlement for his pain and suffering. City or county says to heck with this and the hometown state politician drafts an end to open carry, which was soundly passed.
Bottom line is that no matter how wrong this is, it was those who felt they had to use a right or lose it that caused it to be lost. Had they not exercised it for the heck of it we'd still have open carry on the books.
Meanwhile me who actually used it to protect against a known threat, can't do so anymore. When I did open carry nobody ever noticed I had a gun because my intent was not to be as conspicuous as possible, but to be as unnoticeable as possible. Rights don't have to be in your face to make any point, and trying to do so may just bring unwanted attention to a right you already have.
I'm in one of the easiest counties in this state to get a concealed permit, so that takes care of that.