What is the purpose of open carry? Is it to intimidate? Is it a deterrent? Is it a manifestation of low self-esteem? Is it a manifestation of inadequacy? Is it an anti-government stance. Is it a libertarian ideological exercise?

The answer may be all of the above though deterrence in the aggregate may be debatable. A real criminal will come a guns blazing if he or she wants what the open carrying gun toting individual has. It is a fact that research shows that right-to-carry is linked to increased violent crime. Extrapolating that to open carry should not be difficult and is likely forthcoming.

While it is a fact that our gun touting culture is a clear and present danger to the society at large, the reality is for some that danger is even greater. People of color do not get the benefit of the doubt.

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Ohio is an open carry state. One would expect that police officers in an open carry state would give any gun-toting person the benefit of the doubt before unleashing their ballistic might on said person. Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old black boy with a pellet gun, was not given that benefit. He was shot in less than two seconds. The ruling: the officer feared for his life and the shooting was justified. John Crawford III, the young black man that was gunned down in a Walmart while inspecting a pellet gun, was not given the benefit of the doubt.

Gun-toting white motorcycle gang members shooting up one another were not met with the national guard in Waco, Texas, but were leisurely arrested after the killing massacre. For the second time in as many years the Bundys and their armed terrorists were appeased by the government in Burns, Oregon.

So as many continue to promote their second amendment rights it is important to note that it means something very different to different people. In a society where a police officer has the legal right to kill if he and/or she fears for their lives whether justified or not, the evidence shows that people of color have the right but not the same privilege to carry a weapon. In a society where the average citizen and vigilante can stand their ground even if that ground isn’t theirs to stand on, and kill innocent people of color without the fear of imprisonment, open carry and concealed carry to many are a clear and present danger. In a society where a government allows white terrorists the benefit of the doubt and the ability to challenge “we the people” while unarmed people of color who protest gun violence are met with military action, the second amendment means nothing.