What's the population density of the states with high gun ownership? Even taking pure population into consideration... Well common sense tells me that Oklahoma and NYC are two different kinds of animals when it comes to these issues.
For myself, if I were in charge, I'd stake out this middle ground that most likely wouldn't make anyone happy, but here goes.
Open carry in public. Concealed being made illegal (After all, in a society where Open Carry was legal, those hiding guns on their person are probably up to no good, unless they are undercover cops or security or the like). Background checks and waiting periods mandatory. Gun safety coursed mandatory, and not BS ones, real courses on the safety of use of guns for self protection. Law enforcement should have access to a data base of firearms and their serial numbers. Sorry but the excuse that criminals will find ways around this is weak tea to me. Our jails are not filled with Lex Luthors. They are filled with men that are not too bright and have low impulse control. Period. Filing off serial numbers happens, but since most murders are crimes of passion or impulse occurrences, well, I would like to help law enforcement actually catch those guys. Just like with cars, guess what? You better have insurance, though this would be for accidental discharges or negligence in storage or the like obviously, not self defense. (This last one is dicey, I admit so I am not married to it.)
All that being said... My gut tells me that, what ever the number, whether 1 more or 1,000 more, gun fatalities would increase in a U.S.A. with Open carry as the law of the land. Call me callous if you must though, but that wouldn't be the end of the world. But at least I feel I am being honest about the human toll. I am admitting up front that as a policy this very well could lead to some more deaths. But as an issue, as the politics of it stands right now, it's not going away. It's not ideal, but the corrosive nature of this issue spills over too often into other areas of our politics. Take it off the table to a certain degree. If someone wants to walk around with a holster at their hip and a shot gun, more power to them. Just let ME know so that I can cross the street. I also don't think that Open Carry would quite be the Gun Rights paradise some think it would be. In public is one thing. What about private property? Well now that would be different. A little side story, but when I first got the job I have now (I am a concierge at a residential building) there was an issue of someone's assistant stealing from them. At first this person thought it was the staff here doing it. When the wife of the owner heard that I used the keys available to staff to deliver newspapers in the mornings she said "Why is that Spanish guy touching my keys!?" Now we, the staff, using our security cameras and noticing some other things were the ones to actually catch the thieving assistant in the act. Still, think about that. As the overnite guy there is a security component to my job, but this woman was perturbed that I had access to her keys. If she doesn't want me touching her keys while she is sound asleep, do you really think she'd let me come to work with a gun? (Mind you, I've gotten involved in quite a few physical altercations since I started this job. It's an overnite shift after all in NYC). If a privately owned establishment wants to keep armed people off it, well that should be their right. So bar owners, sporting arenas and other places of business ect., they'd be able to tell people that they can't come in armed, pure and simple. There would most likely also be carve outs for various govt. buildings and the like. Say, court houses, legislatures and schools.
Some Gun Rights/Second Amendment absolutist may scoff and say the usual: "We don't need more legislation/laws for guns. We just need to enforce the ones we do have." to them I say: "Please stop urinating in my ear and telling me it's precipitation." Because in my opinion ya'll don't want the ones that are on the books to be enforced either. So just be honest about it. What most of the country thinks are reasonable bits of legislation does not in any way equate with some fascist plot to leave you defenseless.
To those that dislike the idea of Open Carry and the fact that America has a gun culture at all I say: "Get over it and open your eyes!" This issue has allowed far too many demagogues too much influence in all areas of politics. Reasonable politicians with a reasonable outlook are to often brought down by broadsides from those on the other side of this issue, in both parties. As I stated, I feel that it is true that perhaps more people would die as a result of gun violence in an Open Carry society. But more does not equal the end of civil society as we know it. I don't believe this would be the start of mass violence in the streets or every city and town becoming the mythical Wild West of our collective American fantasy. What it would do would be to negate to a large degree the power of the gun lobby/industry and it's influence on our domestic policy. And the truth is that if you really want to change things, the Right Wing in this country are essentially correct in thinking that a change to the Constitution is in order. Do you really want to open that can of worms?
I know none of this is palatable to either side. But maybe that's what is needed. Correction. What's fist needed is for each side to be honest with themselves and then the rest of us so that a reasonable compromise, which is ideally what politics should be, can come closer to reality than it is right now.
