Yesterday I was perusing the local battery store ((One of these days I will find a battery they don’t have in stock, but so far no luck.)) with my friend Louis. As is my custom, I was openly carrying my Glock 19 in a Blackhawk SERPA holster.
While we were browsing around, I had a brief conversation with the employee:
Employee: “What kind of gun is that?”
Me: “It’s a Glock 19.”
Employee: “Cool. Who makes it?”
Me: “…Glock.”
He was then a bit puzzled, as like many non-gunny folks, he was not aware of the different model numbers, and always thought that such guns were only referred to by caliber (e.g. “Glock 9,” “Glock 40,” etc.). As he seemed genuinely interested, I answered his questions about the different models.
In addition to being a useful crime deterrent, open carry also provides the opportunity to meet and hold conversations with other folks on the topics of firearms.