Edmond, I think there is a big difference between talking about firearms and promoting them, and revealing whether one is carrying or not. There are a fair number of people who know that I have an interest in firearms, but don't know whether I am carrying or not. To me, anyway, that is a critical and crucial difference, otherwise it's nobody's business whether I am carrying or not. I think your 2 cents is important and I agree with your basic premise that we should be ambassadors of gun culture to the outside world. I don't want to get into a lengthy debate and I don't like the idea of getting into "what if's" but I will suggest a scenario that was inspired by a real life incident as related by Massad Ayoob: You are in a bar or restaurant when two armed men walk in and start robbing the patrons at gun point. You are at a tactical disadvantage and outgunned, when your friends start looking at you to do something because they know you are armed, and one of them blurts out: "You've got a gun, do something for christsakes." This causes attention to be focused on yourself by the bad guys, and all of a sudden you are forced to take action, unsuccessfully for yourself because you are outgunned and are faced with mulitple assailants. This is exactly what happened to an off-duty New York City dectective who was a regular at a local bar, and who was known to the patrons there as both a cop and a gun carrier. He stepped up to the plate, so to speak when one of the patrons of the bar called him on it, and went down in a hail of bullets from his adversaries, simply because he was outgunned and at a definite tactical disadvantage. Now one could cogently argue that it was his status as a police officer and not a gun carrier that evoked this response from the bar patron, but it is not beyond the scope of things to see a similar response made by someone who knows you are "packin." There is a time to react, and there is a time to be a good witness. That applies both to the police and the private citizen who carries concealed. I too, do not want to start a lengthy debate or populate this thread with "what-if's" but I do feel compelled to respond to your well written and well thought out post. All the best and keep doing your great work as a "gun culture" ambassador. Mark L.