Meanings
- USuncountableThe practice of openly carrying a firearm in public.
Open-carry laws, it’s often noted, wouldn’t allow Black people to wander through the supermarket with huge guns slung over them and the confidence they could impose on others this way; […]
2022 May 30, Rebecca Solnit, “US mass shootings will continue until the majority can overrule the minority”, in The Guardian1 more example
In most places, open carry is relatively uncommon compared to lawful concealed carry. Open carry has long been a norm in Arizona, and open carry advocates in many other states today are seeking to renormalize the practice.
2018, Nicholas J. Johnson, David B. Kopel, George A. Mocsary, Michael P. O'Shea, Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy, 2nd edition, Wolters Kluwer, →ISBN, page 736
Cite this entry
open carry. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open%20carry
“open carry.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open%20carry. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “open carry,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open%20carry.
Source: open carry on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.