4th San Diego Open Carry Outing!

WOW, what an exciting day! This event was truly an amazing experience and I can say without reservation that I am proud to be associated with so many fine California compatriots. The level of commitment that was exercised by all in terms of keeping this event as quiet as possible, organizing into teams, providing leadership and support to everyone, etc. GOOD JOB EVERYONE!

As some may or may not already know, this event was a photo scavenger hunt. For the truly uninitiated, a photo scavenger hunt is where one goes around in a given area and takes photos of various objectives and situations in order to gain points. This whole idea (engineered by Sam with collaboration from a great many people) was put into play in order to get people out in the open and interacting with the locals. Below is a list of scavenger hunt objectives that was used for this meet...

10 points

Your team in a bicycle shop.
Your team in a surf shop.
Your team in a hole-in-the-wall taco shop.
Your team in a grocery store. 10 point bonus if it's in a Whole Foods in front of the deli counter.
Your team in a deli.
Your team in a department store at the cologne/perfume counter.
Your team in front of an adult bookstore ("F Street", etc). 5 point bonus for an employee who poses with at least one team member for the picture, and another 5 points if she's hot. Hotness to be determined by the judges.

15 points
Your team replicating a statue in tandem (a la Ferris Bueller's Day Off in the art gallery).
Your team replicating a scene from a Disney movie (be able to explain it too!)
Your team spelling out the name of a gun company/website (a la YMCA!)
Your team doing the Egyptian dance on some sort of wall, weapons visible (i.e. strong side to the camera)
Your team posing with a dog and dog owner. 10 point bonus if it's an Australian Cattledog.

25 points

Your team in front of a police car.
Your team with a waitress.
Your team with a concierge at a hotel.
Your team with an employee from a sporting goods store. 5 point bonus if you're in front of the gun rack. Another 5 points if the gun rack is largely empty.
Your team with an American flag in the background.
Your team in front of a church. 5 additional points if you get the pastor in the photo.
Your team with a security guard or other rent-a-cop.
Your team with a hostess at a restaurant.
Your team in an elevator.
Your team in front of a fire station. 5 point bonus if the door is open and you can pose OUTSIDE THE STATION in front of the fire engine. 5 point bonus for each authentic firefighter who joins you. Bear in mind, fire stations are CITY BUILDINGS and you cannot enter one armed! We will accept weaponless pictures, but do not recommend it.
Your team in a gun store. 20 point bonus if you include the gun store owner or manager. Employees don't count.
Your team in a Walmart in front of the ammo counter.
Your team in front of a government agency - be sure to stay on the public area and stay off government property! 10 point bonus if it's a Federal office.
Your team next to a vehicle with a pro-gun sticker (military branch logos don't count, NRA logo does. 50 point bonus for a JPFO or GOA sticker. 10 point bonus for a Gadsden flag).
Your team next to a vehicle with an Obama/Biden bumper sticker (feel free to give a good shrug and confused look if you want). 5 extra points for each the following: If it's rusty, a Volvo and/or posed with the owner.
Your team with a Mac user at a coffee shop or comparable establishment.
Your whole team inside of Belmont Park. If you happen to make it that far, feel free to say "HI!" to the Coaster Saloon!
Your whole team in front of or inside of a martial arts studio.

50 points

Your team with a police officer who is either on foot, on horseback, or traveling other than by cruiser or motorcycle.
Your team inside a bar. 10 extra points if you get the bouncer or doorman to join you in the photo.
Your team with a street musician or performer. 20 point bonus for mimes or saxophone players.
Your team with someone from Wisconsin (Must show ID in picture!)
Someone from your team getting a kiss on the cheek from a random woman on the street.
Anyone on your team getting a picture with a barnyard animal.
Your team in front of a "firearms prohibited" sign.
Anyone on your team dancing with a woman in a bar or club. You must be no more than 2' away from the woman. 5 extra points if you can bust out a decent swing dance move!
Your team with a girl in denim shorts (Daisy Dukes are ideal, anything more than half way down from top of leg to top of kneecap is invalid)
Your team at the La Jolla Children's pool, on the beach, with the seals in the background.
Your team next to a vehicle with a Ron Paul sticker on it.
Your whole team in front of a Post Office.
Your whole team with a mailman/woman.

100 points

Your team in a karaoke bar, singing the song of your choice.
Your team, fully clothed, in a swimming pool. You need not wear your guns for this one.
At least 4 people from your team in the back of a police car. If allowed, all of them should wear guns.

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Here are some of the operational details of this meet that I can share with you guys:


1) There were groups in Gaslamp, Clairemont Mesa, Clairemont, Mission Valley and La Jolla. Each group had a leader, several carriers and (where applicable) at least one non-carrying observer.

2) There was a minimum group size in order to maintain group security.

3) There was a very good amount of communication and coordination that occurred for this to work.

4) Police were given a 24hr notice of general locations but no specific times.

With that, I would like to impart the happenings of my day.
Initially, Enthusiast and I were in charge of our own respective groups in the La Jolla area but due to a relatively large amount of people backing out and us (the leaders) not being able to maintain the minimum group size requirement, it was decided that we should join forces and make our two fragmented teams into one larger and more resilient team. Our teams were both told to meet at my brother's house and our larger team consisted of Enthusiast, Twitchalot, Twitchalot's friend Brendan my friend Jake, Chaparral Commando (Colin, also a friend of mine), gravedigger, Jeff Schwilk (San Diego Minutemen) and myself. After sorting out some rendezvous issues (Twitch and his friend somehow ended up in PB instead of the original meeting place and we had to wait for them to get to our location) and getting the guns packed up, we piled into two cars and headed to our La Jolla location. Right as we hit La Jolla Shores Blvd, I found out that we forgot gravedigger and that I had his gun (DOH!) so he went with Sam's group instead. Sorry gravedigger, I will make it up to you next time!

Immediately after Enthusiast selected a nice spot to park and we started strapping on our artillery pieces, we had a married couple step out of their house (I had no idea there was a house there, I thought it was a wall of ivy!) and asked us about what we were doing. We handed them a pamphlet and told them about our rights and also had to explain that Colin's kilt was actually not a skirt. After that initial contact with the locals, we proceeded down into Prospect Place.

Walking down to and through the La Jolla area there NO issues whatsoever. We didn't have people freaking out and fainting, no one calling the cops, no one stressed out at our presence whatsoever. It was very pleasant, despite the 90% humidity! The only real issues we experienced were with Victoria's Secret employees not letting us take photos of the perfume counter, as it is apparently against store policy to do so.

Since a picture is worth a 1000 words, I will let the following photos do most of the talking.

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Some stories I can relay from other groups.

-The Gaslamp groups had a lot of issues with originally unforseen and hidden school zones and the decision was made by Mulay El Raisuli, Liberty1 and Macadelic4 to join groups and relocate to the Seaport Village area (A wise decision at that). While there, some members of the group approached two Harbor Patrol officers (trainer and trainee) and asked them if they wouldn't mind being in a picture with them (50pts!). The officers were taken off-guard and had no idea about open carry or that we were even in the area (Harbor Patrol and SDPD apparently don't talk to one another) but were nevertheless were very cool about it. The initial 12031 check for this contact was just asking if the gun was unloaded. After discussing some of the laws and dropping off a pamphlet, Mulay's group walked away and located a few more objectives. After about 20 minutes, the two Harbor Patrol officers came over and requested to do a 12031 check. The trainee attemped one on Eatsroks and couldn't figure out how to get the gun out of the holster. She instead just checked the magazine and politely asked if she could trust everyone's word that the guns were unloaded (HA!).

I would also like to point out that the Gaslamp group was full of WIN. Many objectives were attained (multiple times for some of them!) and even the balloon guy got a kick out of the guns. This team also went ahead and nailed the "kiss on the cheek" objective quite a few times and while they did not get multiple point counts for it, we do know that if they ever start a business in Vegas they will be WILDLY successful. (Hint to all the Vegas OC guys!)

-The Clairemont East group was able to get a few good objectives, including the adult book store objective. Some of their photos are relatively PG-13+ and will not be posted on this blog. However, those in the know can acquire them with relative ease...

-The Clairemont Wherever group (lead by Sam) got quite a few good objectives and were by far the most mobile group of all.

After all of the groups were done with their scavenger hunts, everyone fell back to Sam's place for a BBQ. My sister Ashley took care of preparing most of the food and did an excellent job with the Napa Valley burgers (a family favorite!) as well as all the side dishes.


I would like to thank all the people that were involved in making this event work, as it was truly a time-consuming undertaking. Sam and I collaborated along with grammaton76, Lorax3 and Macadelic4 to get the photo objective ideas together in a comprehensive list, send out the necessary documentation and guidelines to all the team members, etc. My sister Ashley was responsible for nearly the entire party prep and cleanup so many thanks to her. I would also like to thank all the group leaders for their diligence in keeping their teams safe with their extensive geographical research and wise leadership decisions. This sort of event could never have happened without the coordinated effort of so many people. I am truly lucky to be associated with such people.

With that, enjoy the photos!

Gaslamp/Seaport Village group.

1) Two cute girls
2) Another cute girl
3) Mulay scoring a kiss

4) Macadelic4 scoring a kiss
5) Egyptian dance
6) Street performer. He made a balloon gun and holster!

7) Harbor Patrol trying to do a 12031 check
8) Everyone inside of a surf shop
9) Another street performer.

10) Another kiss!
11) Private security guard.
12) Barnyard animal (Mule or horse? I think mule!)

13) Total Daisy Duke action in this photo
14) One of the best pics of the meet, with Daisy Duke shorts, a dog and a kiss all in one!
15) That girl's mother!

16) ANOTHER KISS!
17) Holy crap! Married men get all the action!


La Jolla group!

1) Post office
2) Church
3) Obama sticker. It actually says "O S***!"

4) Imitating a statue in tandem
5) Re-enacting a Disney scene from The Little Mermaid.
6) Our failed attempt at doing the Egyptian dance. Enthusiast and Twitch decided to do "The Pharaoh"

7) Spelling out "GLOCK"
8) With a hostess. She was born in Georgia and actually likes guns!
9) With a waitress. The whole staff at this restaurant was really cool!

10) With a dog owner. The dogs are in the middle of a tiff in this photo.
11) In an elevator.
12) NRA Decal (it is there, it is just small!)

13) American flag.
14) Seal at the Children's pool.
15) Quiksilver surf shop.

16) We weren't brave enough to ask this girl in Daisy Duke shorts to get a picture so we kind of "rushed" it :)
17) Inside of a taco shop.

Mission Valley group!

1) Costco deli
2) Elevator
3) Obama sticker

4) American flag
5) Taco shop
6) Gadsden flag (team member's truck!)

7) NRA decal. (team member's truck!)

Clairemont Wherever group!

1) With a waitress
2) Obama sticker
3) At a gun store with the manager

4) Big 5 gun rack
5) American flag
6) Deli

7) Walmart ammo counter
8) Dog and dog owner. +10 for finding a Queensland Heeler!

Clairemont East group!

1) Adult store!
2) Street performer
3) Ranch 99

4) Waitress AND Manager
5) Walmart ammo counter
6) This groups first attempt at a deli (Quiznos) :)

7) A deli
8) In a bar
9) This group was hard up for a perfume counter so they tried out the appliance store. I believe we gave them points because Febreeze is used in the dryers :)

9) Random... and yet, so funny.

After Party!

Oh yeah, by the way... Gaslamp/Seaport Village group WON!