I open carry when I can, and CC when I think it's more prudent to do so. I began carrying with the idea that someone I knew would be dumb enough to draw on me, and when he did, I was glad I had mine with me. From that point on, I carry nearly 24/7.
Further, I had a scare in a interstate rest area years ago. Thankfully someone else walked in and prevented whatever may have happened......but the incident left me with the hairs on my neck standing up, and the feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had just gotten extremely lucky. I carried, without a CC, for a long time after that, especially when I stopped at rest areas.
If anyone doesn't think places like that are dangerous, check out the news right after Thanksgiving, about a man here in Concord, NC, less than 20 miles from me, who was shot in the back, in a rest area, while headed home from a Thanksgiving vacation. No reason, no provocation on his part, and no robbery, just two thugs looking for a thrill, and we can only assume at that moment to extract some 'justice' on a 'white man'.......
That said, the ONLY reason anyone needs to carry, is the simple fact that it is a RIGHT. Think about it this way. If you don't exercise a right, regardless or whether it's the right to free speech, the right to carry a firearm, the right to vote, or whatever, that particular RIGHT is being freely given up by you for the simple fact you do not exercise it.
At a time in this country where our rights are slowly being eroded away already, who in their right mind is going to willingly give one up? Not me..........
What's funny is when someone, like a guy I have had discussions with on another site, seems to think that those of us that have a right to carry open shouldn't do it......'in order to preserve the right'..............That's the dumbest thing I have ever heard. My response was to ask him when he was going to stop exercising his 1A right to free speech by saying the things he was saying (went beyond just what I stated), and making gun owners look bad.....he shut right up......
So, carry because it's a right, and because it's much better to have it and not need it, than to need it, and not have it......and to have the last thought that goes through your mind being, "I wish I hadn't left my pistol lying on the shelf at home".....