Massachusetts is _theoretically_ an open-carry state, too. If you are licenced to own/carry a pistol here, there is nothing in any laws forbidding it, unless your LTC (lic. to carry) states 'target and hunting' or some such BS limitation.
Of course, it MIGHT not be a good idea to actually strap a gun to one's hip, as a scared sheep might get fearful, and charge you with 'brandishing' [rolleyes]........at the least, our anti-gun police WILL hassle you, big-time, when they spot a gun in a holster in the open.
But there's a twist: the CLEO in Shrewsbury, MA, is VERY anti-gun, and when the new law was passed in 1998, he immediately put on all pistol licences the limitation "no concealed carry", even though the law was supposed to allow CCW. OK, everybody thought, let's take him at his word, so, they walked around in public with holstered guns on the hip. When the licence holders were inevitably questioned/pulled over/accosted by security personnel and police, they showed the officers the CCW licences with the notation listed on it, and said, "Hey- we're just doing what YOUR chief told us to do...."[:D]
Soon the chief, red-faced, egg dripping from his chin, had to change his policy, esp. when it all got in the local rag.... Chief Wiggum is alive and well in Shrewsbury, MA[;D]
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Oppression and harassment are a small price to pay to live in the land of the free.
- --MONTGOMERY BURNS