can't speak for our state but in ohio they have open carry, no license or permit required.. as long as you can lawfully possess the gun you can carry it openly..
we also have CCW which requires jumping threw hoops and submitting to a complete rectal examination (IE: background and finger printing, 12hour course with 2hour range time)
at which point you should be able to carry any way you want.. open, conceal, or something inbetween like a discreet (dont want every one to know but not willing to wear a rectum holster to conceal it.) carry.
now if your state does'nt have open carry.. then i would suspect you need to have it covered up to some degree.. and probably gets into really subjective opinions as to what is concealed properly enough..
best bet is to search google for gun laws in your state, NRA is a good place to check, even better there are often gun right advocate groups specific to your state that would be very knowledgeable, you should also check the states website.
I would not bother asking a street cop though.. there your general purpose law enforcement keeping rapist and murders at bay.. and are'nt gonna known line for line (and few other then lawyers would) every gun law. Most likely would get more opinion then fact.
I disagree with totally discarding open carry.. it does have it's pros.. it's cons are obvious but the positives are often over looked..
faster draw, more comfortable, usually if legal requires no license or permit.
down side is obvious, apparent you are carrying, requires a security holster or at least more awareness, will sometimes get you hassled by people.. but from what i've read form OC'ers it's usually the cops that bother you and most every day people might notice or comment usually are not the primary source of headaches.
i think OC and CC are both good things and i dont think it would be good to discard either of them, more what fits your situation and comfort rather then X is better then Y hard and fast rule.
