Where I live in Arizona, it's just as common as other people picking up their cell phone and wallet on the way out the door, you have your weapon in your holster, backpack, or purse.........but we don't need a CCW anymore to carry concealed, Az did away with that several years ago.
In Arizona it's a cultural thing. You've always been able to carry un-concealed. You don't have to have your weapon registered. Households that are anti-gun are just that, no big deal. Hunting, predators, cowboys, it all goes into the mix. We don't carry guns out of fear, we carry them because they're a tool, if that makes sense. Just like the jack for your car, make up in your purse, you just might need it.
My son's GF is from San Diego. She has a job at a coffee shop right now in Prescott. Last week a patron came in with a side arm, she just about lost it, she thought they were going to be robbed. In California "guns" imply "fear" where in Arizona "guns" imply "safety". Might be hard to wrap your head around that, but that's as close to an explanation as I can get. If you're raised around it, it doesn't bother you.
As far as using a safety or not, that's a preference to the carrier. I carry a revolver, it has a double action, you have to pull the trigger past one "click" to get the hammer to *advertiser censored*, or manually *advertiser censored* the hammer, then the gun will fire when you continue to pull the trigger. Pistols you have to pull the "slide" to chamber a round, then it's ready to fire. Pistols have a safety you can slide on or off.
