I think handguns in the US has shown that it doesn't work.
Why not? The friendliest people in the US are exactly in the open carry states.
NYC on the other hand has the biggest number of jerks per capita I ever seen. (No offence to all nice people from NYC, which there are still plenty.)
Well at the risk of making a "hasn't been tried" argument, the vast majority of people in the US don't walk around with guns.