I agree that there is usually a hotheaded rabid hoplophobe, though the group I was walking with got a very positive response. We can still turn an encounter with a hostile person into a victory by looking presentable and stating our position in a lucid, clear, and non-confrontational way. He or she may walk away from it at least thinking "those guys seemed alright." Even if they still disagree with our position they may be less inclined to a knee-jerk reaction in the future.
I talked about this a little in my essay.
http://maineopencarry.org/essay.html
Maine is a one party consent state when it comes to recording. As long as one person in the group knows that they are recording your good. So if I was standing in a group of 50 people and knew that I was recording your set. (Obviously your going to know that your recording).