Although I am not licensed to and do not carry firearms on my person, I've taken it upon myself to try to apply Jeff Cooper's Color Code mindset to my day-to-day activities. As such, I try to minimize the time I'm in condition white as much as possible, and I feel that I can honestly say that apart from when I'm asleep, I'm almost never completely unprepared to react to a dangerous threat should one appear.

Apart from that, I actively try to keep myself aware of my surroundings; in other words I try to stay in position yellow for as long as possible. Although doing so for potentially hours on end was, at first, a bit mentally stressful, I think that I've gotten used to it over time.

What I was curious about is what, in your opinion, should cause someone to jump from code yellow to code orange?

Code orange, of course, means that there exists a specific reason to be concerned. Rather than being in a general state of awareness, one's focus centers around one subject or group of subjects, the object of one's concern, and while one doesn't necessarily take any sort of violent actions towards these subjects or even call 911, one is prepared to stop the object of one's concern should the need to do so arise.

In other words, one has a reason (not even a reason necessarily, a hunch will do) to be particularly concerned with a given actor or group of actors.

What ought to cause this sort of concern?

If you see someone openly carrying a firearm, should you go to code orange? What if someone seems intoxicated or potentially on drugs, but is apparently unarmed? Should you go to code orange if there's a large group of unfamiliar teenagers or young men in the area, loitering or conversing loudly in urban slang? How about if there are a group of bikers nearby? Or a bunch of cleanly-shaved white guys with bomber jackets? What if it's just late in the evening, and someone approaches you from the other side of the road?

I'd appreciate any input I get with respect to the issue, particularly from those who do carry firearms and have been trained in the legal and practical aspects of doing so.