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Gun Carrying Group May Not Be Only Ones Affected By Arlington Bans
KTVT-TV ^ | April 23, 2014

Posted on 04/25/2014 2:09:52 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

One story reported on CBSDFW.COM has a lot of people talking. It started with Tuesday night’s vote on an ordinance by the Arlington City Council to ban guns and concealed weapons at public meetings.

Members of the gun rights group Open Carry Tarrant County believe they are the ones being targeted, but they may not be the only ones affected by ordinance changes.

A second Arlington ban could put heavy restrictions on handing out pamphlets.

We’ve all seen them from time-to-time – groups trying to push their cause, including gun rights advocates. Now some leaders in Arlington say the approach by some groups creates hazardous situations.

Kim Martinez believes in free speech. But she says what happened to her recently nearly left her speechless. Recalling her reaction when approached Martinez said, ‘I was just like ‘step away from my car.’ I just looked at them and said ‘No! Back away from my car.’”

Martinez says she was approached last Friday near Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Open Carry members walked up to try to hand her a copy of the constitution and literature promoting gun rights.

Not only were they carrying pamphlets, they were also packing heat. Members were armed and had their weapons openly displayed.

“It scared me. It really scared me,” Martinez said of the encounter. “I didn’t want them near my car. I didn’t want their gun near my car. I didn’t really want to hear anything they had to say.”

The Open Carry group has even documented several run-ins with police. Members ask if firefighters — who would be excluded from the ban — can stand and walk on street corners, sidewalks and medians while soliciting donations, then why can’t they?

Kory Watkins, with Open Carry Tarrant County, claimed that, “Nobody just goes to the car waving their gun around.”

Arlington council members also want to ban people from passing out literature to drivers in the roadway, but one member voted against the measure. Another vote will take place in May.

Kory said, “For us, it just means we are going to be harassed when we go pass out literature to citizens who mutually agree to want it and call us over.”

As for mom Kim Martinez, she said she was just glad she didn’t have her kids with her when Open Carry members approached her. “I applaud them for standing up for what they believe in. That’s all our rights and more people should do it.”

Open Carry members say if the ordinance passes in May then they are ready to go to court.

Sources told CBS 11 News the group will be in Euless on Thursday.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: banglist; ccw; gunrights; texas
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1 posted on 04/25/2014 2:09:52 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“I’m not opposed to their rights.......but.......”

Left to their own devices, this usually ends up with some goon’s boot on your throat and an automatic weapon pointed at your face - ‘because you were giving citizens butt hurt...’.


2 posted on 04/25/2014 2:36:44 AM PDT by Gaffer (Comprehensive Immigration Reform is just another name for Comprehensive Capitulation)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I believe in open carry but I DO NOT believe in getting in people’s faces while openly carrying. This kind of has to happen gradually and subtly. Pushing things like this will be detrimental to the cause.


3 posted on 04/25/2014 2:55:45 AM PDT by RC one (Militarized law enforcement is just a nice way of saying martial law enforcement.)
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To: RC one

I guess one should sit in the back of the bus and not eat at the whites only counter.


4 posted on 04/25/2014 3:52:06 AM PDT by riverrunner
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Next, TSA Scanners before entering your city and your own home to make sure you wont hurt the kids or pick up smoking, who knows. So many people blame their smoking and murdering habits on the legal availability of smokes and guns.


5 posted on 04/25/2014 3:59:56 AM PDT by lavaroise (A well regulated gun being necessary to the state, the rights of the militia shall not be infringed)
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To: Gaffer

This is no more about guns. This is about home visits and privacy violations. The gun has become an excuse.


6 posted on 04/25/2014 4:01:44 AM PDT by lavaroise (A well regulated gun being necessary to the state, the rights of the militia shall not be infringed)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Don't these people know that hoplophobia is a treatable disorder?

And why does FR's spell check recognize "homophobia", but flag "hoplophobia" as not being a real word?

7 posted on 04/25/2014 4:09:22 AM PDT by tacticalogic
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To: riverrunner

We haven’t gotten where are today by getting in people’s faces with openly displayed firearms on our hips, quite the opposite in fact. All good things in all good time. In the mean time, feel free to walk around with a .357 magnum strapped to your belt, underneath your shirt. That’s what I do.


8 posted on 04/25/2014 4:19:56 AM PDT by RC one (Militarized law enforcement is just a nice way of saying martial law enforcement.)
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To: RC one

No we are were we are today by pushing for are rights and not hiding them.

On the state level we been winning more and more

More states have open carry now then ever more states have CCW now then ever.

We have four constitutional carry state instead of one

KS and GA has just passed and signed in to law great open carry bills.

In TX both governor candidates even the liberal demorat one have said they well support a open carry bill.

A right not used is a right lost.


9 posted on 04/25/2014 5:07:18 AM PDT by riverrunner
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
“It scared me. It really scared me,” Martinez said of the encounter. “I didn’t want them near my car. I didn’t want their gun near my car. I didn’t really want to hear anything they had to say.”

Instead of a gun rights group peacefully open carrying and educating people... Substitute in "half a dozen large black youths." Now how do her comments sound? Yeah, thought so.

10 posted on 04/25/2014 5:16:55 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

While being all for open and concealed carry, OTHER than the venue was a baseball stadium parking lot, where I would imagine more than a ‘few’ people were around,

A young lady named Martinez (sorry - especially if she ‘looks’ her name) may have cause for concern if a bunch of middle aged white guys were approaching her with guns strapped on their hips.

I know that I would be readying myself and telling a bunch of Black guys or Spanish guys or even Young/Middle aged White Guys to ‘back off’ if they were getting into ‘my space’ without my knowing their intentions.

Granted most ‘bad guys’ don’t walk around with ‘guns visible’ but......And, as I am quite observant, I would probably figure out what was up BEFORE questions were brought up.

I don’t step out the door without my ‘friend’ but it is concealed and the fewer people that know about it, the better.

Seeing I am in an ‘open(er)’ state, most people (at least those I may have a concern with) probably perceive that I am packing and that ‘suits me just fine’.


11 posted on 04/25/2014 5:21:11 AM PDT by xrmusn ((6/98 --"I would agree with you BUT that would make both of us wrong".))
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To: RC one

“We haven’t gotten where are today by getting in people’s faces with openly displayed firearms on our hips, quite the opposite in fact.”

I disagree. We had open carry picnics in Arizona, because the State was illegally encroaching on our rights. We did not become the most gun friendly state in the union by meekly begging the old media now to demonize us.

The *only* case where open carry is claimed to have worked against us is in California, a state that has *no* state constitutional protection for the right to bear arms, because they wanted to have the power to disarm Mexicans and Chinese. Even there, when people openly carried unloaded guns, exercising their rights... The legislature passed an open carry ban. If that would not have happened, we would not have got the Peruta decision with the Ninth Circuit saying that you have a right to carry outside of your home.

They only came to that, because both open carry *and* concealed carry were being denied.

Open carry was crucial to getting shall issue laws passed in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio.

As riverrunner said, if you do not use a right, you lose it.


12 posted on 04/25/2014 6:21:41 AM PDT by marktwain (The old media must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)
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To: marktwain

“to now demonize” should be “to not demonize”

The old media can always find someone to make you out to be an “extremist” no matter how well you act.


13 posted on 04/25/2014 6:23:46 AM PDT by marktwain (The old media must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)
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To: Gaffer
“I’m not opposed to their rights.......but.......”

While it is not commonly known, the word 'but' is not actually a conjunction. It is actually an acronym. Sentances like the above make a lot more sense if you expand it to it's real meaning - "Behold the Ultimate Truth". Everything to the right of that acronym negates everything to the left, and tells you what the speaker really thinks.

14 posted on 04/25/2014 6:34:02 AM PDT by zeugma (Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened - Dr. Seuss (I'll see you again someday Hope))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is Texas? The fountain of conservatism and freedom to which so many want to flee?


15 posted on 04/25/2014 7:51:10 AM PDT by KrisKrinkle (Blessed be those who know the and breadth of "ignorance. individual be those who don't.)
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To: zeugma

Of course....the words preceding are meaningless, really.


16 posted on 04/25/2014 7:56:55 AM PDT by Gaffer (Comprehensive Immigration Reform is just another name for Comprehensive Capitulation)
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To: lavaroise

Yes. If they succeed, the next bugaboo is children and perceived abuse. Homeschooling is abuse. Taking them to church is abuse, and so on.


17 posted on 04/25/2014 7:58:15 AM PDT by Gaffer (Comprehensive Immigration Reform is just another name for Comprehensive Capitulation)
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To: marktwain
You saved me from posting exactly what you said.

It would be interesting to know, had the state not outlawed all open carry, whether the Peruta court might have found that UNLOADED open carry doesn't meet the requirements for the Second Amendment. Their decision might have been the same but was made simpler by the heavy-handedness of the legislature and governor, encouraged by liberal's with wet pants who were shocked to see people without uniforms carrying firearms.

18 posted on 04/25/2014 2:07:25 PM PDT by William Tell
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To: KrisKrinkle

(A) There are liberals everywhere and (B) it won’t happen.


19 posted on 04/25/2014 2:32:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2M for Cruz and/or Palin's next run, what will you do?)
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To: riverrunner; marktwain

We aren’t where we are because we get into people’s faces. We are where we are because we don’t. Get enough faces and the next thing you know, people are writing letters to their congressman just like we have been. Walking around in a public park with a loaded assault rifle just does not help our cause.


20 posted on 04/25/2014 2:58:52 PM PDT by RC one (Militarized law enforcement is just a nice way of saying martial law enforcement.)
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