Posted on 11/27/2012 6:42:24 PM PST by marktwain
In the upcoming legislative session in Texas, guns will be a point of discussion. Rep. George Lavender (R) will introduce a bill that would allow Texans who have a concealed handgun license the freedom to open-carry. According to the Dallas Morning News:
Lavender said he finds it ironic that freedom-loving Texas is one of just six states not to allow some form of open carry. The others are Illinois, New York, Arkansas, South Carolina and Florida. An open-carry law went into effect in Oklahoma on Nov. 1.
Lavender and other gun rights advocates argue that law-abiding citizens openly carrying pistols in public places pose a deterrent to criminals.
“This is Texas, and we should be the leader,” said Lavender, who was re-elected without opposition on Nov. 6. Support for his proposal, he said, “is very wide and deep. I think we are fixing to get there.”
Lavender unsuccessfully pushed an open-carry bill in the 2011 legislative session, but the measure never gained momentum. It failed to attract a Senate sponsor and died in committee.
“I think we have a new day this time,” he said.
Like his 2011 bill, the one he plans to introduce in the upcoming session would allow businesses and private property owners to post signs prohibiting firearms, he said. The current concealed-weapon law contains a similar provision.
Opponents said open carry has the potential to disturb the peace more than keep the peace.
Yesterday on KFYO, many listeners said they would like to freedom to chose, but would still carry their firearm concealed. What do you think about open-carry? If you have a CHL, what would you do? Let us know in today’s KFYO Poll of the Day.
Well, if’n we here in neighboring New Mexico, with all our liberals, can do it, why can’t Texas?
It's good to have sewing skills. Cooks can do that.
/johnny
There’s a local 20 something around here who looks like he just stepped out of a mad max movie (Mohawk, tattoos, piercings etc) and he’s big on open carry.
He says he’s been disarmed by police more times than he can count but strongly suggests the calm compliance method. He doesn’t like it but says its to be expected till they learn. He says local cops don’t even give him a second look anymore.
The State trooper neighbor borrowed my .38 over the fence one day because he knew I carried snake shot in it. He was an educated LEO.
Educate the LEO. Situational awareness would be a good start.
I don't announce that I've got a screwdriver, axe, hydraulic jack, or wrench. Why should I announce any other tool?
/johnny
>>All 50 states should NOT require a permit to carry concealed or openly.
Amen. Our 2d Amendment rights should not be infringed upon by any state.
Plus, it should not require legal research to travel from one state to another with a weapon.
Ruger Vaquero?
I so want rid of the squishy GOP-E in Texas.
Todd Hunter, the chairman of the Calendar committee, is all in favor of passing legislation to allow open carry for people who hold a CHL.
“and you *want* to let one or more police know that you are armed, and that, based on the situation you want to temporarily disarm, but without frightening or agitating them”
Simple, politely inform them that you are carrying, and ask them what they would like you do with it. If they ask you to remove it, do it however they ask. And in some areas of the country, sometimes, they just thank you and tell you not to pull it out while he is with you.
If they have any modern training, and want to separate you from it, they will ask you where it is and inform you that they will remove it.
If you doubt someone enough to disarm them, it makes little sense to tell them to do anything that puts the gun in their hand.
But deciding how you’re going do it, and just informing them is a bad idea. There’s no reason it should be a power and control game. It should just be a way that tension can be reduced, so it matters little how it’s done.
Theres no reason for drama with a good decent cop who sees you as a person most likely to come to his assistance in a scrape, a fellow shooter he might encounter at the gun shop, etc.
And if the cop is rude or unprofessional, or seems poorly trained in the law, it even makes more sense not to agitate someone like that. You should just ensure you don’t get hurt by a guy like that, and then pursue legal remedies. That worked for that kid arrested for carrying his M-1 rifle openly a few months ago.
he did it just how they said, and won in court later.
“(for example) “I need to secure my gun in my lock box, which requires I unholster it, and hold it in my hand while checking it for safety. I do not want to upset you while doing this. Also, I intend to do this in a safe manner, to avoid the chance of an accidental discharge.””
That kinda sounds like you intend to handle the gun and are just informing them, but that you are going to do it.
Always a bad idea to remove it from a holster if you arent asked. A VERY bad idea. Better just to ask. But i would very much avoid handling it without their explicit approval and instruction to do so.
Far better to just inform them that you are legally carrying, are no threat, and ask them what to do with it.
But clearing it, putting it a lockbox, etc, is too much fiddling with it if they don’t want you to. Especially if their intent was that it just remain holstered anyway.
No! people, the crime rate will skyrocket like it is here in AZ...oh, yeah...never mind.
I don’t like his qualification that an open carry person should be a CHL holder.
There are many of us Texans without CHLs that want to open carry. I’m old and would walk the neighborhood for needed exercise or feel more safe in other areas if I had the sidearm. Thugs don’t like attacking people that may be able to defend themselves.
Year before last I watched a Sheriff's deputy trying to collar a large mean dog. He got the stick collar on him but the dog had a brother that was coming to the rescue. The deputy looked straight at me and asked, "Do you have a gun on you?!?" I said yes. He said,"Good! If he comes at me again, put him down, will you?" I told him that I surely would.
As soon as the other dog saw me draw my sidearm he fled underneath the nearest house. Guess the dog's instincts kicked in and he knew I was about to kill him. He didn't come back out. All the deputy said when he left was, "Thank you sir."
That makes two of us. No citizen in this country should have to have a license to be armed.
They really need to add Mississippi to that list. The law says you can open carry, but some idiot Judge decided that a holster at least partially conceals a weapon and that makes it a concealed weapon which requires a permit and also makes it illegal to allow it to show. I haven't been able to get anyone to tell me how one would go about open carry here - can you walk around with a gun in your hand or does you hand constitute "concealment? If you tie a string around your neck with the gun hanging off it, does it make it legal to carry? IOW, we have a law that says we can open carry, but an edict that prohibits it.
What has happened to this world?
Back in the 50’s when I was a kid I used to walk down the street past the house I live in now carrying a .22 rifle or .410 shotgun over my shoulder with my buddies doing the same to go hunting about 2 miles out of town.
No one thought a thing about it.
Today, if I walked out with a BB gun and went down the street...within 5 minutes the police swat team would have me down on the ground to be arrested for 25-50 violations of the law.
What’s happened is that our culture (mainly women who are horrified at bugs, mice, snakes and most of all...guns) believe if something bothers you, simply let the government solve the problem that annoys you.
Well, the government is in full production mode at removing the problem....FREEDOM.
Now, what percentage of women voted for Obama? Pretty telling isn’t it.
I wouldn’t put it down to government dependency as much as a gradual loss of “gun culture”.
Public opinion had turned against guns in the 1960s, for assorted reasons, which eventually resulted in the Gun Control Act of 1968, and just as importantly, in the national change in the 1970s of police procedure from “Old West rules”, to “SWAT rules”, in handling *their* guns. Encouraged and subsidized by the anti-gun federal government.
The end result was two-fold, both skyrocketing crime rates, but more subtly the loss of “family gun culture”, many parents in urban and suburban settings no longer teaching their children about the proper handling and use, and etiquette, of guns.
Today, guns are more popular than ever among the public, crime rates have plummeted, but two things remain that are problematic: the police are still caught up in their “SWAT rules”, and there is widespread ignorance of “gun etiquette” even in the segment of the public that are very pro-gun.
The “SWAT rules” situation is a serious problem, because to overcome it, police must do something that goes against the federal zeitgeist: they must treat people differently based to a great extent on their socioeconomic status and behavior.
That is, if some scruffy looking drunk poor guy wearing a wife beater t-shirt is behaving in an aggressive manner, the police should go “SWAT” on him. But at the same time, a person from the middle class, who while he may have committed an offense, is not going to want to wrestle with a cop; he needs to be treated with “Old West” rules, which are far more appropriate to his “station”.
Gun culture among the public and police, on the other hand, almost needs an “Emily Post”, because of its complexity. Even posters in this thread have noted that police behavior varies wildly in different places with different gun laws and cultures.
Etiquette is not standardized overnight, but it would be good to have some written rules, both universal and unique to particular states. What to do and when to do it, and what not to do and why, could stop a huge amount of heartburn among both the citizenry and the police. And it has the added bonus of encouraging safe use, because there is a large amount of gun knowledge that is oriented to safety.
It's an Individual Right that Shall not be Infringed. Both in the keeping of them and in the bearing of those arms. This applies to all 50 States under the "Laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding" clause.
I keep repeating it, but this is not rocket surgery...
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