Open Carry

by Sandy Keathley
 
Everyone else has weighed in with an opinion; I may as well, too. What eactly is "open carry"? It means walking around town with a holstered gun on your hip, in plain sight, like a police officer. Opponents would say, like gun-slingers in the 1880s (and no, that doesn't require an apostrophe. Don't get me started.). That can't be legal, right?

In fact, it is legal in 33 states (not Texas), and has been legal in some places for decades. In some states, the actor (legal term) is required to be licensed, in a way similar to the Texas CHL, but in some states, the only requirement is that they were born. It seems weird at first, but once you accept a handgun as an emergency tool, like a flashlight or Swiss Army knife, one that is almost never used, but always available, it begins to make sense. After all, if that person intended to do harm to someone, he would just conceal it, or wear a long coat covering an AK-47, which can also be legally bought. BTW, in Texas, it is legal to walk around in public with a rifle. More about that soon.

This was driven home to me recently, on a trip to Virginia. While I was at the NRA Firearms Museum, a man walked in with his two young nieces. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and was wearing a big sidearm, a 1911. My brother knew him, and talked to him, so I found out he was a security guard. OK. Not in uniform? No, because he no longer worked at that facility, but had been transferred to another. He was not there in his role as a security guard; it was his day off. He was just a citizen. You see, in Virginia, open carry is legal, and people take it for granted now.

Which brings us back to the current local controversy. If any state should accept open carry, it would be Texas. After all, this is not Illinois or New York. In the last legislature, an OC law got through committee, late in the session, but did not quite make it to a floor vote. The Texas House is led by a man who pretends to support the 2nd Amendment, but actually doesn't. There are hopes for it next session. Meanwhile, the state affiliate of a national open carry organization has taken to putting on demonstrations to get public support. While the goal is admirable, the strategy was not well
thought-out.

Look at this from the outside: you are a mother, sitting in a pizza restaurant with two small children, and in walk 50 guys carrying M-16s, AK-47s, and sniper rifles, most equipped with scopes, bi-pods, and red-dots. What would you think? What would you do? This young mother is not in the loop on gun politics; is this a terrorist attack? Animal-rights activists enraged at the use of salami on pizza?

The group claims they always had permission from management beforehand, and I believe that, but management didn't tell their customers this was coming, and the media didn't interview management; they interviewed the young mothers. All they heard, and reported, was that families were terrified, police were called, a traffic jam ensued. This has been such a PR nightmare that the national
group has distanced themselves from the Texas affiliate.

Come on, guys, get a grip. You don't get this right on the streets, you get it in the hallways of the state capitol.