TexasCHLforum.com

I am the host of the Open Carry Report Podcast. Being the host of a very small niche podcast means you run a one man show and that you do not have a staff or a producer like a radio show does. The reason I mention this is because I do all the work. I go and get the guests not a producer. I do all the research, I decide what gets covered and what doesn't, and so on. To that end I also get 100% of the feedback from listeners, guests, and people I have approached to be a guest.

In regards to the feedback I get the occasional "I hope your gun kills you and your family" line from the anti-gun crowed along with a lot of jokes that are below the belt from the same crowd. I also get the "Your not a real OC supporter because you have attended X number of OC marches and and and and...." from the die hard OC crowd and I get called an OC FUDD by the same people. These are the same exact people who were thrilled because I was covering a few OC marches in my area in a supposedly unbiased (I do have a pro-gun bias and I do not hide or deny it) manner. But where I really see the effect of In Your Face (IYF) Open Carry tactics is with interview requests. Nearly every person I send an interview request to and I get a response from has concerns about IYF OC tactics, and I get a response from almost all interview requests. I would say that 10% of the requests do not mention anything about IYF OC tactics, 60% are concerned they may be associated with IYF OC efforts by appearing on the podcast. 25% simply refuse to be associated with anything relating to OC due to IYF tactics and the remaining 5% simply want assurances that I am not going to try to associate them with any particular group and/or IYF OC tactics. The bad thing about all this is that it is getting worse.

I can only imagine what IYF efforts are doing on the political front based on what Charles and others say, but if it's anything like what I am seeing we are facing a much greater uphill battle now than we have before.

OC activists need to listen up and change their tactics. MDA has adapted to OCT's and CATI's tactics and are now effectively curb stomping them in PR efforts. Now we can say that any business who has employees interact with Open Carriers will be targeted by anti gun rights efforts and will face a PR nightmare until they make declaration against OC and even gun rights in general.

OCT and CATI are right when they say OCing a long gun in protest is their right. They are wrong when they say it is their Second Amendment right to do so, it is their FIRST Amendment right to march/rally/protest with anything, including the long guns. I would suggest that OCT, CATI, and any other parties interested in doing protests in support of OC develop new tactics aimed at raising public awareness and showing support for businesses without putting them in a PR nightmare situation.

There was a youtube video somewhere where a gentleman here in Texas Called the PD to let them know he and his party were going to OC long guns. Officers came to his house and he recorded the conversation. I am going to summarize this from a vague memory so please excuse any errors. Essentially the officers stated that they felt he would be in violation of Disorderly Conduct and they would arrest him. He then told them he was doing it to educate the public. The officers then asked how he planned to educate the public to which he responded that when they saw him they would call 911 and the dispatcher could tell them it was legal, which was the reason he called to inform them. I'm not sure how his walk went but his intended manner of "educating the public" depended on causing alarm (911 calls) so I feel he was deserving of a DO charge due to his own admission.

I don't feel all OCers OC to cause 911 calls so that dispatchers can tell people its perfectly legal. But their tactics need to change. OCing long guns is their legal right, but it is causing a problem with lobbying efforts to pass OC. They made OC an issue, now they need to make it a winning issue. I don't care if they get 100% positive feed back from people that talk to them when they are OCing, in fact I don't care what those people think. What I care about is what our legislators/candidates think about passing handgun OC. If OC tactics do not evolve, and soon, they will fail along with OC in 2015 because they refused to Listen to people like Alice Tripp and Charles Cotton.

Burning GLBT folks in effigy may be your first amendment right, but it will not win you any support to defeat a marriage law.

Edit to add: The penal code in relating to disorderly conduct with firearms needs to be dealt with, from what I have heard we can expect to see something in that respect in 2015.