TexasCHLforum.com

My concealed handgun license has at long last been mailed and will probably be in my hands in a week.

There were many reasons for wanting to carry. It's the right thing to do. I have people I care deeply about I need to protect.

I'm an American and law-abiding. It's what law-abiding Americans do, particularly in rural Texas.

It's a natural thing to do.

But I've discovered another reason. It puts me at greater distance from the open carry nuts.

After all, I can get a CHL. Their upper leadership can't. I apparently have a touch of Saturday Night Live's church lady in my soul, fitting, perhaps, since a guy played that part.

And even as I do my little Superior Dance, it bugs me that the State of Texas stands as gatekeeper to this civil right. Not that there aren't people who shouldn't have any of their civil rights, much less gun rights, but it nags at me that there should be inequal access to civil rights, prior to due process and convictions.

'Course, in certain cases among the open carry nitwits, due process has already sailed.