TexasCHLforum.com

Liko81 wrote:

Keith B wrote:Liko81, I would like to ask how many times have you 'open carried'? I'm not talking about out on the farm, deer lease or on your own property, but in public with a lot of folks around?

On two seperate occasions; I have grandparents in Phoenix, and while shopping last Christmas I decided to do so OCing. I noticed one slightly uncomfortable look from a passerby, and a cashier asked what type of gun it was; he OCed regularly but his employer forbade carry on the job. A third person made the joke, "well sure it's legal, but this ain't Texas!", to which I replied "and thank goodness, because if I were doing this there I'd be arrested" . The other one was a reunion with the other half of my family in Virginia. Didn't get a second glance or mention; the hotel check-in person asked if I would prefer to put it in their vault, to which I politely declined and he smiled and made no further mention. That's not to mention several times I've camped out at a friend's lake lot with my .22 at my side for snakes, and of course it's on my hip in my apartment after a particular episode involving a very drunk neighbor that I've told before.

Liko81 wrote: And about "intentionally" failing to conceal; that one word is the ONLY thing that keeps you from going to jail if you bend over and print, or your shirt blows up in a sudden gust of wind.

Liko81 wrote:I cannot believe you guys. Those who say it probably won't because it's such a flying leap all at once, probably have good standing to say so, and I applaud your honesty even as I tell you to have a little optimism. Those who say it won't for any other reason have generally given a reason in the "I don't think it should" category. What unbelievable hypocrisy; many of you fought for concealed carry, but now that you have what you want you won't fight to not have to have government permission to exercise a constitutional right. Parking lot carry, concealed carry on campus, definition of a "school" to exclude private institutions, all these are pebbles in a mountain of restrictions and infringements heaped on the Second Amendment, and you're picking away at it with a toothpick. You'll get a lot farther by dynamiting the top of the hill off.

Here's one reason that more concealed carry "rights" won't make a bit of difference in the Second Amendment fight overall; no matter where you can carry, as long as that gun is concealed, NOBODY KNOWS YOU HAVE IT. A third of the residents in Texas, the entire lawful gun-owning population of the State, could have CHLs and be carrying right now, and I guarantee you the rest of Texas residents wouldn't know anyone actually carried a gun around on a daily basis. Show your gun, and now people know that some of them go armed, far more than they thought. OC is thus educational. CCers work very hard not to be "outed". OCers out themselves every day. Why? because a CCer is walking a fine line between being armed for their protection, and being "normal". OCers reject the notion of there being a difference; there is no reason carrying a holstered handgun is anything other than "normal" no matter how few do so regularly. There are a lot of subgroups that make up 1% or fewer of the population of the U.S.; is there somehow something abnormal and "fringe" about having a Ph.D? How about living in a state other than the 21 most populous (making your state's population less than 5 million and therefore less than 1% of the U.S. population)? I could go on, but I think you get my point; no matter how much a minority, whether something is "fringe" and therefore not "normal" depends solely on public perception, not how small a minority. And you're never going to change public perception by sticking to "out of sight, out of mind".

I'll go a step further; it is your civil right to carry a defensive weapon of your choice. To require you to pay money to be granted permission to exercise it is equivalent to paying a poll tax or paying the court to have a jury trial (if you're found not guilty the State eats court costs).