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by mgood
Mon Jul 19, 2010 3:39 pm
Forum: General Texas CHL Discussion
Topic: Carrying around OPC (Other People's Children)?
Replies: 41
Views: 6088

Re: Carrying around OPC (Other People's Children)?

WildBill wrote: . . . I usually don't carry other people's children around. :???:
Yeah, I think it's best to wait until they can walk.
by mgood
Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:50 pm
Forum: General Texas CHL Discussion
Topic: Carrying around OPC (Other People's Children)?
Replies: 41
Views: 6088

Re: Carrying around OPC (Other People's Children)?

I agree that the best policy is to just carry and keep your mouth shut. Not any of their business. You are not threatening their children in any way and have no responsibility to declare that you're carrying a gun any more than you'd have a responsibility to tell them that there's a power saw in your garage with which the kids could get seriously injured. A gun is a tool, nothing more. It can be dangerous if used improperly, just like the saw. I think that the idea that other parents are trusting me to drive their kids around implies a certain amount of trust. They're in much greater danger from a motor vehicle accident than from anything involving firearms. (But I realize that a lot of people won't see it that way.)

BUT, what if:

So you're carrying concealed, taking your kid and his friends somewhere. They don't need to know. Concealed means concealed.

Then you're pulled over for a traffic stop. As required, you give the officer your DL and CHL. He asks if you are armed. The kids are hanging on every word of this conversation. Maybe he's one of the type of officers that feels a need to disarm you. You get a ticket or a warning, as the case may be, and he returns your weapon to you as he admonishes you to "slow down with those kids in the car". You re-holster and go about your business.

And when your kid's friends get home, the first thing out of their mouths is, "Mr. _____ got a ticket, and he had a GUN!"
Now what? I guess if some kid's parents are unhappy about that and will no longer allow their kid to go anywhere with us, oh well. I mean I'll try to make the point about firearm safety, background checks, the dangers of automobiles vs. guns, offer to take them to the range, whatever might work. But in the end, if they don't want their kid around guns, or are just too indignant that I had a gun around their kids without prior notification, too bad.

The only other choices I see are:
1) Go around announcing to every parent of every friend of your kids who might be with you at some point, that you're armed.
With the low-profile mentality around here, I don't see too many people doing that.
2) Exclude yourself from any activity that may involve the neighbor kids.
You want to have a life and enjoy time with your kids, and that is sometimes going to include their friends, so I don't see this either.
3) Disarm whenever anyone else's kid may be with you.
What's the point of carrying once in a while when you know that the time you need it will be the time you don't have it?

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