Unocat wrote:I did a tour in Afghanistan for our rights, freedoms, and to fight back against those that would take them away. I am very surprised at this forum in general, I am new, but I thought I was joining a place where people were interested in advancing our rights as enumerated in our countries founding. However I see a lot of CC only people griefing people who are interested in OC. It is always an interesting human dynamic, that not matter how much alike a group is they always find a way to divide over some issue. It saddens me.
Maybe you should take a little more time to read through the posts and get to know the old timers. I don't know a single person on this forum that has ever been opposed to OC. Some of us have argued about the timing, feeling other issues were more important.
Some of us choose not to do it personally, but that's our choice. What we're objecting to is the strident complaints of OC people who complain about signs that don't comply with the law and how they are expected to comply with the law and so should businesses. What we're objecting to is the people who post hint, hint, nudge, nudge, it's ONLY a class C misdemeanor and a $200 fine to ignore a LEGAL sign when this forum has fought long and hard for doing it the right way - following the law and working through the legislative process to accomplish change. What we're objecting to is the people who expect, no demand, that they should not have to show their license when asked and by God no one but LEOs have the authority to ask them for it. What we're objecting to is people who are now complaining that signs are popping up everywhere as if there was no way that could have been foreseen, when it was stated repeatedly on this forum that it would happen.
To say that this forum isn't interested in advancing our rights is about the most insulting thing you could say. Do you know who Charles Cotton is? Do you have any idea what his accomplishments regarding the 2nd Amendment are? We fought for campus carry for years. I ended up retiring before we finally got it passed.
We have fought to extend our rights for years. Charles Cotton has literally written the laws we presently have. OC would not have passed without Charles' work with the legislature. In the past 20 years licensed gun owners in Texas have amassed an unparalleled record of abiding by the law, proving the anti-gunners false claims about gun carriers wrong. Now, a small but very vocal crowd is running around like bulls in a china shop, riling up the population, demanding rights that they don't even have and insisting that their way is the right way and destroying years and years of hard work.
OC if you want to, but obey the law and act like an adult. Don't destroy 20 years of hard labor through selfishness and ignorance.
For me personally, I'm very angry right now, because I think this behavior is going to make it extremely hard for us to move forward with what for some of us are very cherished goals - the right to carry anywhere a LEO can carry. OC may now make that impossible, especially with the belligerent attitudes of some of the OCers.
As you point out, there is a divide over this issue. But the divide is not a petty one. It's the difference between doing things the right way, the law abiding way, the peaceful way, and doing things by stirring up trouble at every turn, portraying a horrible image for licensed carriers and turning the public against us.