TexasCHLforum.com

Vol Texan wrote:

jimlongley wrote:I would card them and point out that their signage is not valid, and that if they want to be valid, it will have to be large and ugly and prominently posted, otherwise they are not stopping anyone from carrying.

jimlongley,

Thanks for the note, but I have to respectfully disagree. I'd prefer if we never tell them that their sign is invalid. Either (a) carry on, letting them live in oblivion, thinking that they've blocked you, or (b) tell them they've lost your business (and the business of a lot of other CHL holders).

Telling them their sign is invalid may possibly educate them enough to post a valid sign, and that does none of us any good.

That argument has been mentioned to me many times over the years but I have yet to see the logic in it.

If they are "living in oblivion" then there is every chance that you could get into a situation not too dissimilar from the guy open carrying a rifle. Your argument that the sign is invalid is not going to make a great deal of difference to the average LEO, he will let you sort that out with the judge.

The often used argument that the businesses that post invalid signage are just doing it to secretly allow CHLs to carry while mollifying the anti-gun nuts is specious and unproven.

And as far as it doing none of us any good, of course it does us good, it lets us know that this business discriminates against law abiding citizens and does not want our money, and the big ugly sign, prominently posted, lets everyone know that this is the case, not just CHL holders. We have friends out there who are not CHL holders, case in point;

I have a friend who owns a revolver that she purchased within the last two years, she has shot with me and several other friends, but she has not taken the steps necessary to obtain a CHL, she does not think she would feel comfortable carrying, MPA does all she (thinks) she needs, and she thinks of it as more household protection than personal. We are working on her to get that CHL and join the ranks, if only just to improve our statistics, but so far she remains resistant.

She will not shop in a posted place, and I have a couple of others who feel the same. If each of us could develop a few friends each who do not carry but do support us by not shopping at the big ugly sign stores, then a bunch of big ugly signs would be detrimental to the bottom line of any business and they could very possibly start to disappear.

And of course the reverse argument. No one has yet been able to point out any case where an anti-gun nut shops in a specific simply because it is posted (valid or not) and I have yet to see a database dedicated to pointing out those places to the antis (although it is possible that they use our own 3006.com.)

So I do not accept the premise that informing a business that their sign is invalid will in any way harm any CHL holder and will continue to do so until convinced otherwise.

I would card them and point out that their signage is not valid, and that if they want to be valid, it will have to be large and ugly and prominently posted, otherwise they are not stopping anyone from carrying.