TexasCHLforum.com

The Annoyed Man wrote:I am actually glad to hear this, and CJ Grisham is surprising me with his statement.......particularly since he has his own arrest record for OC'ing without notifying the police first: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... ham+arrest.

Here is the problem that Open Carry advocates have, including Open Carry Texas (this is not an attack, but my observation):

• What the movement needs is sober-minded high-profile advocates with a long track record of success in leadership positions in order to promote the cause.......people like Charles Cotton, for example, or other NRA national board members, as well as prominent politicians. However, gun rights advocates who meet all three of those criteria — a) being known for sober thinking, b) having a well-known high profile in legislative circles, and c) having a long track record of legislative successes — are all pretty much committed to the incrementalist approach to regaining our gun freedoms. For most of them, open carry is not the issue of highest priority right at this moment in time. That is NOT to say that they don't think it is important, or that they are not committed to getting us there eventually; rather it is that they see other steps which must occur first in order to consolidate the gains we've already made, and AFTER that has been completed, THEN to prep the way for acceptance and passage of open carry.

But, the OC grassroots are insistent, or impatient, or whatever you want to call it, and won't back down from the idea of open carry demonstrations as their chosen means to advance the cause. Since nature abhors a vacuum, and since most leaders like those I've described above refuse to get sucked in right now into leading the OC charge, what's happening is that movement leadership positions are filled—NOT always, but often—by people who are either politically naive, or who are for whatever other reason constitutionally unable or unwilling to behave other than as firebrands.

.....and firebrands toting scary looking black rifles with barrel shrouds and "the thing that goes up" not only don't have a prayer of converting anyone who is not already fairly committed to the cause of open carry, they are fairly likely to convince otherwise convertible people not to want to have anything to do with it. I wouldn't care about that, except that in the end, it is going to boil down to voters, and their elected representatives. All it takes.....and this is a fairly small thing....is for enough scared voters to call their otherwise pro-gun legislator and complain about OC demonstrators, and you can take it to the bank that legislator will vote against it.

If CJ Grisham begins to show additional streaks of rationality and a recognition of political realities, I will change my opinion of him accordingly. This action is a start.