TexasCHLforum.com

"Please answer my question. Do you agree that OCT will be successful in the 2015 Texas Legislative Session only if HB195 passes? Neither you nor CJ want to answer the question and everyone knows why."

Why does it matter Charles? I get the feeling you do not feel we effect change much, if that is the case then we are irrelevant and we will not have any credit for doing anything anyway.

I can tell you this, I will speak for myself.
I will just do what I can to support liberty the best way I can. OCT is an Honorable Organization, it is advancing the cause of freedoms guaranteed to us by our our 2nd amendment. With OCT I feel that I'm not working alone, I feel I have friends and allies and that my efforts matter. It is an honor to work with my local members to advance the freedoms of Texans. I will continue to do the best I can with the resources and allies I have at my disposal.

It is way too early to begin hinging our success on the passage on one bill or another. Our bills have not even made it past committee yet. Right now we like HB195, and you said you support HB195.

Lets see what happens.
Valente Gonzalez

SewTexas wrote:This is Mr. Cotton's house. One does not go into another person's house and throw a party for one's own friends.

Correct, and with respect, I agree, and

Good day Sirs,
Valente

Charles,
A little background on me,I am an NRA annual member, and I an OCT Admin for Houston, a CHL Holder, among other things, I was very active in the 79th legislative session, and I worked with allies to bring some sanity to Deferred Adjudication in Texas, so my legislative experience is not "none". I supported several republican get out the vote events right here in HTown this last November, I know a little bit about legislative action and I am willing to work with others to see it through, I would like to work with you as well. The fact is OCT CATI OCTC and other open carry groups will gravitate to HB195 because it is the most liberty minded bill at the moment, and it complies with our goals of achieving constitutional open carry, it is what we stand for. I am familiar with how emotional people get when they invest so much time and effort into a cause, I don't want personal feelings to get in the way of our achieving goals. Being pragmatic is not our strong suit however, and some of our members have sacrificed much to get us where we are today.

About the Facebook Cop posts, If you came to me as a friend and said "look pal your anti cop posts aren't OK with the company I keep" If you explained to me that they are counter productive then I would change my tune especially if I knew you had a plan to do something important and were trying to influence some outcome that required a degree of discretion, unfriending me was the easier way to achieve distancing yourself from me, and that's fine. You could change your Facebook settings so that no one could see your Facebook friends, not that you have to do it for my sake, but just a thought. I will not defend injustice done against our civilian populations by our civil servants, the people have a right to know what their public servants are capable of doing, they are accountable to "we the people" and the people should know what goes on with those who we entrust to enforce our laws, it is called accountability.

Charles, I am in your area, I am an OCT Administrator, and I am out of the loop on what the NRA is doing, I hope you are not out of the Loop on what we are doing because we make no secret of it, all that needs to happen is someone joins the page and attend our weekly meeting (not that you have to keep me in the loop) It would be good however considering I am coordinating OC walks and events in your area, it would be nice if I knew someone over at the NRA that would like to talk with me about local OC efforts. Other than an NRA hat guy that approached us telling me that he supported the 2nd amendment because he had a CHL and an NRA Recruiter who was totally supportive of what we were doing, that I met up in Ft Worth,I haven't really met up with any other proud NRA supporters other than yourself (I value your interaction). Look I support some of what the NRA is doing, but I am busy trying to achieve Open Carry and I am not sure how to approach the NRA to say"look we want this" because I feel that would be redundant as CJ and others have probably already done that.

I know you are on the NRA board of directors, I am an NRA annual member, and and OCT Admin. I don't want to burn any bridges, I rather build them reasonably and succeed in achieving our goals.

Good luck to you Sir, and remember my door is always open to discuss OCT Open Carry efforts in Houston and over all strategy for OC. This is about doing the right thing to fix the law so it is in line with our wishes and our constitution, that is my wish.

Carry On,
Valente Gonzalez
OCT Houston Admin

We inherited our freedom and the constitution.. Now it may be time for us to fight for them!

Charles,
Legislators work for us there is a difference between a politician giving you access (a pat on the head) and actual action (doing what you want). We would not even be having a conversation about Open Carry if it had not been for Open Carry Groups. You do not see that this work that is being done has taken us farther than anyone could have ever imagined. There was no game plan working on the defense. My experience with the NRA is that the game plan is to defend.

We don't want access Charles, we want action OCT OCTC and other Open Carry groups are looking for a victory. It has been pretty hard carrying a rifle around all this time (2 years). I reached out to you since you and I live close, I went back to see if you were still on my friends list. I don't know when you decided I was no longer worth having on your friends list however I do still want to make the most of any effort we can have to get HB195 passed.

I read that you support HB195 but this is a Texas CHL forum. You know that means we are walking into the lions den here, I figure this is a very pro license group and HB195 is not pro license, it is there but only for reciprocity.

What we are for is liberty, you know like what is identified in the Constitution of the United States. It is not so hard to understand that we have the opportunity to do something truly spectacular in this legislative session. (Granted Joe Strauss has to go).

Look what I want is to take a little more back from what ever the Government is withholding from me. If you are on-board then I am on-board.

What will you do to support the cause of liberty and constitutional carry? Are you working on the Offence going in to get the most you can while you can, or are you still transitioning from Defense where the government is telling you what you can and cannot do? The NRA has been giving political pleasure to these politicians long enough to expect some action, some real concrete action has to take place. All too often I heard people stop voting because they lose faith and they say the republicans and the democrats are the same. Well they are the same because we let them be the same.

Charles at the end of the day they are our employees, the Reps are our employees and what do you do if they don't do what you want? You fire them or make them wish that they had another job.

Charles the youth is attracted to our Open Carry walks the NRA is losing out on this.

Change; Charles it is the only constant, Change is what you are seeing and the longer you do not embrace it the harder it will be to catch up later.

Valente Gonzalez
OCT Houston Admin