TexasCHLforum.com

I've been to rural gun shows where the guy at the entrance desk with his zip ties just grinned and waved me in when I said I was carrying. Made me feel like an American, and that's nice.

There is one thing, though, that some doofuses might not intrinsically understand. Just because you're at a gun show where people with cleared guns are buying, selling, and trading doesn't mean you can show off what you brung if it's hot. A loaded handgun properly carried in a holster at a gun show is the same thing it is in your living room. Skin that smoke wagon, even if it's part of happy gun talk with a new friend, and it's a whole different deal.

There could be new gun owners, although hopefully not licensees, who don't perceive what a huge line that would cross.

Far better for society's sake to let guns in the door, loaded or not, with a sign that says loaded defensive weapons are not for show and must not be drawn except in life threatening emergency.

Any criminals aware of such policy would get the message. They do not always face unarmed victims, and gun owners who still need genetic safety encoding would be exposed to a reasonable message.

Of course, signs don't do much, one way or the other. Just sayin' a teachable moment trumps standing in the corner any day, and lawful carriers shouldn't be singled out for particular enforcement.

Make Fort Worth safer. Heck, make (cough) every town safer. Make proper gun etiquette a commonly practiced thing, which, of course, requires having a gun.