TexasCHLforum.com

Vol Texan wrote:Guns and Ammo put developed an article last year, listing the most gun friendly states. Many Americans would be surprised to learn that Texas ranked #14.

#12, actually. Indiana was #14.

That list is OK in gross terms, but when it comes to differences of a few points on a subjective scale, the difference between Indiana and Texas and any other three-point is probably non-existent on their scale.

I think Texas is a pretty gun-friendly place that can and should be even more gun-friendly. People who do not have real experience and knowledge of Texas often seem to have wildly off-the-mark perceptions of Texas, and more than a little jealousy of Texas's reputation. (This pretty much parallels what I found when I was stationed overseas -- the complaints about America were frequently as off-base and envy-based as other Americans' complaints about Texas). Thus when they find something they think they can criticize Texas for, their envy finds a way to vent. The latest fad for this is open carry. I would like to see it pass, but it is a very small advancement in exercising actual gun rights, as far as I am concerned, mostly a political symbolic. Something like HB308 or Campus Carry is far, far more important. But OC gets all the press, so Texas must be repressive on gun rights since so many others have OC. It's practically Massachusetts! I see this on other (out of state) gun boards all the time.

Btw, the legislature didn't just decide to ban open carry in 1871 -- the post Civil War era in Texas was a very violent time in Texas. Many confederate "guerrillas" continued their violent ways after the war, but directed against their fellow Texans and newly freed blacks, and joined by other criminal elements who were able to operate in a place where legal authority was weak. This is what the Legislature was reacting to -- with the wrong remedy, but it was not something out of the blue, nor was it some punishment or oppression imposed by the Yankees. A lot of those old gunfights were a result of this, and became fodder for newspaper stories to entertain the people back east, and for the 50's westerns.

Texas is much more urbanized and connected than it was in the later half of the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s. I am sure that in rural areas which composed most of Texas, particularly on large ranches and farms, laws about carrying were observed largely in the breach, and law enforcement had a different frame of reference about enforcing them. Nowadays most rural areas are not all that far from urbanized environments and attitudes.

It is also the case that nearly all, if not all, gun control laws had a racist origin to them: they might have seemed on their faces to apply to everyone, but in practice were only intended and enforced against blacks or other minorities. Texas was not exempt from this attitude. When laws came to be enforced more equally, gun control became more equally oppressive.