valno600 wrote: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.
If you really were active in the 2005 Texas Legislative Session, then you know your statement about the NRA only fighting a defensive battle was false. BTW, do you happen to know how many pro-gun bills were passed in 2005? Do you know who was the driving force behind every one of those bills?
valno600 wrote: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.
There's a big difference between gravitating to one particular bill v. the Founder and President of OCT calling Rep. White's HB106 a "crappy bill" and telling OCT members to say "no no no" to anything other than HB195. Just to be clear, HB106 is NOT an NRA or TSRA bill. Ours will come later.
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.
valno600 wrote: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.
"Likes" and "Joins" on Facebook pages and Facebook Groups mean nothing in terms of true membership and both of those numbers for OCT have grown very little in the last several months. This is purely speculation on my part, but I suspect this is because of the increasingly radical position taken by OCT leadership (you and CJ) on issues even beyond open-carry. OCT initially claimed to support licensed open-carry, then it morphed into an organization that was not only more radical, but one that changed its goal to "unlicensed open-carry or nothing."
valno600 wrote: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
Valente, this all sounds good on paper, but you know that your leader, CJ Grisham, is completely opposed to everything you have typed. Alice Tripp, Tara Mica and I tried to keep from seeing a rift grow between NRA/TSRA and OCT, but CJ wasn't having any of it. Have you listened to either the Open Carry Report podcast (Alice, CJ & me) or the Gun Talk Radio program (CJ & me) where we were offering suggestions to CJ as to how open-carry is more likely to pass? (Heck, I even offered a way for me/us to give CJ and OCT credit for doing something positive, but that fell on deaf ears.) If so, then you know you and CJ are singing from totally different hymn books. If you have heard either or both, then you know the "unlicensed open carry or nothing" approach was developed after those programs, making it impossible to work with him or OCT. OCT and CJ (I think you also) have openly and repeatedly vowed to oppose the reelection of any Representative or Senator who doesn't support unlicensed open-carry. That is just plain folly. First, you don't get legislation passed by making such sweeping threats, especially when your organization cannot impact elections. Equally important is the fact that such absurd proclamations prove that OCT doesn't care one whit about advancing gun rights overall; all it cares about is passing unlicensed open-carry. That appeals to only a very small percentage of Texas gun owners. That's why you don't see even a fraction of your 18,000 Facebook page "likes" or Facebook Group "joins" posting that garbage.
Although I have nothing against OCT's "members," I cannot, will not, and have no desire to be associated with OCT or any of its leadership. This isn't personal, it comes from three and a half decades of political/legislative experience. I will continue to work for gun owners, including OCT "members" who "joined" before the bait-and-switch, as I have for over 35 years. There is a way to change my mind. CJ needs to resign, OCT needs to disavow all of its prior radical acts, OCT needs to reverse its "unlicensed open-carry or nothing," and OCT needs to demonstrate with signs and carrots in holsters. (The carrot idea went over great at the Republican Convention and a Senator told those guys to use that approach and open-carry will be passed.) Model yourself after Students for Concealed Carry and conduct yourselves in the same respectable manner as SCC. When SCC had someone go off the reservation and start spouting counterproductive rhetoric, they were quickly shut down. SCC is a very well-respected organization.
Now, I'll sit back and wait for all of these changes.
Chas.
