Proposals would let Texas owners brandish arms

[Glen3107]

Another case of the media trying to emotionalize an issue, they are trying to equate Open Carry to branishing a weapon. Please go to http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6239518.htm and add your comment.

Proposals would let licensed owners tote guns more easily
By DAVID SALEH RAUF
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
Jan. 30, 2009, 9:19PM
Michael Guzman, a 25-year-old Texas State University senior and Marine veteran, takes his Kimber Ultra Carry II handgun just about everywhere he goes. Except to school.

Texas lawmakers, how­ever, are crafting ways to allow licensed handgun owners to tote their guns more easily. One proposal would let guns be carried on campuses, and another would allow licensed handgun owners to openly brandish their guns in public.

Together, the two issues are likely to be the most contentious gun-related laws of the session.

State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, is preparing the campus concealed-carry gun measure. He calls it a “safety protection bill” for students and faculty.

“I don’t want to wake up one morning and hear on the news that some madman went on a Texas campus and picked off Texas students like sitting ducks,” Wentworth said. “I’m doing what I can to prevent that from happening in Texas.”

A national debate over guns on college campuses was sparked almost two years ago after the fatal shootings of 32 students at Virginia Tech.

Since then, 17 states have introduced legislation to let students and faculty pack heat on campus. None has passed.

A Texas House study conducted by the Law Enforcement Committee — which noted only 11 U.S. universities allow concealed guns on campus — recommended passing a campus gun bill.

It wouldn’t be the first time the Legislature considered an open-carry measure. In 1997 and 1999, then-state Rep. Suzanna Hupp, a Republican from Lampasas whose parents were shot and killed in the 1991 Luby’s massacre in Killeen, authored similar legislation. The bills didn’t pass.

Wild West attitude feared
Gov. Rick Perry is among those supporting the notion of letting adult students bring handguns on campus if they are licensed to carry them.

The issue has been met with opposition from gun-control advocates, university officials, campus law enforcement and some lawmakers.

Earlier this week, the University of Texas at Austin’s student government overwhelmingly passed a resolution supporting their campus gun ban and calling on “elected officials in Texas to oppose attempts to eliminate campus weapons bans.”

“I don’t want to return to a 19th-century Wild West urban atmosphere for Texas,” said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth. “I oppose both concealed-carry on campus and open-carry, but psychologically open-carry is the worst by far because of the implications it has when you’re walking down the street.”

Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said he has not seen the bills but would not be inclined to support guns on campuses. “I think it’s an issue of safety,” he said. “Will that improve or diminish the safety of students? My gut instinct is most members would say it actually diminishes the safety of faculty and staff. … They didn’t pass it before, and they don’t have as good a chance for passing it now.”

Texas State Rifle Association lobbyist Alice Tripp said the group is “not forwarding the issue.”

At present, people with handgun permits have to keep their weapons concealed.

Online push for change
Ian McCarthy, a 22-year-old online marketing entrepreneur in Austin, wants to be able to brandish one openly.

“Criminals want an easy target. When they see you can fight back, they’re going to go somewhere else,” McCarthy said.

He is a member of the national pro-gun group OpenCarry.org, which has raised more than $10,000 online to buy radio and billboard ads across the state and has collected more than 53,000 online Texas signatures in favor of changing the law.

Coleman doubts it will get the nod from fellow lawmakers.

“Open-carry, I think that for most members that would be going too far,” he said.

drauf@express-news.net

[WildBill]

It sounds like David Saleh Rauf doesn't understand the meaning of "brandish."

[Purplehood]

It sounds like David Saleh Rauf doesn't understand the meaning of "brandish."

That was my first impression, but assuming that Rauf leans "anti-gun", the term "brandish" is a much more visually-terrifying way to describe open-carry. I bet it is deliberate.

[Oldgringo]

It sounds like David Saleh Rauf doesn't understand the meaning of "brandish."

He understands the word. That's why he chose to use it...twice. BTW, where is David Saleh Rauf from?

[WildBill]

It sounds like David Saleh Rauf doesn't understand the meaning of "brandish."

He understands the word. That's why he chose to use it...twice. BTW, where is David Saleh Rauf from?

Does this sound like it was written by someone who knows the meaning of the word?
"He wants to be able to brandish one openly."
Is it possible to "brandish one concealed"?

[WildBill]

Maybe I don't understand the word brandish?
Apparently Calvin Palmer and David Saleh Rauf studied English at the same school.

Texas Republicans propose a return to days of the Wild West
Jump to Comments
By Calvin Palmer

The class roll-call at colleges across Texas may soon reverberate with the names of Colt, Glock, Beretta, Walther, Smith and Wesson, if the state’s lawmakers allow guns to be carried on campuses either as concealed weapons or openly brandished.

http://calvininjax.wordpress.com/2009/0 ... wild-west/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[WildBill]

Maybe the article isn't entirely written by Mr. Rauf. Here is a similar article under Rauf's byline from San Antonio Express News January 29, 2009. There is not one "brandish" in the whole thing. Maybe it's a Houston Chronicle editor who changed the words to brandish.

http://mobile.mysa.com/topic/3751-News/ ... /190013313" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Morgan]

"brandish" sounds aggressive and evil. He knows what the word means. He's using it to LIE to people to SCARE them to his side of things. Sounds like a Brady supporter.

[Captain Matt]

I can't tell if he's a liar or stupid.

[WildBill]

I can't tell if he's a liar or stupid.

He could be ignorant, too.

[nuparadigm]

I can't tell if he's a liar or stupid.

He could be ignorant, too.

Let's go for all three. "Ignorant, stupid lair" seems to fit nicely.

[casingpoint]

where is David Saleh Rauf from

Probably fresh out of the journalism school at the University of Texas. Not sure just what his cup of tea is, but when I read it this morning, all I got was a giant sipping sound.

Even before publisher Richard V. (Old Army) Johnson passed away and was on his deathbed, The Chronicle colors went from maroon and white to orange and white, and the paper's been hawking a leftist mamby pamby politically correct agenda ever since.

[LarryH]

Not quite -- this came up in a google search

"David Saleh Rauf
The University Star (Texas State U.-San Marcos) "

[stevie_d_64]

Garnet Coleman is a coward...

I have told this to him in public...

Needless to say it still is a lot of fun to debate him on ANY issue he chooses to chime in on...

This issue is a piece of cake...

[casingpoint]

Texas State University, University of Texas, what's the diff?

There is only one university in Texas of any stature, Texas A&M University. And it canned it's journalism program years ago. Now it produces only idiots, in lieu of idiots and idiot journalists.