How Did Texas Become Known As a Gun-Friendly State?

[AlaskanInTexas]

One of the first few things people say to me when they hear that I am living in Texas is something along the lines of it being a lawless gun haven. Granted, there is no doubt that Texans have a fondness for guns. But that said, of the states I have lived in, Texas has the least gun-friendly laws. It's always been a big mystery to me how Texas has earned its reputation. Maybe people just assume that the laws match the gun enthusiasm down here.

[cb1000rider]

Maybe people just assume that the laws match the gun enthusiasm down here.

Yep. TX is very conservative, people think the gun laws match. They don't.

[mr1337]

It was probably more gun friendly before the civil war. Perhaps it never lost that reputation?

[Distinguished Rick]

Good question. Back in the 1800's I'm sure lots of places had that kind of reputation in one way or another. Obviously that is a myth. However, we are working on it, 2 years at a time.

[ELB]

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.

[fickman]

1. Stereotype of the American cowboy
2. Pre-civil war reality
3. Movies
4. TV
5. Post-civil war frontier reality

[TexasCajun]

Cowboy mystique starting with the dime-store novels, to the traveling wild west shows, to the cowboy westerns.

[o b juan]

I was in Germany from 1959 through 61'.. They really thought it was still the "wild west over in Texas"

Being from Texas I was able to make up stories for them to whet their appetites, and it wasnt Just Germany.

Also being an M.P. didnt hurt the stories

[baldeagle]

Texas drew adventurous types who relied on their guns for food and protection and sometimes to settle disputes. Samuel Colt's first large order for the Colt Patterson came from Texas in 1839. Later Texas sent a former Ranger named Samuel H. Walker to Colt's factory to suggest improvements to the Patterson. (By that time Colt himself had nicknamed the Patterson "The Texas gun".) The result was the first six-shooter, the Walker Colt, which changed Indian warfare in Texas. During the Mexican War, Texas Rangers were known as los diablos Tejanos because of their skill with the six-shooter Walker Colt. By 1851 a writer penned the following; “there are probably in Texas about as many revolvers as male adults, and I doubt if there are one hundred in the state of any other make." (referring to the Colt.)

There were so many guns in Texas that the legislature decided something had to be done about it. So they passed a law in 1871 that stated in part, "If any person in this state shall carry on or about his person, saddle, or in his saddle-bags, any pistol … he shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred dollars," (about $2,000 today.) It did contain two exemptions; travelers and citizens in a “frontier county … liable to incursions by hostile Indians”.

Two years later the Colt Peacemaker, "the gun that won the west", arrived on the scene.

That is the genesis of the current law which does not allow open carry. (In those days concealed carry was considered something that only bad men would do.) That changed in 1995 when then Governor George Bush signed the first concealed carry law. Now here we are, twenty years later, on the cusp of restoring the rights that were taken away 145 years ago.

[Charles L. Cotton]

Okay, I'm the minority in this thread, but Texas is very gun-friendly when all gun laws and self-defense laws are considered. I don't know if any State that, overall, has more liberal gun laws. Yes, there are some that are more liberal on a given issue, but overall not many.

Chas.

[Frankie]

I'm with Charles on this one. The fact that I relocated from IL to TX may skew my view a bit but over all, I am very happy with Texas gun laws.
And they seem to be getting better with time.

[TexasCajun]

Okay, I'm the minority in this thread, but Texas is very gun-friendly when all gun laws and self-defense laws are considered. I don't know if any State that, overall, has more liberal gun laws. Yes, there are some that are more liberal on a given issue, but overall not many.

Chas.

I prefered to stick to the title & ignore the actual original post since I don't have any experience living outside of Texas and Louisiana. Both are comparable with regard to overall political attitude and attitude towards firearms. But I do think we've got a really good thing here.

[AlaskanInTexas]

I don't know if any State that, overall, has more liberal gun laws. Yes, there are some that are more liberal on a given issue, but overall not many.

Maybe my frame of reference is skewed being from Alaska (receiving the coveted "0" point score from Brady) and spending a few years in Utah.

[EEllis]

There is also the difference between the letter of the law and how things were enforced. For years cops would basically use the knife and gun laws against people who they thought of as undesirable while ignoring offences from solid citizens. So if you were one of those solid citizens the state was pretty darn friendly and if you weren't? Well that's the thing isn't it.

[joe817]

There is also the difference between the letter of the law and how things were enforced. For years cops would basically use the knife and gun laws against people who they thought of as undesirable while ignoring offences from solid citizens. So if you were one of those solid citizens the state was pretty darn friendly and if you weren't? Well that's the thing isn't it.

You mean that's not the way it is now?


Well put EEllis.