Open Carry In The News

[Wildscar]

Lookie what I found.

Texas Group Wants To Carry Handguns In Plain View

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/16685864/deta ... w&psp=news

POSTED: 11:49 am CDT June 23, 2008
UPDATED: 12:27 pm CDT June 23, 2008


FORT WORTH, Texas -- Despite the Lone Star State's love affair with the gun, there's at least one firearms restriction that some Texans want lifted.

Texas is just one of six states in which handguns can't be worn in plain view. The other 44 states, in the parlance of gun advocates, are known as "open-carry" states.

More than 3,500 people have signed an online petition asking Gov. Rick Perry and the Legislature to permit Texans to wear their handguns without concealing them.

The Texas Citizens Defense League supports the petition, which requests that people who legally buy handguns be allowed to carry them openly, except in places prohibited by law.

"Cowboys and Indians, and the Alamo -- and many just assumed that Texas was an open-carry state," wrote Gary Williams, who signed the petition. "Clearly, there are some changes that need to be made."

John Pierce, co-founder of Open Carry, a Web site promoting open-carry laws, said he considers the ability to wear a holstered firearm on the outside of one's clothes to be "a basic gun right." He also said it's part of Texas' long tradition of gun ownership, dating to when frontier settlers wore their guns for everyone to see.

"It was considered part of everyday life back then," Pierce said in a story Monday in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "The concealed-carry part was what was looked at with disdain."

Some law enforcement officials and gun-safety advocates oppose the petition. Tarrant County Constable Sergio DeLeon said the sight of citizens openly carrying firearms would "create more problems than it would solve."

"I really think it would cause a lot of uneasiness in the community, with people seeing so many guns," DeLeon told the newspaper.

Richard Leal, a board member of Houston-based Texans for Gun Safety, said state laws are already friendly enough to gun owners.

"What are they trying to do?" Leal said. "Go back to Texas gunslinger days?"

The Texas governor has not taken a public position on open-carry laws.

"The governor is very supportive of conceal and carry laws," Perry spokeswoman Kristi Piferrer said. "Expanding that to open carry probably will take a lot of public deliberation and legislative guidance."

[KC5AV]

I didn't realize that the other 44 states allowed open carry.

[drw]

I didn't realize that the other 44 states allowed open carry.

The number includes states that allow open carry only for licensed people.

http://www.opencarry.org/opencarry.html

It's discouraging and disappointing that Texas has no open carry laws.

[DoubleJ]

Bah! you can carry openly on your own property (or property under your control).

[drw]

Bah! you can carry openly on your own property (or property under your control).

That's when the need for protection is at its least.

[DKSuddeth]

http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/715977.html

Thousands sign petition to make Texas an open-carry state

By ANNA M. TINSLEY
atinsley@star-telegram.com

If Duane Suddeth had his way, he could strap on a handgun and wear it — anytime, anywhere — without concealing it.

That day has not come in Texas, but the 42-year-old Bedford man is among thousands hoping it is on its way.

"This is the public’s right," Suddeth said. "Whether they choose to exercise that or not is up to them."

Texas, despite its independence and frontier reputation, is one of only six states where handguns cannot — in some form — legally be worn in plain view.

Suddeth is among a group of residents wanting to change that who have joined a growing nationwide "open-carry" movement.

Some say it harks back to constitutional rights and frontier days when settlers carried their weapons where everyone could see them.

"It was considered part of everyday life back then," said John Pierce, co-founder of www.OpenCarry.org, a champion of the effort. "The concealed-carry part was what was looked at with disdain."

In Texas, where residents may carry concealed handguns if they have a permit, more than 3,500 people have signed an online petition asking Gov. Rick Perry and the Legislature to make Texas an open-carry state.

"Cowboys and Indians, and the Alamo — and many just assumed that Texas was an open-carry state," wrote Gary Williams, one of many Texans advocating for gun law change. "Clearly, there are some changes that need to be made."

Gun safety advocates aren’t so sure.

"What are they trying to do? Go back to Texas gunslinger days?" asked Richard Leal, a board member of the Houston-based Texans for Gun Safety. "Things are bad enough as it is, with people 18 and older being authorized to carry guns."

The open-carry effort

Many states such as Texas do have concealed handgun rules and permits in place.

But many also have open-carry rules, unlike Texas, along with New York, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina and Washington, D.C., according to OpenCarry.org.

Dozens of states either issue licenses for open carry or allow the practice without any license, according to the Web site.

"The concealed-carry movement that swept the country in past decades has been a great benefit to law-abiding citizens to be able to protect themselves in an uncertain world," Pierce said. "But we are trying to re-educate people that open carry is . . . a basic gun right."

The Texas Citizens Defense League, of which Williams and Suddeth are members, is trying to get the word out.

Part of that is the petition that asks that all people who may legally buy a handgun also be allowed to carry it openly, except in places prohibited by law.

"I can’t count the times I have been in some discussion about open carry in some Northern state . . . and somebody says, 'Hey, this is not . . . Texas,’ " said Mike Stollenwerk, co-founder of OpenCarry.org.

"And I respond, 'Thankfully you are correct, as open carry is banned in Texas.’ "

Texas reaction

Any change to the law would come from the Texas Legislature, which is why the petition is to lawmakers and Perry.

The issue is not on the governor’s plate yet, a spokeswoman said.

"The governor is very supportive of conceal and carry laws," said Kristi Piferrer, a Perry spokeswoman. "Expanding that to open carry probably will take a lot of public deliberation and legislative guidance."

Some law enforcers say they would be leery of an open-carry policy in Texas.

"I really think it would cause a lot of uneasiness in the community, with people seeing so many guns," Tarrant County Constable Sergio DeLeon said. "It could create more problems than it would solve."

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who as a state senator helped make concealed-carry law in 1995, said he doesn’t believe that open carry would create any problems.

While he never considered proposing an open-carry measure, Patterson said he has seen the practice in Arizona.

"I went into the bank, and a guy walked in with a .45 in his back pocket," he said. "I thought, 'Well, that’s unusual.’ "

"You never know"

Suddeth, an IT professional who does some travel for work, said he would like to openly carry a loaded handgun. In the past year, Suddeth said there was an elderly woman attacked, cars broken into, a home broken into and several assaults in his Bedford neighborhood.

"You never know when crime is going to happen," he said. "I think eventually we will see open carry in Texas.

"Eventually, it will happen."

Online: www.petitiononline.com/texasoc/petition.html



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Open-carry states Texas is one of six states that either do not allow or highly restrict the open carrying of handguns in public. The others are New York, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida and South Carolina, as well as Washington, D.C., according to OpenCarry.org.

More than a dozen states require a license for open carry, from Utah to Mississippi to Massachusetts. Eleven more, from Vermont to Arizona, allow it but don’t require licenses. Still more generally permit it but offer various restrictions. And two states, California and Illinois, allow loaded handguns to be carried in rural areas, according to the Web site.

"OpenCarry.org believes that 'a right unexercised is a right lost,’ and increasingly gun owners are agreeing," according to the Web site. "It’s time gun carry comes out of the closet in America."

[drw]

Good job Duane! That's great PR in the Star Telegram!

[bdickens]

Maybe it would be a good thing to go back to the days of the "wild west" as these bigoted morons from various gun control organizations like to put it. If they would stop watching "Gunsmoke" rerund long enough to read up on the real history of the "wild west," they'd find out it was actually rather peaceful by today's standards.

Even in rough mining towns like Bodie, ladies could walk the streets alone, at night, and remain unaccosted. Homeowners could leave their doors unlocked and expect their belongings to still be there when they got back. On the rare occasion some lowlife broke into a house in the middle of the night he'd get shot and the local newspaper would editorialize that the
criminal "got what he deserved. Let that be a lesson to anyone else who is thinking about breaking into someone's house at night."

Back then, just like today, almost all of the killings were criminals killing other criminals.

Yeah, I for one would like to see a return to the days of the "wild west."

[AEA]

[texasag93]

LEGAL in 44 states and openly accepted are two different things.

I lived in Ohio for a time... open carry is legal under their state constitution.

Try it and you will end up taking a riding to the local jail with inciting a disturbance or something else the policeman can think up.


I am truely divided with open carry. I do realize that it should be completely normal and legal.

I grew up here and when riding around, you would see rifles in gun racks in trucks parked at businesses with their windows down. Try that now and you will be dealing with the police, either with them telling you not to do it or filling out a stolen property report.

The problem is that so many people are passively OK with RKBA, but they do not want it in their face. They do not want to see it. They do not want to think about it. If you push them, they are more likely to go against it than to accept it.

Brainwashing from the press, maybe. It is still a path that we may not want to push people down.

Just my 2 cents.

texasag

[jimlongley]

My first reaction to seeing New York on the list was to scoff, but then I went and looked up the current law, and since I left that state they have changed the law. A NY carry license used to be for carry, without regard for concealment, but now it says "carry concealed" - I wonder when they snuck that one in.

[Deaf Smith]

Open carry has several faults.

1) The wearer, by dispalying the firearm, gives any would-be gun snacher the heads up. This to me is the greatist danger. Yes I know in a few other states like New Mexico and Arizona and Vermont, they do have that law, but few use it. I've been in New Mexico and I did try to pack the gun open. I sure felt naked! In Vermont I didn't show the gun (carried it everywhere, but never displayed it.)

2) A LEO would have to do lots of asking of those who display guns if they are LEGAL. I.E. non-fellons, no restraining orders, CHL, etc... every time they turn around.

3) The wearer would be making lots of people nervious. People who while non-gun people, were not anti-gun. This is a good way to start seeing 30.06 signs pop up.

I just feel open carry is for the woods, no the street. Right to carry? Yes, but not flash it in peoples faces.

[HerbM]

Open carry has several faults.

1) The wearer, by dispalying the firearm, gives any would-be gun snacher the heads up. This to me is the greatist danger. Yes I know in a few other states like New Mexico and Arizona and Vermont, they do have that law, but few use it. I've been in New Mexico and I did try to pack the gun open. I sure felt naked! In Vermont I didn't show the gun (carried it everywhere, but never displayed it.)

2) A LEO would have to do lots of asking of those who display guns if they are LEGAL. I.E. non-fellons, no restraining orders, CHL, etc... every time they turn around.

3) The wearer would be making lots of people nervious. People who while non-gun people, were not anti-gun. This is a good way to start seeing 30.06 signs pop up.

I just feel open carry is for the woods, no the street. Right to carry? Yes, but not flash it in peoples faces.

These are precisely parallel to the foolish objections that gun banners offer against your CHL. The bad guy will take it away, criminals will carry too or endanger officers, it will scare children and animals.

Truth is, none of this stuff is really a problem in states like Virginia where any law-abiding 18 year old can carry openly and even CHL holders must reveal to enter a restaurant that serves alcohol.

BTW: "The bad guy will get your gun" even has a name, it's called "The Police Chief's Fallacy".

Not a problem. This kind of supposition is how ALL the bad gun control got started -- it SOUNDED good.

There isn't a single gun control law that can even be proven to work. Not one.

None of the CDC, the National Academy of Sciences, nor DoJ were able to find that ANY gun control reduces VIOLENT CRIME, MURDER, SUICIDE or ACCIDENTS in any significant manner.

Don B. Kates and Gary A. Mauser, "Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International Evidence" (June 6, 2006). ExpressO Preprint Series. Working Paper 1413.
http://law.bepress.com/expresso/eps/1413 http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent. ... t=expresso
<<In this connection two recent studies are pertinent. In 2004 the U.S. National Academy of Sciences released its evaluation from an review of 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications and some empirical research of its own. It could not identify any gun control that had reduced violent crime, suicide or gun accidents.(15) The same conclusion was reached in a 2003 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s review of then-extant studies"(16)

(15) Charles F. Wellford, John V. Pepper, and Carol V. Petrie (eds.),
FIREARMS AND VIOLENCE: A CRITICAL REVIEW
(National Academy of Sciences, 2004). It is perhaps not amiss to note that the review panel, which was set up during the Clinton Administration, was almost entirely composed of scholars who, to the extent their views were publicly known before their appointments, favored gun control.
(16) “First Reports Evaluating the Effectiveness of Strategies for Preventing Violence: Firearms Laws� (CDC, 2003) <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5214a2.htm>
>>

Choice is good.

[CJATE]

I am all for your OC rights, I'll keep mine hidden.

[Rayden]

I am sorry but I can't say I am for Open Carry. It is just too much and I believe it will cause more problems than it can solve.

Unless there are hard evidence or solid arguments, I just don't see that as something that we as a society should go back in time with.