Open carry in Texas.
Credit: blogs.wsj.com
As of the the stroke of midnight Jan. 1, the Texas landscape will have harkened to the days of the Wild West as the state’s new “open carry” law takes effect. Just as it was 140 years ago — the last time in the Lone Star State when people walked around freely with their holstered guns in plain view — the new law allows for the open display of firearms among licensed gun owners.
Texas becomes the most populous state in the nation to allow for the carrying of guns in the open, to the delight of pro-gun advocates but to to the consternation of those calling for increased firearms safety.
The one dynamic both camps share in common is that the new law has galvanized their ranks.
Beginning Jan. 1, the so-called open carry law:
- Authorizes residents to obtain a license to openly carry a handgun in the same places that allow the licensed carrying of concealed handguns.
- Requires openly displayed firearms, either loaded or unloaded, […]
If I walked into any establishment and saw any person carrying a gun, I would turn around and leave immediately. Any gun owner is a potential killer, either by accident or purpose. We cannot assume a person’s mental state at any particular moment.
As a person who likes to travel, I have avoided travel to some states due to open carry laws and the potential random violence that can ensue.
I’m with you on your comment about walking into a store like the one in the WSJ photo: if I happened into a establishment of gun toters like that, I’d walk right back out the door. Then I’d go to a safer area, and probably a different state.
I won’t be losing any sleep over Texas because I don’t live there, intentionally. And I’ve no reason to travel there. With their new law, to me it would be like going to or living in East Los Angeles. I won’t be doing it.
I haven’t looked lately at a map of open-carry states and I did that just now. I hope never to be living in an open-carry state. Despite compassion I have found that my short-term gains are few from trying to talk sense to someone with the fact-free, mental illness open-carry of advocates. I won’t talk to them. I avoid them, and I’m inclined to think of their behavior as evolution in action. I appreciate that sounds especially cold, but I avoid interacting with people known to be off the rails.
When we held the Final Transition Conference in AZ last September, I found it chilling but instructive that the AZ highway department had posted freeway alphanumeric signs asking for tips about the recent sniper shootings at passing motorists. I don’t recall an AZ freeway that didn’t have them. A state that puts up with that sort of mental illness, making it business as usual to spread the news about terrorism, isn’t a state in which I’ll ever live. Their values are almost completely awry. And I have new friends there.
Thanks for posting this, Stephan. These days I read your headlines to take social temperatures. Like I’ve said and written to you before, you have a unique news aggregation service which often agrees with my sentiments