Elza, your answer is politics, but you probably already knew that.
In the mid-90s Texas sought to emulate the Florida reform which proscribed open carry. Part of the reform package was that the firearm was to remain concealed so as not to terrify the citizenry and concealment was sold as an advantage since the bad hombres wouldn't know who had a pistola.
Thus, we now have eleven million threads about "printing" in Texas.
Living in a state where 1. we've been carrying for generations, 2. it does not matter how we carry, I find it all politically very humorous. At first the antis whined about you cowboys carrying guns on your hip. In response, y'all said, fine, we'll conceal them. Then the antis whined about "hidden guns". Now y'all say "we want to uncover and be legal" and the antis whimper about "you cowboys."
It seems the antis can never be happy.
Elza, get in the fight down there. While I started going to Texas in '95 conditions were miserable, no carrying at all. When the reforms went into effect, it was still horrible, but it got better every year. Now when I go down there there are very few signs and Texas honors more and more states, even Indiana which has no training requirement and where one can carry at 18.
While there are still problems with Texas carry (e.g. the no guns in bars law is simply moronic) and it is very far from the pro-gun culture up here, it is getting better and that's what we all want.
