Open Carry in Texas

[LordDunsany]

In Texas, 'brandishing' or intentional display of a concealed handgun in a manner to intimidate, is a definite no-no. However, when the wind lifts up your shirt and your G19 peeks out, that is unintentional display, and is NOT an offense.

Ron in Texas

 

[mortablunt]

Your problem is you walk around with your gun hidden in hopes of whipping it out like Dirty Harry and killing someone.

Yeah, makes as much sense

Guys, keep it high road!

 

[Mainsail]

Jerks, keep it high road!

If you're going to quote, please include the emoticons or the context is lost.

My point is that outrageous claims like "Rambo" are every bit as silly and stupid as the one I made.

 

[Dean1818]

Sheeze....... Ive heard this song on the radio a few times......

For me CC allows me to fully excersice my 2A rights.

I have heard many OC'rs claim "No one ever notices and no one ever cares"

I dont have the ability to know what others think. But...... I do believe that there is a time and place for everything.

I do worry about the voting public, how easily they are swayed. I do worry about a Supreme Court who narrowly passed heller 5-4 on gun rights.

If my memory is correct, i beleive that there was an event with OC'rs in Calif, showing off their
Rights to OC............. Net result...... They lost that right in that township.

I hope an over aggressive OC push in Texas doesnt in some time in the future hurt my 2A right to
CC

Navy makes great, thoughtout points on this post and past posts...... But I really doubt Texas adds OC.

As a last note, it seems like people get personally attacked on this board and others if they dont
share the exact same level of whats ok or not ok with ownership of guns.

I respect others opinions, i have mine, you have yours, but 2A is not any more important than 1A.

 

[jahwarrior]

I dont have the ability to know what others think. But...... I do believe that there is a time and place for everything.

I do worry about the voting public, how easily they are swayed. I do worry about a Supreme Court who narrowly passed heller 5-4 on gun rights.

If my memory is correct, i beleive that there was an event with OC'rs in Calif, showing off their
Rights to OC............. Net result...... They lost that right in that township.

I hope an over aggressive OC push in Texas doesnt in some time in the future hurt my 2A right to
CC

As a last note, it seems like people get personally attacked on this board and others if they dont
share the exact same level of whats ok or not ok with ownership of guns.

I respect others opinions, i have mine, you have yours, but 2A is not any more important than 1A.

your memory fails you. open carry was banned in the entire state of CA. but, the reason people open carried in the first place was because getting a permit to carry concealed was up tot discretion of the issuing authority...and most people get refused. the people of CA have themselves to blame, for the most part; they got the government they voted for, including the governor, Jerry Brown.

i seriously doubt that open carry would affect concealed carry in TX. that kind of thinking is just asinine. people had the same fears in WI, that open carry would "ruin it for everyobody!", but instead, they got concealed carry passed.

as far as differing opinions, this is the internet. get over it. The High Road is private property; as such, your First Amendment right to free speech doesn't apply here, anymore than mine does.

 

[Alex23]

I'm in the 'Support Open Carry 100%' but wouldn't do it myself camp. There's no justification for even being able to force CHL on us, let alone ban open carry but then that constitution thang is just something some old white folk from like England or somewhere wrote about 3000 years ago.

: "Open Carry might work for your system, I don't know, your mileage may vary - dudes. And I am like totally understanding how everyone has to align their system and tactics to like achieve the objective. Dudes, the only time I use Open Carry is when I go to WalMart on Black Friday because you are in a WROL (Without Rule of Law) situation ok. I kept my load out light because I knew the objectives (a 80" Plasma TV stolen from Saddam's palace and on special for $99 and a solid gold George Foreman lean mean grillin machine) was 3 clicks away. So I just carried my webbing, my Saiga SGL-21, my Glock, and a Ghettoblaster playing Taylor Swift. I secured the Plasma but not the grillin machine (an 8 month pregnant Delta operator zip-lined down and got that first) and extracted back to the tactical Chrysler minivan with minimal casualties".)

 

[NavyLCDR]

For me CC allows me to fully excersice my 2A rights.

Concealed carry certainly does allow you to exercise your 2A rights. The Texas State government does not. If you could exercise your 2A rights in Texas, you would not be required by the government to pay them for their permission to do so. You are exercising a privilege that you paid the government for permission to exercise.

 

[The Sarge]

Your problem is you walk around with your gun hidden in hopes of whipping it out like Dirty Harry and killing someone.

Yeah, makes as much sense.

What an absolutely false, stupid, immature statement. Incredible.

 

[The Sarge]

Respectfully, the "RAMBO'S" who want to show off they have a gun hurt the pro-2A movement less than people who profess to be "pro-2A" and make childish and rediculous statements about fellow gun carriers. Attacks from outside the group cause far less damage to the group as a whole than attacks from within the group do.......

You make many assumptions. We all know the first three letters of that word.
I am all for open carry. I am also not speaking to nor directing my comments/thoughts on "the whole" but to the very few.
I am saying there is a minority of people who go overboard and "flaunt" having a weapon, versus just normally carrying a weapon. Texans all open carry on private land and conceal carry in public mainly because of the actions of a few.
Oh well...the internet......experts and savants abound I guess.

 

[TexasBill]

Governor Perry is dead set against open carry and promised to veto any bill authorizing open carry, either licensed or unlicensed, that the Legislature passed.

Texas' reputation as a gun-friendly state is not deserved, unless you're talking strictly about long guns. A lot of people don't realize that Texas had the strictest law in the nation against carrying a handgun. For 123 years, there were no permits, no exceptions (except for a vaguely worded "traveling" exception that wasn't even a prima facie defense): it was unlawful to carry a handgun unless you were a peace officer, prison guard, certain type of judge, or one of a very limited group of others specifically authorized to carry sidearms. Texas then went to one of the most intrusive and drawn-out licensing processes in the nation; it could legally take up to nine months to get an answer. Things have improved a bit, but Texas is still far from being the most handgun-friendly state in the union. And our legislators and civic leaders sound just like the weenies in the California Assembly.

And everybody still continues to talk about "baby steps" In April of 1872, the Texas Legislature did not take baby steps when they enacted a Jim Crow law prohibiting the carrying of a handgun, why the heck should we have to take baby steps to get our rights restored?

 

[M2 Carbine]

Governor Perry is dead set against open carry and promised to veto any bill authorizing open carry, either licensed or unlicensed, that the Legislature passed.

When did he say this? I haven't heard it.


I am for open carry.

Far too many gun owners think the way to get along with the non gun owning, uninformed, public is to cower in the dark like we are doing something wrong. I can tell you that I have seen for over half a century that that method does not work.
Fear is many times caused by ignorance. The non gun owners fear guns and the people that have them, because all they know about guns is the lies they see on the network news.

We gun owners should be openly educating the public to what guns are and the fact that decent average people, lawfully, carry guns.

Stand up for your gun rights, stop hiding in the dark like you are ashamed of your 2nd Amendment rights.

 

[USAF_Vet]

i drive a minivan; i must be doing the Rambo thing wrong.

Oh, you must be an A-Team wanna-be then, right?

Personally, any way one lawfully chooses to carry a gun is fine with me. If you don't have a concealed carry permit, and open is the only way you can carry (like myself) then so be it. If you want to complain about how I open carry, I'm accepting donations for the required training class and permit fees.
Gun carrying pro 2-A folks squabbling among each other is counterproductive. If we can't agree on what the Right to Keep and Bear Arms means, how are we going to convince the fence sitters? (I'm not worried about convincing anti's, they're hopeless).

 

[dodge]

In Pa there is a lot of open land. It's called state game lands bought by the fees from hunting licenses.

 

[M2 Carbine]

In Pa there is a lot of open land. It's called state game lands bought by the fees from hunting licenses.

Most of the land in Texas being privately owned is a hardship for shooters having no place to shoot.
But the people have broght the problem on themselves.
I use to allow most anyone to shoot on my range, but No more. The American people have become such sue crazy jerks that the land owners can't take the chance of allowing people on their land anymore.

 

[jahwarrior]

In Pa there is a lot of open land. It's called state game lands bought by the fees from hunting licenses.

that still doesn't mean you can go out and shoot on public land all willy nilly. the only public lands the Game Commission allows people to shoot on are designated SGL ranges, and only if you have a hunting license or a range permit, which they started requiring last year, just to squeeze off a few rounds at a target. if you're out in the woods, and set a target up to shoot at, technically, you're "poaching". and if you shoot at a range without a state permit, you'll be cited. also, shooting a semiautomatic handgun or rifle is also considered "poaching", because the use of semiautomatic firearms in hunting is banned, except for on SGL ranges, which limit you to 6 rounds per handgun, and 3 rounds per rifle.

the other problem with this is, MOST "public" land in PA is gameland. so, no, there's not a lot of open land we can shoot on when we want to. the only other open lands are state parks, which only recently became legal to carry a gun on, and state forests, which, as far as i know, ban target shooting and hunting on.

 

[Sky]

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.u....46.htm#46.035

"Sec. 46.035. UNLAWFUL CARRYING OF HANDGUN BY LICENSE HOLDER. (a) A license holder commits an offense if the license holder carries a handgun on or about the license holder's person under the authority of Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code, and intentionally fails to conceal the handgun."

Notice the highlighted word.

Let us hope it passes providing it does not carry some rider with added restrictions. Accidental displaying around some form of LEO is kinda like Dirty Harry asking, " do you feel lucky today"?

Most of the ATF, ICE, Boarder patrol guys I have come in contact with are good guys just trying to make a living; but even they talk about guys sprung a little to tight. Law says " intentionally" which could be interpreted if it is a windy day and you did not take proper precautions to allow for the possibility of displaying then you intentionally displayed; think lawyerese.....not saying it is right just saying read the law and think about someone who is spring loaded to having you, "make their day".