TexasCHLforum.com

Here is the link to sign a petition going forth for state legislature review..... If put into affect it allows unliscensed open carry in unrestricted areas. texas is one of only 6 states where it is still illegal. My wife and I just signed and here is the statement she made with her signature:

18024. I do not carry but I would feel safer if more people did it just kind of makes sense to me that only those that plan on doing harm would have to fear. Fear is a natural inhibitor. I am also in the U.S ARMY and feel that if my country feels its ok for me to put my life on the line abroad to defend our constitutional rights I should be able to excersice those rights at home, namely the second amendment. I defend my country please allow me to defend myself while im here from those that may do harm to me!

Please sign this petition:

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

I have a few thoughts on this subject, specifically the online petition for Texas open carry.

First I think online petitions are generally worthless, and their only value is making some people feel good. This petition has actually gone beyond that typical limitation as it has made national news and has almost ensured that open carry will come up in discussion and maybe in the form of a bill in either the state house or senate. But that is about all this petition will do by itself.

Second I am a CHL holder and don't want to open carry, however if made legal I may open carry in specific situations such as an OC lunch/dinner or when there is a chance to educate the general public (this one is rather unlikely where I live). I will say I am not against the open carry movement, and do in fact support it to a small degree.

Third if we Texans are serious about legalizing open carry we need to do a few things such as a massive letter writing effort to our state senators and reps. We also need to find someone with a legal background to draw up TWO OC bills. The first bill being for unlicensed open carry and the second being for licensed open carry. Once we find an open carry friendly rep or senator we give them both bills and send them off. Now we CHL holders do not want to attach any of our wish list items to the OC bills as we want them both, the OC bill and our wish list items, to sink or swim on their own.

The fourth area we must concentrate on is gathering support from anyone with a voice be it someone famous, a chief law enforcement officer, radio or tv personality, or anyone that can catch the publics attention and gather us support.

The final thing we need to do is make sure we vote for the most gun friendly state senators and reps we have on the ballots.

If we are serious about OC then we need to get things in gear, get organized, investigate our state candidates and list the gun friendly ones (TSRA usually does this for us), get our proposed bills written and ready to be introduced the first day the legislature is in session, and start the letter writing effort. The letter writing effort can not a one time thing, we need to send a letter as soon as we know who won our particular race, we need to send a second that they will receive just before our session starts, we need to send another any time the subject comes up in either body, and finally we must support our efforts with phone calls.

I signed this one a while back.

There is a term for this sort of stuff: Slacktivism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism

bdickens wrote:Slacktivism.

I like that term!

bdickens wrote:There is a term for this sort of stuff: Slacktivism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism

And what makes you think this is me, I email , send letters weekly ans well as call weekly in support of this as well as passed a petition around post getting over 900 signatures in favor and mailed in a copy as well as retained the original copy for future mailing. So dont judge till you know!

YAY!!!! ANOTHER OPEN CARRY TOPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oooooh, the mystery, who will end up getting banned because of this one?????

brianm2004 wrote:

bdickens wrote:There is a term for this sort of stuff: Slacktivism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism

And what makes you think this is me, I email , send letters weekly ans well as call weekly in support of this as well as passed a petition around post getting over 900 signatures in favor and mailed in a copy as well as retained the original copy for future mailing. So dont judge till you know!

Whoa, buddy. Read what I wrote, don't read into what I wrote.

I would be all for open or conceal carry for lic. holders only. This petition seems to be for anybody living in Texas. If you want to carry, get permitted. If Texas alowed open or conceal, I would never carry open but if my shirt tail happened to blow up or if I show my piece while reaching for my billfold at least I would not be in violation. JMHO.

hoss4570 wrote:If Texas alowed open or conceal, I would never carry open but if my shirt tail happened to blow up or if I show my piece while reaching for my billfold at least I would not be in violation. JMHO.

That's not a violation under the current law.

I'm all for unlicensed open carry.

KBCraig wrote:

hoss4570 wrote:If Texas alowed open or conceal, I would never carry open but if my shirt tail happened to blow up or if I show my piece while reaching for my billfold at least I would not be in violation. JMHO.

That's not a violation under the current law.

I believe it is. Even "printing" through your clothes is a violation.

hoss4570 wrote:I believe it is. Even "printing" through your clothes is a violation.

No, Sir. The event must be intentional. And any level of 'printing' that does not clearly identify as a firearm is ok.

§ 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.

hoss4570 wrote:I believe it is. Even "printing" through your clothes is a violation.

Not in Texas.

Funny, we had that conversation at IDPA last night...