Open Carry Encounter Brazos County

Yesterday around 6:00pm my son and I decided to go on an SHTF conditioning march down one of the roads near our property just north of Bryan. We both had on some left over Army body armor with plates, full mag pouches, my son had his Galil and I had my AR in tow. The plan was to walk down a 3 mile road to a T intersection with OSR and walk back, and in the process get a workout a change up from going to the gym. From the start of the walk of course you know we received a lot of rubber necking attention, one guy in his car stopped about 1/4 mile after he passed us and warned a woman and her daughter that we were coming down the road and they quickly went inside. We made it about 2 1/2 miles I noticed a Silver Dodge Challenger coming up the road from behind, I had about a 90% chance it was a Brazos County Deputy patrol car and, I was right. My son and I moved our rifles from our fronts to our sides and we rested our hands on our chest as they approached. When the deputy pulled up he addressed him before he did me I gave him a "Howdy" he was polite, not defensive our touching his side arm. He said Hi and asked how we were doing and of course what we were doing. I explained to him why we were out there, it was physical conditioning. He ran my DL and of course I was clear, we both understood that we were well within our rights to open carry our long guns. We then started to talk about how its getting crazy in this country with occupy, the economy, and racial tensions. We talked about how just going to the range is not enough to utilize your AR, AK or which ever variant of EBR you have to its fullest potential. You have to know how to MOVE SHOOT and COMMUNICATE. You could be a great shot what what good are you to me in an emergency if you cant truck it down the road with your bug out bag. My son and I called it a day and went home with our rifles, it was a good day and my son watched the correct way to interact with Law Enforcement.

15 Years Army Service

9.5 Military Police
6.5 Aviator

And the lower end of the spectrum we find the 2A-challenged, and knee-jerk oriented guy, and the apparently equally 2A-challenged women he warned of the impending public safety "threat" that you & your son posed.

At the top of the patriot ladder -Kudos to a Texas LEO who not only resides in the real world, but also respects the laws that he has sworn to uphold. This is why I often express my sincere belief that once this handgun OC issue is freed up from it's 146 year old log-jam Texas may well rise to the top of the "Green State" class rather quickly.

What if as the deputy approached you he had observed your (hypothetically) holstered 1911's in addition to your rifles ? Since Chapter 46 of Texas Penal Code requires a CHL in order for "every citizen" in Texas to legally wear a holstered HG under such circumstances, and further requires that the HG must be concealed.... Brazos County - do we have a problem ?

I have a strong hunch that this particular LEO would have asked you if you had a CHL for the HG, inspected your CHL, handed it back while advising you that your CHL requires that you conceal the gun.

In response to which you might have been inclined to asked him - what is the point in concealing my HG, when I'm already openly holding an AR ? Then he would probably have said - " I know . It doesn't make much sense , but the law is the law. I don't make the law. I just have to enforce it."

Considering the fact that you & your son would have been notoriously armed with your openly displayed Kevlar-indifferent "assault rifles" -

"Lordy- Lordy , good golly Miss Molly" ! A HANDGUN !!!!!

I know - I'm having way too much fun playing with this exercise in search of logic. Before anyone assumes that I'm getting dangerously close to "messing with Texas" - I AM IN TEXAS at the moment, and I was a card-carrying "certified" Texan for 37 years before moving to Colorado, and I have held a CHL for 16 years.

A LOGIC CHECK LIST:

1. Texas law prohibits the habitual carry of a handgun without a CHL.

2. TX DPS will not issue a CHL to anyone behind on child support payments, student loan payments, or state taxes.

3. Such eligibility criteria would not pass SCOTUS scrutiny if it were applied in a similar fashion to suppress the exercise of any other constitutionally protected right. Since the affect of the Texas law (46.035a) prohibiting open carry of a handgun under the CHL is to suppress the 2A RIGHT as interpreted by the SCOTUS in Heller/McDonald - is not 46.035a constitutionally invalid ?

4. Currently handgun carry under authority of the Texas CHL does not constitute the exercise of a RIGHT under federal law due to the concealment mandate.

5. Since the only legal way "every citizen" in Texas can habitually carry this "quintessential, and preferred defensive weapon in case of confrontation - is under CHL authority - the SCOTUS must have gotten it all wrong in its Heller/McDonald decisions.

The SCOTUS said that the 2A guarantees to the people ( including "every citizen" in Texas) -THE RIGHT to carry a handgun - OPENLY, but NOT concealed- in case of confrontation.

I'll leave it at that for now.

Not discounting anything else you said, but I believe that the student loan thing was taken off 2 legislatures ago, I may be mistaken though.


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CrimsonSoul said:

Not discounting anything else you said, but I believe that the student loan thing was taken off 2 legislatures ago, I may be mistaken though.


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Click to expand...

If so - that's a stride in the right direction. Such pet- project eligibility criteria has no place in the CHL law.

I have had a few encounters with the Brazos County Sheriffs Dept (and even a few with Bryan PD) while openly carrying my 1911...
I have been on 'property under my control' every time, and BCSD hasn't said a thing about it and the only thing the PD said was to ask how long I wanted him to wait to respond should a 'shots fired' call come in near my shop!
I've never had any of them run my DL due to my possession of a gun... Nor have they asked for my CHL. They recognized my right to carry given the situation without any discussion.