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open carry initiatives

DKSuddeth

Accomplished Advocate
Joined
May 8, 2006
Messages
833
Location
Bedford, Texas, USA
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Well, from the previous forum a few of us and written letters, one of us even got a phone call (?) but I never received a response from my rep.

any idea of moving forward?

thinking of writing the gov.
 

glock37

Regular Member
Joined
May 11, 2006
Messages
47
Location
Houston, ,
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Writing a letter to the governor is a good thing. Writing a letter to the governor with a few thousand signatures on it is a great thing. Whatever we write though must be eloquent. Maybe we can get through to him with this being an election year? Let's get the ball rolling.
 

DKSuddeth

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Messages
833
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Bedford, Texas, USA
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I've got a rough draft about 'why legalize vermont style open carry', just need to refine it for Texas. I'll post it when it's ready.
 

ilbob

Campaign Veteran
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
778
Location
, Illinois, USA
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Good idea. Texas going OC would be a huge step forward. I think a lot of people that do not live there think it is already that way now and are surprised to find out it is not.

I would not expect a jump to VT style OC in one step though.

We got to this point incrementally, and we can regain our rights incrementally.

The first step is maybe to allow open carry by permit holders in areas outside of cities with a population exceeding one million. I would suggest going for all of TX with OC by permit, but maybe keeping in the back of one's mind that little victories add upover time and being willing to accept less than what when wants in the first chunk.

Over time as people get used to seeing law abiding citizens wandering about their daily lives with a firearm strapped on their hip, it can be liberalized even more.

Politics is about getting what you can when you can, and then going for more.

The more states that liberalize both CC and OC the better for those of us in the PRIL, where large segments of the population cannot even legal own handguns at all just because of where they happen to live.

It seems to me that our priorities in all states should be:

state prememption - it does little good to have good state legislation if a municipality can invalidate it

concealed carry - since no one sees the guns no one cares

castle doctrine - a man's home is his castle and the law ought to respect that

stand your ground - what good is carrying a handgun if you cannot legally use it to protect yourself?

legal liability protection - why should a criminal have the right to sue you because you defended yourself against his criminal attacks

open carry - 100,000 people have now carried their guns around under their coat for five years and the world has not ended. time to allow them to be more comfortable while walking around, at their discretion and choice.

constitutional amendments - even states with strong gun owner rights laws need to have their state constitutions amended so that it is harder to reverse the gains that have been so painstakingly made. it needs to be unequivical that the RKBA includes the right to carry for ones own personal protection.
 

glock37

Regular Member
Joined
May 11, 2006
Messages
47
Location
Houston, ,
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ilbob, I pretty much agree with what you stated in your post, except for the sixth paragraph. Politics is getting what you WANT! Getting what you can when you can is nothing more than getting what they'll give you. It takes way too long for them to give you more. All the while we hear republicans talk about supporting our gun rights, but they do nothing while in office. Sure, they sound like libertarians around election time, but it's business as usual once they're in office.

I truly believe that we are the silent majority. It's time we make our voices heard. The politicians will give us what we want to get or keep office...even democRATS. Darn it pained me to type that last sentence. But it's true. Politicians want our votes to stay in office. We want them to leave us and our rights alone. Now we have to
'help' them figure out what they better give us to get into or stay in office.

Since I felt the need the for constructive criticism, I feel the need to praise something you typed. The need for state level constitutional amendments to protect our RKBA rights. Now all we have to do is come up with wording that is so terse, that it can't possibly be misunderstood or overridden by an activist court or overbearing local jurisdictions.
 

chuck500cc

New member
Joined
May 13, 2006
Messages
9
Location
DFW AREA, Texas, USA
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Ok I'm back.:) I love the new format.;) I have not heard anything from Vicki Truits office once I talked to them three weeks ago. They have been getting school finance hammered out in Austin. But I am patient. I live not far from her office and can make a visit as needed.We willsee. Has anybody thought of getting a table at a gunshow? Maybe setting up some brochures and info to get some reaction from gun owners. The only problem (and I am guilty of it myself) is that most gun owners don't like to sign anything to do with guns unless it is to buy one. Come to think of it, I don't even fill out the form for the drawing of the free gun at gunshows. So getting to silent majority to speak up is going to take some trust building. Most gunshow tables start at about $60 and go up depending on location. Yea, location, location, location.:?

Chuck XD Fan
 

TEX1N

Regular Member
Joined
May 15, 2006
Messages
842
Location
Northern VA, Virginia, USA
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glock37 wrote:
...Writing a letter to the governor with a few thousand signatures on it is a great thing...
If ya'll setup an online petition for open carry, I have a lot of friends in Texas that I know would sign it. Anyway, keep up the good work. Texas needs to go open carry.
-TEX1N
 

ilbob

Campaign Veteran
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
778
Location
, Illinois, USA
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TEX1N wrote:
glock37 wrote:
...Writing a letter to the governor with a few thousand signatures on it is a great thing...
If ya'll setup an online petition for open carry, I have a lot of friends in Texas that I know would sign it. Anyway, keep up the good work. Texas needs to go open carry.
-TEX1N
I don't think online petitions have anywhere near the impact on politicians as does a couple boxes of paper dropped on their desk with real signatures from voters on a petition asking for a specific thing.
 

TEX1N

Regular Member
Joined
May 15, 2006
Messages
842
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Northern VA, Virginia, USA
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ilbob wrote:
TEX1N wrote:
glock37 wrote:
...Writing a letter to the governor with a few thousand signatures on it is a great thing...
If ya'll setup an online petition for open carry, I have a lot of friends in Texas that I know would sign it. Anyway, keep up the good work. Texas needs to go open carry.
-TEX1N
I don't think online petitions have anywhere near the impact on politicians as does a couple boxes of paper dropped on their desk with real signatures from voters on a petition asking for a specific thing.
Very true, however sometimes you can get more people from an online petition. I would agree that it would be best to start with a mail bomb, and then if you still need mass in numbers look into an online petition.

ilbob, I don’t see how you can take living in IL, I would have a hard time doing that. (Plus I have a few guns that I don’t think are legal there;) )
 

VAopencarry

Regular Member
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
2,151
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Berryville-ish, VA
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You probably can't make that giant leap at one time but you have to ASK for it. You WILL get less then you ask for, so ask for the whole 9 yards. my .02
 

EagleFiveZero

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2006
Messages
52
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
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I for one "assumed" that Open Carry was lawful in the wonderful state of Texas. I figured (wrongly) that it was just like Arizona. Like others, I was very surprised to find out that open carry is not yet legal in Texas.

Here's my two-cents:

If the legislature can't 'get it together' to pass an Open Carry law, why not just resort to the "Initiative' ballot measure -- where the initiative 'arises from the people' instead of being originated during a Legislative session???
 

panic215

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2006
Messages
83
Location
San Antonio, TX, ,
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I will happily sign any petition for open carry here in Texas. As mentioned previously, there are enough gunshows here in the State I don't think it would be a big problem to get 100,000+ votes, if it approached in a coordinated manner. I know that here in San Antonio we have a gun show the first weekend of every month that draws an average of 7500 - 10000 per weekend. Used in conjuction with local gun shops and ranges, the numbers could add up pretty quickly. I guess it would be a simple matter of having someone(s) educated enough to put together a well thought out package arguing our position. Once a package is agreed upon, distribute said package accordingly. Again, I think you would want this to be a consolidated effort (i.e. everyoneusing the same package / information). Just a thought.

I look forward to getting to know everyone better via this forum. You all seem like a great bunch of like minded American.

Cheers,

Jason
 

ProguninTN

Regular Member
Joined
May 26, 2006
Messages
416
Location
, Tennessee, USA
imported post

ilbob wrote:
Good idea. Texas going OC would be a huge step forward. I think a lot of people that do not live there think it is already that way now and are surprised to find out it is not.

I would not expect a jump to VT style OC in one step though.

We got to this point incrementally, and we can regain our rights incrementally.

The first step is maybe to allow open carry by permit holders in areas outside of cities with a population exceeding one million. I would suggest going for all of TX with OC by permit, but maybe keeping in the back of one's mind that little victories add upover time and being willing to accept less than what when wants in the first chunk.

Over time as people get used to seeing law abiding citizens wandering about their daily lives with a firearm strapped on their hip, it can be liberalized even more.

Politics is about getting what you can when you can, and then going for more.

The more states that liberalize both CC and OC the better for those of us in the PRIL, where large segments of the population cannot even legal own handguns at all just because of where they happen to live.

It seems to me that our priorities in all states should be:

state prememption - it does little good to have good state legislation if a municipality can invalidate it

concealed carry - since no one sees the guns no one cares

castle doctrine - a man's home is his castle and the law ought to respect that

stand your ground - what good is carrying a handgun if you cannot legally use it to protect yourself?

legal liability protection - why should a criminal have the right to sue you because you defended yourself against his criminal attacks

open carry - 100,000 people have now carried their guns around under their coat for five years and the world has not ended. time to allow them to be more comfortable while walking around, at their discretion and choice.

constitutional amendments - even states with strong gun owner rights laws need to have their state constitutions amended so that it is harder to reverse the gains that have been so painstakingly made. it needs to be unequivical that the RKBA includes the right to carry for ones own personal protection.

ilbob has the right idea. Each principle, and its importance are clearly laid out. The last one may not be an issue in some states, but in some it is. I know my state (TN), is one of them. The state constitution has a provision for RKBA, but at the end it states "The legislature may regulate the wearing of arms with a view to curb crime." This sentence needs to be stricken to eliminate the legislature's power to infringe. I don't know the situation in TX, but if your Constitution is similar, you may want to see if you can change it. BTW, if there is any way an out of stater can help with getting open carry in TX, I'll do what I can.

ProguninTN
 

ProguninTN

Regular Member
Joined
May 26, 2006
Messages
416
Location
, Tennessee, USA
imported post

Your post led me to compare The Constitutions of TX and TN. It's amazing how they resemble each other.








[align=justify]Article I Sec. 26 of TN Constitution: That the citizens of this State have a right to keep and to bear arms for their common defense; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms with a view to prevent crime.[/align]


[align=justify][/align]


[align=justify]Article I Sec. 23 of TX Constitution: Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms in the lawful defense of himself or the State; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime. [/align]
 

chuck500cc

New member
Joined
May 13, 2006
Messages
9
Location
DFW AREA, Texas, USA
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I had a second return letter from Vicki Truits office about 3 weeks ago and it basicly brushed me off to a lady at the NRA. It said that they are working on doing things to prevent our guns to be taken during either a natural disaster, or "civil unrest" IF those firearms are obtained legaly. I get the idea from her assistant by the verbage that he uses that he does not know much about gun laws and what is needed to even own a firearm in the state of Texas. Saying things like, "I feel all licensed law abbiding citizens should be able to own a gun", this tells me that he thinks you must have a license just to own a gun:what:. AnywayI am working away at the people that represent me tactfully to try to get some more forward movement.

Chuck XD Fan
 

panic215

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2006
Messages
83
Location
San Antonio, TX, ,
imported post

You would think that Texas would be one of the more pro-gun states but sadly, this is not the case. I guess it could be worse though. We could be without CCW like some other states.

This is what pisses me off. We, as law abiding citizens, should start out with 100% of our Constitutional rights. We should be able to carry whenever, wherever, and however we please, until we prove that we are not capable of doing so in a responsible manner. But no, they start out by banning us from carrying at all. Then they give us the right to carry concealed to appease us and give us the impression that we've won. Right should not have to be earned, they are ours to begin with and should only be taken away if we prove we do not deserve them.

Cheers,

Jason
 

Dutch Uncle

Campaign Veteran
Joined
May 11, 2006
Messages
1,715
Location
Virginia, USA
imported post

Does TX have any statewide organization like Virginia's VCDL? A grassroots organization like that can be incredibly effective at funneling effort in the right way and the right direction.
 
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