Open carry in Texas 'much ado about nothing,' despite doomsayers' predictions

[Midwest]

Open carry in Texas 'much ado about nothing,' despite doomsayers' predictions


Here is an generally positive article from Fox News regarding how the new open carry law is doing in Texas. And the consensus is, there is nothing to really report (as most of us here predicted).

I'm not really sure if this should go into legal or here. (Please move it to legal if you deem it necessary). But it is good to see a positive article by the media that puts the law in a generally good light.

There is mention of the survey where 75 per cent of police chiefs in the state oppose the law. But looking at the source of the 75% article, that dates back to nearly a year. So that survey, was not real recent dates back to the middle of February of 2015.

Anyway, here the article from Fox News

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/02/0...t-nothing-despite-doomsayers-predictions.html



"Open carry in Texas began not with a bang, but a whimper.

The new, and somewhat controversial law allowing licensed gun owners to carry their firearms openly in public took effect Jan. 1. Predictions that the law would cause panic or even put the public in danger have, so far, proven to be off-target.

“We do not have anything interesting to report,” Cpl. Tracey Knight of the Fort Worth Police Department said to a local newspaper, the Star-Telegram. “Two calls so far, no issues. We have no concerns and we have had no problems.”"
.

 

[danez71]

And the same thing happened when AZ eliminated the requirement of a CCP in order to CC.

 

[Ed Ames]

Sadly, open carry in Texas has played a part in estranging me from one of my favorite stores. I used to regularly go to Half Price book stores and buy all kinds of books including gun books. Just after Jan 1 the stores all seemed to put up both 30.07 (no open carry) and 30.06 (no concealed carry) signs.

I called their corp. office and told them I wouldn't be back due to the signs. Don't know if they have taken the signs down because I haven't been back.

Silly knee jerk businesses.

 

[BSA1]

Open carry in Texas 'much ado about nothing,' despite doomsayers' predictions

And to the dismay of the predictions of a fair number of THR members.

 

[DougW]

I haven't yet seen anyone open carrying. I have seen 30.07 signs popping up though.

 

[TIMC]

I guess I have technically open carried a couple of times. This was at gas stations fueling up and not bothering to put my jacket on when I got out to fuel my vehicle. Never been inside a business open carrying but the few times I was outside at gas stations nobody seemed to notice.

 

[roscoe]

And to the dismay of the predictions of a fair number of THR members.

??????

i am not even sure what that sentence means.

 

[gbran]

Doomsayers have been around a very long time and I believe that maybe the public at large is finally seeing their dire predictions every time something new pops up as just a bunch of BS that has never come true.

 

[barnbwt]

Complain about 30.07 if you will, but at least we know where the problem areas are.

 

[Midwest]

Sadly, open carry in Texas has played a part in estranging me from one of my favorite stores. I used to regularly go to Half Price book stores and buy all kinds of books including gun books. Just after Jan 1 the stores all seemed to put up both 30.07 (no open carry) and 30.06 (no concealed carry) signs.

I called their corp. office and told them I wouldn't be back due to the signs. Don't know if they have taken the signs down because I haven't been back.

Silly knee jerk businesses.

You might want to show them this article. A bookstore in Texas is offering a 10% discount for all open carriers.

http://www.kvue.com/story/news/loca...g-10-percent-discount-open-carriers/79574234/

"AUSTIN -- Brave New Books is offering a 10 percent discount to all customers open-carrying in their store......The bookstore, located next to the University of Texas campus, said in a press release that they are the only bookstore in Austin to allow open-carry."
.

 

[waterhouse]

I'm not sure where one would open carry around here. Almost every business I enter has a 30.07 sign.

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

The mention about Chiefs of Police is easy to understand. Chiefs are appointed, Sheriffs are elected. That is why Sheriffs generally support the Second Amendment while Chiefs wet their pants......

 

[barnbwt]

"I'm not sure where one would open carry around here. Almost every business I enter has a 30.07 sign."
Perhaps you haven't realized it by the utter dearth of decent gun ranges anywhere near north Austin, but Round Rock isn't exactly the gun friendliest place ever (relatively speaking, and from a cultural rather than a political perspective, for now). I think Leander is the nearest outdoor range.

In fact, having spent half my youth there & seeing the town pre/post Dell Diamond, I would surmise that at least half the of the now freakishly overgrown population density is not even from Texas, and a majority of the furriners from California or the Northeast. This is why there are no shooting ranges, but huge numbers of trendy restaurants, tech startups, shopping centers, suburbs on top of suburbs, and fancy schmancy "natural" food stores like Sprouts & the deluxe HEBs (aka Central Market). This is why a shiny new Cheaper Than Dirt gunstore, located in one of the most popular shopping centers in a now extremely wealthy town, managed to go out of business during the greatest firearms renaissance in history, in the course of six months. There aren't hardly any gunstores left that aren't out on the edges of town. There are many benefits & a few significant drawbacks of being extremely vibrant centers of immigration for folks seeking employment. Becoming the melting pot for liberals from Austin, Kali, and NY is a definite downside for the gunowner.

In short, you shouldn't be surprised that your town's businesses, now forced to go on record about it, land on the more anti-gun side than most parts of Texas. I hear there's a lot of signage in downtown Austin, too; fancy that.

TCB

 

[barnbwt]

The mention about Chiefs of Police is easy to understand. Chiefs are appointed, Sheriffs are elected. That is why Sheriffs generally support the Second Amendment while Chiefs wet their pants......

About 90% of the complaining from LEOs is from Acevedo specifically, and we have to remember he's former LAPD circa the 90's. Explains literally everything, including why he's such a darling of the Austin political scene.

TCB

 

[JohnnyK]

I have been the only person I've seen open carrying... my Glock just loves the fresh air!

 

[chicharrones]

I haven't seen a soul open carrying around the places I visit.

I have seen a lot of 30.06 signs go up next to 30.07 signs in places that did not have 30.06 signs up in the recent past.

 

[Ed Ames]

Perhaps you haven't realized it by the utter dearth of decent gun ranges anywhere near north Austin, but Round Rock isn't exactly the gun friendliest place ever (relatively speaking, and from a cultural rather than a political perspective, for now). ... This is why a shiny new Cheaper Than Dirt gunstore, located in one of the most popular shopping centers in a now extremely wealthy town, managed to go out of business during the greatest firearms renaissance in history, in the course of six months.

Not to interrupt, but no.

CTD had a reputation as being the biggest "opportunists" around during the panic (I don't think they ever ran out of .22LR, they just raised the prices; they also always had ARs in stock when nobody else did...e.g. at one point they offered a S&W m&p15 for $3500 IIRC) and while I could speculate on unsavory reasons for them to close stores my gut tells me they thought they were cashing out before gun sales tanked and the gun industry cratered.

CTD also shut down their McKinney, TX store, which had been operating for several years, and in the aftermath some of their ex-employees went out and opened at least two new stores in the same area. The new stores appear busy, which tells me it wasn't a matter of too few customers in the area.

 

[MaterDei]

I have not seen anybody open carry yet. Not a single person. I have also seen no 30.07 signs either.

With regard to the CTD stores shuttering... good. They had every right in the world to sell their products for ridiculous prices and we have every right to no longer shop in their stores or on their web site.

 

[Averageman]

I like the option of open carry here in Texas.
I don't often open carry, but anything otherwise without the open carry option was a compromise.
Compromise simply doesn't work. Although I feel your pain about what Austin has turned in to, I now just simply avoid it. They have very little I need there, so it is rather easy.
I do find it amazing that so many Californians to include Chief Acevedo have decided that after ruining California to simply bring their poor government habits here and ruin Austin.
You can watch the slow erosion of Austin, the homeless, the crime, the sanctuary city status eat like a cancer at what once was a great place. I will pass, thank you.

 

[Wolfebyte]

Several going up in our area of Texas.. talking with some of the managers of the stores, they are under the impression that this is a new law and they have to post both signs. Seems that there are a couple of Texas Legislators that are offering the signs at a discount rate for their "constituents" and a labor advisory company that produces the wage law posters are offering a discount and telling customers that these signs have to be posted...

:banghead:

 

[GEM]

There are quite a few 30.07 signs going up. However, the bad side effect is that along with 07 signs we are getting 06/07 combos. Sign stores seem to have them as an option.

I have not seen one person open carrying but lots of signs giving the message that guns are bad to have.

 

[buck460XVR]

IMHO, open carry is like breast feeding. 20 years ago if a woman whipped one out in a busy restaurant and started to feed her hungry child, the surrounding customers would have been shocked and she probably would have been escorted out by management. Today, most folks wouldn't take a second glance and most woman don't even bother to drape that blanket over the babies head anymore. Folks once considered the sight of a bare breast with a kid sucking on it as "dirty". Now they see it as a "natural" thing.

Years ago, the sight of a person with a gun was not a big deal. Folks did not associate just the fact someone had a gun with something bad. Somewhere along the way in the years from 1975 till now, a man with a gun is somehow always a threat. Like breast feeding, I think at some point the circle will go full round again and folks won't have a heart attack just because they see a gun in public.

 

[GEM]

All the 07 signs will cut down the actual number of carrying. You can't OC at HEB, the major supermarket chain or at numerous service stations, for ex.

Thus, if you need to stop for milk - you leave the gun in the car and walk in with an empty holster? That looks stupid, IMHO.

Many restaurants are going that way. So do you have to plan your trip on whether you can OC or not? If you CC (unless you met one of the darn 06 signs that the OC folks also generated), you don't have that problem.

One strategy of antigun folks when the CHL laws were passed was to make it easy to ban carry as to make it practically useless. OC is going that way in many environments. If my wife - said go to HEB to get a specific - I have to go home an change gear or leave the gun the car.

Thus, I don't think the exposure desensitization argument for breast feeding is a good analogy.

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

I don't know why you would be bothered by wearing an empty holster into the store. If anything it should be a message to the store that they are alienating some of their clientele. Money usually talks so it should bother them, not you. That is how I would look at it.

 

[Red Wind]

Years ago, the sight of a person with a gun was not a big deal. Folks did not associate just the fact someone had a gun with something bad. Somewhere along the way in the years from 1975 till now, a man with a gun is somehow always a threat. Like breast feeding, I think at some point the circle will go full round again and folks won't have a heart attack just because they see a gun in public.

I believe time will prove your statement to be 100% correct.
Texans will use it and won't lose it.. Just a matter of time.

Vermont, Arizona, Alaska have proven that, to be a fact. Enough rhyming!