
Texas poised to allow open carry guns - hsnewman
http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/local_news/article_d43daac4-43b3-11e5-8e7e-976d9f0a9b5f.html
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koenigdavidmj
...for those who fulfill the same requirements that current concealed handgun
license holders have. Let's take a look at the violent crime rates among CHL
holders:

[https://www.txdps.state.tx.us/rsd/chl/reports/convrates.htm](https://www.txdps.state.tx.us/rsd/chl/reports/convrates.htm)

Consistently under half a percent of violent and weapons crimes and felonies
are committed by licensed CHL holders. It turns out that people who get
handgun licenses generally have a pretty strong interest in keeping them.

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RyJones
This will, hopefully, end ticky-tack arrests for "printing" or similar
problems where a licensed concealed carrier wears a tight shirt, or one that
rides up, and results in arrest/aggravation for "open carry" when really all
they needed to do was pull the shirt down.

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chomp
We've had protection for this for a couple years now:

[http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSe...](http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=SB299)

They changed the wording so that you're only guilty if you "intentionally
display your handgun in plain view of another person in a public place."

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RyJones
thanks, not up to speed on current Texas laws, clearly. Good to see.

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CamTin
I'm a non-gunowner and frankly don't understand why open carry is seen as the
more extreme version of concealed carry. It's much more worrisome to me that
someone might have a hidden gun than if they have one out in the open. Then I
can _see_ who has a gun and try extra hard no to piss that guy off instead of
being surprised by it.

Is all the fuss just from people who would rather remain ignorant and not
think about it?

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krapp
Openly carrying a firearm is a display of intimidation and a threat of
violence. Whether or not this is the reaction that open carriers _intend_ is
irrelevant. The reason you 'try extra hard no to piss that guy off' is that if
you piss him off, he might shoot you.

This is what Robert A. Heinlein described when he said "an armed society is a
polite society." But what that really implies is "a polite society is one
where every head has a gun to it." Understandably, that is not the sort of
vibe most people want to encounter in their day to day life. Fear and the
instinct for self-preservation are not adequate substitutes for civility and
society.

That said, the actual threat is probably coming from the guy with the gun you
can't see. But if I walked around everywhere with a sword of large kitchen
knife, even if I never intended to stab anyone with it, people are still going
to wonder why I've got it out in the open like I might.

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eip
Hippies. Arizona has had open carry forever.

