Voting Resources
Texas House Committee Passes Open Carry Handgun Bill - Is this a good idea for Texas?
NOTE: This article is about a bill in the 2011 Texas Legislature. That bill did not clear Calendars and did not become law. See new story about 2013 HB 700 in the current legislative session for updated information.
The Texas House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security & Public Safety passed HB 2756 out to the floor for a vote by the entire House of Representatives. The bill basically removes the word "Concealed" from the "Concealed Handgun License" allowing a person with a Handgun License to carry the firearm either concealed or exposed (Open Carry). The bill was introduced by Rep. George Lavender (R - Texarkana).
Many will see this as a victory for 2nd Amendment supporters, but the bill falls short of what is called "Constitutional Carry" which would allow open or concealed carry, with or without a license as is permitted by many states including Alaska, Arizona and Vermont. The term Constitutional Carry refers to the 2nd Amendments statement that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
I was attending a law enforcement conference this week in Dallas and had the opportunity to ask many police officers and other firearms industry professionals their opinion of the prospect of open carry of handguns in Texas. Most officers I spoke with opposed the open carry bill, but for a variety of reasons. None of these reasons had anything to do with opposing civilians carrying guns. The concern was more related to the extra training or experience that should be required or necessary in order to openly carry a firearm. This mainly revolves around weapon retention. Others opposed the issue saying it takes away the tactical surprise of a concealed weapon.
Other officers spoke in support of the legislation with a couple of different perspectives. One officer told me he would rather see the firearm exposed than concealed from the standpoint of officer safety. He said "I would rather know up front what I am dealing with when I apporach someone". Yet another officer told me he felt open carry might deter crimes from occuring citing the intimidation factor of a robber walking into a store or bank and seeing two or three people openly carrying weapons.
I spoke with one of Texas's leading holster manufacturers and a leading personal defense trainer, Brian Hoffner from Houston. Hoffner is a strong believer that every law abiding citizen should carry a firearm. He said however, "I believe this bill is unnecessary. Open carry removes the element of surprise from the person carrying the firearm and transfers it to the bad guy." He continued, "The action vs reaction time advantage shifts dramatically to the person committing the crime." This can be a matter of life and death in this type of situation. He also stated that the average civilian does not have the training or experience to be able to retain an exposed weapon if it is unexpectedly challenged.
Having carried open and concealed in New Mexico and Arizona, I can tell you I much prefer concealed carry. Carrying an exposed handgun in a convenience store or other public place makes me feel very vulnerable as I must then be constantly aware of who is close enough to me to take away the gun and use it against me or someone else. Open carry takes away your ability to decide when and more importantly, if to introduce a firearm into a given situation. You lose many options if the bad guy knows you are carrying.
Whether you support or oppose this bill, now is the time to let your legislators and state senators know how you feel as it will be coming to a vote soon.
Of course, lefties would ask why a citizen would every want to carry a handgun. Perhaps one of the best answers I ever heard to that question came from my business partner at Blue Wonder Gun Care Products, Will Thompson when he said, "You just never know when you are going to run into a really well armed chipmunk!" Will, here is he!
Comments
I traind to carry a fire arm
The irrelevance of opinion
Statistics show that the vast majority of people who even have a CHL rarely ever actually carry their gun. Said another way, only a small percentage of CHL holders actually carry a gun routinely. Of those who do, an even smaller percentage will choose to wear their gun in the open. Here in Texas, people with CHLs who do carry have to make a lot of sartorial compromises, often at the expense of personal comfort because of the weather, in order to carry their gun. The hoops one has to jump through to exercise a basic freedom guaranteed by the Constitution are ridiculous. If the same types of restrictions were placed on the other enumerated individual rights in the Constitution, there would be rioting in the streets. It is time for the state of Texas to begin treating its adult population like adults.
The sight of uniform police officers carrying a pistol in the open generates very few "man with a gun" calls from the public. People are largely either unobservant, or they simply don't care.
Nothing against LEOs, but statistics prove that CHL holders themselves actually commit crimes at a lower rate than LEOs do. Those who have gone to significant personal expense and jumped through all the hoops that the state of Texas places in their path in order to exercise a constitutional right are not a threat to the general public....whether their sidearm is concealed or carried in the open.
Whenever the Republican party in Texas is faced with legislation which affects the personal freedom of the citizenry, the party should ALWAYS come down on the side of personal freedom. It should never even be a question. The Democrat party is the party of nanny state statism, and the Republican party should always stand in sharp contrast to that. The Supreme Court has already ruled in Heller that the 2nd Amendment is an individual right. It has held in McDonald that it applies to the individual states. Rick Perry has made much noise about the 10th Amendment. Now let him put that into practice and not just make noise.
Constitutional Carry should be the ultimate goal of the Republican party. Whether we get there in a series of steps or all at once is simply a matter of tactics; but let the party give full-throated support of the rights of The People as enumerated in the Constitution, including the unrestricted right to keep and bear arms. Do we legislate when, where, and how you may speak? Yes we do, because legitimate issues of public safety are involved. Can you should FIRE! in a movie theater? Yes, actually.....you can.....if there actually is a fire. Do we legislate when, where, and how you will carry your mouth and tongue? No we don't. Laws which regulate the when, where, and how we may fire a gun can be legitimate. Celebratory shooting of a firearm into the air within the city limits is a risk to the public safety, and it is rightfully unlawful. But laws which regulate when, where, and how we may carry a gun are infringements on personal freedom, and the Republican party ought not to be party to such infringements.
As far as how Texas LEOs should approach open carry, let them deal with it the same way as any other state which has had it for years. Treat adults like adults, and it will be a non-issue. As to their personal safety (which is a legitimate concern), consider the following: under current CHL law, there is already an obligation on the part of the CHL holder to present both IDs to an LEO, and most license holders consider that to be a matter of "professional courtesy." We WANT the police to know that we are the good guys. The person who is an existential threat to a police officer is not going to be compliant with the law. His gun will most likely be concealed, and he will most likely not inform the officer he is carrying one. In other words, nothing changes in that regard.
I would also point out that, in the context of the author's post, the opinions of LEOs, beyond their personal opinions as voters, are irrelevant. Their job is to uphold the law, not write the law. Writing the law is the legislature's job. Let them do it with a regard for the natural, God-given rights of man. It is well to remember the words of Suzanna Gratia Hupp, when she said:
"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as a part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of."
It is far and away time for the Republican party of Texas to start putting that into practice, and I can see no better way to send that message than to finally remove the restrictions against the open carrying of firearms by trustworthy and productive citizens.
I personally believe that it
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