Any tactic that beings with that assumption is the wrong one. It’s not illegal to make firearms in Texas, nor is it going to make that illegal anytime in the foreseeable future. Open Carry already seems like a done deal in Texas. Constitutional Carry might need some work, but it’s good to know what legislators are going to be open to persuasion. Don’t waste your time with the guys that aren’t. Pressure the legislators you might have some prayer to actually unseat, or at least make things very uncomfortable for. Rep. Poncho Naverez is not among those who fall into that category. That confrontation served absolutely no useful purpose.
You know why Rep. Navarez is happy to say he’s a “no” vote so readily? Or why he treats a threat to his seat with friendly and sportsmanlike indifference? Because in 2012, he won his overwhelmingly hispanic district with 60% of the vote. In 2014, a Republican wave year, he didn’t even draw a challenger. Rep. Navarez knows that his constituents either outright agree with his position on this issue, or at least don’t care enough to vote against him over it. You can threaten his seat all you want, but he what he knows, and what some of the activists in that video don’t, is that unless Navarez is caught with a dead girl or live boy, he’s probably in that seat as long as he wants to be there.
You don’t need Navarez’s vote to pass open carry or constitutional carry, which is good, because you’re never going to get it. You’re not reminding him he works for “the people,” because you’re not the people he works for. His people are his constituents, who seem to be largely happy with him. If you want his vote, that’s what you have to change. There will be no convincing him unless you convince his constituents that he’s failing them. This is how a Republic works, and no amount of calling anyone a tyrant is going to change that.
So it seems these Texas open carry morons are still trying to stop OC from becoming legal there.
BTW – here’s a hilarious story about Texas loser Kory Watkins, who posted the above video on Facebook:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/gun-nut-yells-at-cops-conducting-dui-checkpoint-later-hit-by-drunk-driver-on-way-home/
At least he’s useful for some occasional comic relief when he’s not out there trying to undermine gun rights.
I don’t agree with him on his positions from that rawstory.com article about drunk driving, but I don’t think there’s anything particular hypocritical, inconsistent or gotcha about believing what he does and what happened to him. One can believe that a certain measure of freedom, however one wants to define it, is worth the risk it imposes.
I’d probably have less respect for him if the accident changed his views on DUI. If he was willing to do that, he wasn’t really ever committed to his viewpoint.
I think this about sums him up:
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/texas/article/Open-carry-advocates-clash-over-tactics-as-Lege-6013258.php?t=dcb3661f25388379ba
Texas has been without an effective gun group for some time and the state affiliate of the NRA has been… what’s the word, somewhat hostile to efforts to repeal their open carry ban. We seem to be giving the media their gun grabber friends in the legislature all the conceivable benefits of the doubt here.
You may be right about not needing, nor having any chance of getting the Navarez vote, but that doesn’t mean that gun owners should just give him a pass. Certainly if they can help get an opposition candidate, and make the next election more costly, and keep building on that it’s possible to have some impact .
I understand there are 2 “open carry†bills, one that has a permit requirement and one that does not. The presence of the 2nd bill is not meant so that one or the other will pass, the 2nd bill was introduced to foment infighting among our community to the point that the legislature can say ‘we tried, but you guys didn’t want the bill we had ready to pass’.
I’ve seen some lawmakers get a bit uppity with constituents over the years and it’s usually the ones who are in truly safe seats. I’ve seen them rude, dismissive and insulting and sometimes you don’t know who they are ahead of time. So there probably were some rookie mistakes in the tactics employed here, but maybe the TX gun culture will grow from this and learn from the campaign.
I am a member of the TSRA, and the TSRA is not hostile to open carry. They just don’t see it as a huge priority, compared to getting guns allowed in universities, which as the largest gun free zones that exist, are in my opinion a bigger priority.
There are more than two that will be filed, there are several. Of the two currently filed only one allows open carry without a license – the other would require a CHL to also OC.
The problem is that bill HB195 would also strike the requirement for a license to concealed carry – and that is likely a loser.
As long as I’ve lived in TX, the TSRA has never been hostile to OC, but understood that with the very limited legislative sessions in TX, there were more popular and more “win-able” issues than OC.
OC seems to be a winner now, and that’s great, as long as these types of fools don’t ruin the general public sentiment.
This is not easy or simple. On one hand, there are certainly outlaws among the various legislatures. Calling them outlaws to their faces has a certain appeal to it. What is truly effective is another subject however. History will provide some examples, but be careful even in that. The American founders took to actual shooting of course, but they endured far more usurpation for years before that. MLK Jr. seems to have made for some lasting positive change, and so did Jesus and a few others. Some people changed things a lot, but not for the better.
I don’t feel I should do much criticizing, being as I’m not doing much myself, nor was I there to see what actually happened.
People are getting impatient, and it’s easy to understand why. Outlaw legislators aren’t to be taken lightly, nor given undue latitude, nor excessive lenience. Winning hearts and minds is, again, another subject, and so it’s complicated. Just be cool out there.
Kory Watkins scores another victory against freedom:
http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/House-approves-panic-buttons-in-wake-of-open-6015078.php
With friends like this, who needs enemies?
I am more interested in Campus Carry. Yes CHL holders packing on State University Grounds.
OC has a big problem as to who is legal to posses guns. With no ID exposed we don’t know if the user is legal or not.
I prefer Campus Carry if they are going to do anything this year.