Ever have a topic you didn't want to get involved in, but like a bad penny it just kept coming back? Well Open Carry is my bad penny. I grew up in Texas where we had rifles and shotguns in racks in the back of every pickup truck. It was no cause for alarm because if you HAD a pickup it usually meant you were most likely in agriculture on one farm or another. We all knew that technically you could stroll down the street carrying a long gun, but nobody DID it! I might add that back in the day NOone had a conceal carry permit. Others, like myself, carried concealed ANYWAY.
Carrying a gun means you must bring along your common sense. Why do you carry. Well, with all due respect to the sensitive nature of the Pink Panthers strewn up and down I-35 I carry a pistol to defend myself and if need be to kill people. I don't shoot elk, I don't shoot dogs, I don't shoot little old ladies who yell at me. I shoot "HomeBoys" who think trying to knock out or rob an old man is somehow a political statement. I can hear the Liberals puking in waste paper baskets from here already. I hate to be the one to enlighten all you girly-men from New York, so recently transplanted to Texas, but there's just no "nice" way to kill people. I've seen Luby's, numerous shootings, and I've been personally attacked three times in the last two years since coming home to Texas from California. I'd love to subscribe to your Trans-sexual Yellow Submarine but I'm a coward that can't fight and can't run, but I sure can shoot. I can draw a pistol in less than a second and bust a watermelon at 25 yards and I have the conscience of a rather mature cucumber when attacked. A liberal psychologist would classify me as a psychopath. I prefer "functional" psychopath.
But, all of that having been said, I do not open carry. I prefer my weapon to be concealed so if I need it the element of surprise comes into play. In the novel the Shootist, the statement is made, "Most men in defense situation will hesitate, blink, or have a thought before acting...I won't!" Well, that's the way I see it. If I have to draw my weapon it is not to intimidate, impress, or frighten anyone. It is because I have perceived an imminent threat to my life, a threat that must be neutralized. I view my weapon as a tool and use it with the same cool calculation that one would use a hammer to repair a defective plank on a privacy fence. Defective plank, defective HomeBoy.
I believe the Open Carry movement is a political spring board for further political change. I respect that. But, when the proponents of the movement meet with resistance they need to study history. Yankees who don't know history always fall back on the logic, "Oh, it'll be like the Wild West!" The so-called "Wild West" was created by Hollywood producers, ok?" The people in the 1800's never saw a quick draw holster tied down. It simply didn't exist, and if you don't believe that just look at the only picture, we have of Billy the Kid. His pistol, is high and tight and in fact, would most likely be under his coat in cold weather. He DID have a Winchester but he was under the same social situation that I grew up in and I suspect he did NOT carry it all over town. That picture was to impress the ladies. Little trivia for you. What instigated the gunfight at the OK Corral? It was Virgil Earp trying to enforce a city ordinance forbidding the carrying of weapons within the city limits! That is a point of fact and in another point of fact Doc Holliday was CONCEALED carrying a SHOTGUN!
I respect what CJ Grisham and others are trying to do. I believe that the 2nd amendment clearly allows citizens to carry weapons to defend their persons and I think it is obnoxious that people have resort to obnoxious acts to endorse their God given rights. I believe that social systems are like a giant invisible pendulum swinging to and for. We have gone from safe streets with Officer O'Malley walking the beat to a virtual war zone with SWAT teams taking down every female jogger who Jay-walks, and Open Carry is the people's reaction to that.
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