CJ Grisham

     I first met CJ Grisham in Austin during a rally. He was carrying this big flag, a bullet proof vest on, and a bottle of Ozarka water, which is always a nice touch when you're in Austin. His eyes kept scanning the horizon, but what he was really doing was watching the DPS because unlike me he understood that he and I were not the craziest people on the block that day. When we finally got together we didn't talk about Open Carry. He is LDS and at that point in time my family was going through yet another little dance with the CPS while they tried, yet again, to throw all my grandkids on the auction block, so we mainly discussed family, faith, and how nice it was in Utah.

     CJ came to national prominence when some gumshoe up in Temple, Texas took it upon himself to rewrite the constitution one afternoon while CJ was taking his boy on a merit badge hike along some country road. CJ had his rifle with him, and, of course his completely legal, licensed pistol, fashionably concealed, by his side. Some lady saw him walk by and became "alarmed" by the presence of his guns. Now I'd like to interject something here. I understand that said woman was loosely connected with a "Casa." A Casa is a kind of holding tank where little kidnapped CPS kids go until a suitable pedophile can be found for a more "permanent" solution. You see, CPS steals so many kids that sometimes they develop a traffic jam. So, in my opinion, this tower of public concern was not so much worried about CJ's rifle as she was those dollar signs walking in front of him striving for a merit badge.  And I don't want to hear that there are good Casas,  I'm sure there must be, but there were good Nazis, too, yada, yada, yada!

    So here comes Barney with a donut in his mouth questioning CJ about his guns. CJ was very polite, but firm, and, well you know, in short order RoboCop served and protected him! Now I grew up mainly in Bell County so I'm a gonna say some,things here that are going to set some people on their ear, but here goes. CJ is not, to my knowledge a Temple native, though he may be, and he is LDS. He was laboring under the delusion that being a veteran who served his country in WAR, and a church going father out to help his son during a hike that he and officer whomEVER would most likely be on the same sheet of music. What he didn't know is all Temple cops are stupid. Now, they're not as stupid as Nolanville cops, but they're right on up there in the top five, I'll assure you. Copperas Cove cops are pretty bad, too. In fact, Killeen has a fairly good police force. I think the Killeen chief tells them, "Watch Temple, Nolanville, and Copperas Cove, and whatever you see THEM do, do exactly the OPPOSITE! 

     So here we have the perfect storm. A law abiding citizen out for a walk, a cop trying to rewrite the constitution, and a kidnapper rubbing her hands in fiendish glee on the sidelines. Arrests CJ, steals his guns, slams him down on the hood of the car and subsequently got him convicted of interfering with a police officer during the consumption of a donut, with is a very serious charge. They even had to import a judge because they had to find one who could read!

     There's an old saying, "The one you should have left alone." Well, that's CJ! He's a vet, he believes in God, he's honest, and he's a type number one capitalist who has supported his family and church and keeps his eye firmly on his goals. Well, his main goal was now the bastardized gun laws in the great state of Texas! You see, for all the western lore they took our guns away right after the civil war. In the so called "Wild West," Texans really never strolled into the saloon with a hogleg on their hip. Texas was never actually invaded during the Civil War. The Yankees waited until the war was over and asked permission to enter. But, we had to be disarmed because there was this little thing about us having been a Republic, and not really ever getting along with the Nortés anyway, you know, stuff like that. So we trotted around for a hundred or so years carrying Skoll in our pockets instead of a Colt. After George Hennard did his little skit on birth control at Luby's the State relented and let us have LICENSED conceal carry. Now, I'm gonna let y'all in on a little secret so don't tell anybody, but we'd been carrying anyway, we just didn't tell the Yankees.  None of this made any sense to CJ. He played by the rules and got arrested ANYWAY, so what good was the license in his wallet when you could lose it for spitting on the sidewalk? No good, that's what! So why not strip away the nonsense and just let us have our freaking GUNS back, and friends and neighbors, that's exactly what he did! 

     He devised a thing called the "Gun Walk!" An obnoxious event for an obnoxious law. Of course California had a field day with it, but the cops began to figure it out and little by little and the gun walks began to be mainstay, more normalized, and most people saw them for what they really were. It wasn't just about guns, it was about RIGHTS! It was a public statement that a police officer had no right to slam any citizen down on the hood of a car and then make up a law to justify it. It was about freedom of speech, illegal search and seizure, and the right to be secure in your person. I don't know if even CJ himself knew the can of worms he'd opened that day on that lonely Temple road, but Texas did! I've said this before, but it bears repeating. William Barrett Travis allegedly drew a line in the main plaza of the Alamo. Now, Yankee historians will argue with me, saying it never happened that way, but the fact remains that the men of the Alamo stayed! Well, I contend that Travis continues to draw that line and a few, a very few, are called to come across. CJ crossed that line that afternoon in Temple, Texas. And now the Dallas Morning News has nominated him for Texan of the year. It doesn't really matter if he wins. The very first time a young lady reaches in her purse in a lonely, dark parking lot after work, and is not raped and murdered, CJ just made his point, and Texas, you can be proud of that!