238.5 - Footnote: open carry in Texas not getting the response the gun nuts expected

Footnote: open carry in Texas not getting the response the gun nuts expected

There is a bitterly amusing Footnote to that.

On January 1, an open-carry law went into effect in Texas, something long desired by the gun nuts, who drool over being able to parade around with everyone knowing they are packing heat. I mean, concealed carry is fine and all that, but what's really the point, I mean, c'mon, what's really the point of carrying at all if people can't by intimidated by your impressive, um, firepower because they don't know you have it?

However, things might not be going quite like they imagined.

A number of private sites and businesses, notably the Houston Zoo, have stepped up to say they will not allow open carry on their grounds which under the law they can do because they are private property.

But perhaps most notably, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, in what it says is "an effort to provide a safe environment and promote a family-friendly atmosphere," has announced it will not allow any handguns, concealed or open-carry, into the event, which has added importance because the whole rodeo thing recalls the (actually quite fictional) gun-loving mystique and lore of the cowboy.

Meanwhile, in order to comply with state liquor laws, Walmart is having senior clerks ask anyone who enters one of its Texas stores that sells alcohol who is carrying a gun to produce the paperwork proving the gun is licensed.

Of course the gun nuts groused about being "treated like a suspect" and one woman complained that "The whole time I felt like I was looking over my shoulder. I should not be stopped for something that I am not doing wrong."

Consider yourself lucky, ma'am: Instead of a white woman with a Bersa Thunder .380 pistol, you could have been a black kid with a toy.

Sources cited in links:
http://www.chron.com/houston/article/Houston-Livestock-Show-and-Rodeo-bans-open-carry-6834277.php
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-06/wal-mart-workers-on-pistol-patrol-as-law-lets-texans-tote-guns
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/23310-outrage-of-year-2015-tamir-rice.html