Preparations For Texas Open Carry
BY Herschel Smith
9 years ago
Internet trolls have learned to exploit our over-militarized police. It’s a crime that’s hard to stop — and hard to prosecute
Read the rest of it for context and the Dallas PD’s response.
Texas Monthly also has a long article dedicated to preparations for open carry.
Texas law enforcement has also been pretty vocal about their concerns with open carry. They are, after all, the group who’ll have to deal with most of the potential fallout of the new law in the upcoming months. While a majority of police chiefs have expressed a general opposition to the law (75 percent, according to a survey in February) , they were most vocal in May when a provision was added that would prevent police officers from stopping people solely because they were openly carrying a gun. By then, the passing of open carry seemed inevitable, so even Democrats who were originally opposed to the law supported the provision in hopes that it would help prevent the targeting of color openly carrying handguns.
“What’s going to happen is more interaction between police and black and brown and poor people because of lawful activity,” Rep. Harold Dutton told KXAN.
The provision made some sense, especially considering issues of racial profiling among Texas state troopers, but it was flawed. In May, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said at a news conference that the provision would “handcuff” police officers and prevent them from doing their jobs. He was accompanied by members of the Texas Police Chiefs Association, the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas, the Sheriff’s Association of Texas, and police unions from Houston and Dallas.
The law passed without the provision as it should have.
But one of the biggest concerns of law enforcement is establishing the fine line between respecting the rights of someone legally carrying a handgun and protecting the general public. “What happens when an officer sees someone openly carrying a handgun in a holster, in accordance with the law, what can an officer legally do?” Shannon Edmonds, director of governmental relations for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, told the Houston Chronicle. “We keep getting more questions than answers.”
The fear is that open carry will make it harder for police officers to tell the difference between a law-abiding citizen legally carrying a gun and someone with criminal intentions carrying a gun. In the Houston Chronicle, comments like these from Ray Hunt, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, don’t really help to clarify things.
Houston police, he said, will not “be doing random stops of people simply to see if they have a CHL,” but they also will not “sit back for 30 minutes” if they have a reasonable suspicion to stop someone.
Well, Ms. Edmonds, what can an officer do when he sees someone shopping in a store or sitting at a desk typing, both activities quite legal, and can’t tell whether the shopper or office worker will decide to blow up their building? What is a poor officer to do?
Really, folks, this has become a silly, exaggerated, inflated, dramatic, overly-complicated, hysterical fit. I can say that because my home state is a traditional open carry state, and I have opened carried, and seen others doing the same. It’s just not the problem you are making it out to be. When it’s time for open carry to be legal, some men will decide to open carry, and life will go on. Business will occur, and the only crimes that may spiral out of control would be SWAT call-outs from politically motivated callers who use the cops to drive their points.
Here’s a note to Texas police departments. If you don’t want to be used, don’t oblige. Don’t do it. Just say no. Stand up for yourself. Be men.
On December 21, 2015 at 9:31 am, Fred said:
I don’t like Shannon Edmonds’ question either. It presupposes criminality where there is no evidence.It also presupposes subordination on the part on the people to the police. Hey, I got an idea. The officers and sheriff’s deputies could assess the environment they are in for criminal activity while interacting an a friendly and helpful manner with the community.
On December 21, 2015 at 12:05 pm, Archer said:
RE: Shannon Edmonds:
“What happens when an officer sees someone driving down the street in a car, in accordance with the law, what can an officer legally do?”
“What happens when an officer sees someone reading a Bible on a bench in the park, in accordance with the law, what can an officer legally do?”
“What happens when an officer sees someone typing out a Facebook post in an internet cafe, in accordance with the law, what can an officer legally do?”
“What happens when an officer sees someone visiting his/her lawyer at the lawyer’s office, in accordance with the law, what can an officer legally do?”
I could come up with more, but I believe the point is made. If the person is “in accordance with the law”, the officer can ask questions but absent other articulable suspicious behavior cannot demand answers, detain, or arrest.
In other words, “what happens when an officer sees someone openly carrying a handgun in a holster, in accordance with the law” is just like any other interaction with law-abiding citizens.
On December 21, 2015 at 12:34 pm, TexTopCat said:
The article correctly states that “police chiefs” that are members of the AFLCIO liberal union are not in favor of “open carry” or in fact any part of citizens exercising 2A civil rights.
However, the police officer on the street and the ones elected, do support both forms of legal carry in public. See Police One recent polls.
On December 21, 2015 at 5:57 pm, Phil Ossiferz Stone said:
We in California enjoyed the right to open carry for the entire history of our state, until the people in Sacramento discovered it existed. So they took it away.
Keep fighting while you’re on top, Texans. Make it your full time part-time hobby. Because this is what your enemies are doing. And fighting when you’re flat on your back sucks.
On December 21, 2015 at 6:58 pm, Billy Mullins said:
I, for one, was very sorry the restriction on stopping merely because a person is carrying lost. It would have been nice to have had them just the tiniest bit restrained. But in the final analysis, no such provision can stop a determined pig from hassling somebody merely because they are openly carrying. One of the skills all LEOs are taught is how to write a report so as to justify a Terry stop.