Olmos Park City Council Repeals Open Carry Ordinance
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 8 months ago
OLMOS PARK — The video has gone viral. Open Carry Texas President CJ Grisham and several other members were along the streets of Olmos Park protesting their right to carry a loaded gun.
Grisham and two other men were arrested by Olmos Park police, facing various charges including resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer.
“He was legally carrying and they are drawing down on him like he is a terrorist, he had his hands up and he is backing away, which they will say he is resisting arrest, but doesn’t everyone back up from a threat,” said Open Carry Texas member Felix Cano.
Open Carry Texas says they were protesting a Olmos Park city ordinance that prohibited anyone other than law enforcement to carry a loaded rifle or shotgun on public streets. Thursday City Council voted unanimously to repeal that ordinance.
“The City of Olmos Park had from a long time ago put in place an ordinance that none of the current council members were involved with, regarding not allowing those two types of weapons to be loaded,” said Olmos Park City Council member Enzo Pellegrino.
Open Carry Texas says this was a victory for them.
“There shouldn’t be any more illegal arrests and throwing down Americans that are legally allowed to carry and putting other charges that don’t belong there,” said Cano.
“Open Carry Texas says this was a victory for them.” Well I guess so. It was indeed a victory for them. I had followed this story from a distance, not knowing the back story behind it and not wanting to do the research necessary to understand it.
But this is the backstory. It looks like the city of Olmos decided to engage in a little nullification themselves, being the little Napoleons they are. Open carry is now legal in Texas, and while Olmos challenged that, Texas Open Carry decided to challenge Olmos.
Texas Open Carry won. Good for them. The city cannot make its own laws.
On April 12, 2018 at 7:34 am, Jack said:
While in the long run this is a victory for 2A rights in Texas, it is unfortunate that CJ Grisham was involved. Grisham has a long and unfortunately sordid history of having a distant relationship with the truth, common decency, and sanity.
Michael Yon (https://www.michaelyon-online.com) has documented many of Grisham’s issues and I direct you to there for more information.
On April 12, 2018 at 7:44 am, June J said:
Open Carry Texas and CJ Grisham are a blight upon us in Texas who support the 2nd Amendment and open carry. Their antics have cost plenty of support among on the fence legislators as we work on regaining 2nd Amendment rights.
The Olmos Park City Council already had scheduled the meeting to discuss and vote on the city ordinance prior to OCT’s shenanigans.
Grisham is an attention monger and can’t stand being out of the news.
On April 12, 2018 at 9:18 am, Fred said:
Wow, a (two people actually) man was willing to get arrested for what he believes. Scheduled meeting gets emphasis added and attention of Austin. Repeal goes into place. And it’s bad? Look, any idiot can carry or nobody can, pick. Admittedly I don’t know anything about OCT except their vids.
If a man with a rifle scares a fence sitter, he wasn’t an actual fence sitter he is a wus who is sceeered of guns anyway. And if I recall, open carry of handguns passed. I’m confused about these fence sitters.
I’ve had a one on one, face to face meeting with my state’s speaker of the house. I’ve met with several of those running for fed house, local state reps and governor candidates. I donate, call, and send email. So I’m aware that there are other routes available because I use them myself but if I had the money I would be under arrest right now for boarding the nearby transit bus system where poor people are told, outside of the law, they can’t protect themselves. (may the mayor burn in hell.)
Look, Texas isn’t my state so maybe I’m simply uninformed but this seems to be going pretty good even though some of OCT’ antics are a bit much but clearly the NRA route isn’t working, at all.
So @Jack and @June, how do you get involved specifically, and fight for our rights? What should I be doing? Maybe I could learn something today. Thanks.
On April 12, 2018 at 11:22 am, Herschel Smith said:
@Jack,
I appreciate Michael Yon’s friendship. I have the utmost respect for him and his work, although I’ve somewhat lost track of him (I assume he’s still in Thailand).
I’m well aware of CJ’s stuff. That’s not what’s at issue here. You’re making it sound as if the city council was prepared to meet and undo their bad policy BEFORE this protest even took place, and the protest was merely to garner attention.
Do you have any evidence that the city council planned all along to undo the policy?
On April 14, 2018 at 10:29 am, Jack said:
@Herschel –
I believe you’re confusing me and @June. Perhaps June can comment on the local politics…
I’m happy to take the win. As I said, it’s just unfortunate that Grisham is involved – he generates much ill-will towards the #2A community.
PS – Yon appears to post a lot on Facebook (which I’ve abandoned because of its low signal to noise ratio) – mostly about his family, Thailand, and Korean comfort women.