Politicians and Media Are Misleading the Public About Armed Texans

Texas Gun iStock-884200682
On the 2nd day of Christmas, more anti-gun measures from Bloomberg and Beto in Texas. IMG iStock-884200682

U.S.A.-(AmmoLand.com)- It has been a month since Texans enjoyed carrying a firearm in public without a permit. At the beginning of September they joined tens of millions of us who already had permit-less carry. Nothing much happened in Texas. A few more honest citizens defended themselves.

That isn’t what some politicians and law enforcement officers predicted. They said we would see extraordinary levels of violence in the streets after we let our neighbors carry in public. The media never examined those extravagant claims. Now, we can do what the news media failed to do.

Houston Mayor Sylvester issued another press release about how dangerous honest gun owners can be unless they have a government license to carry concealed.

“Under this (permit-less carry) bill, even a law-abiding citizen can become a danger.. They could become a danger to themselves and others due to mishandling a deadly weapon.. This flawed new law will have a harmful impact inside our neighborhoods and on our streets. Unregulated guns aggravate our public safety problems.”

We can look at the news to see if the honest citizens of Houston who are legally allowed to own guns suddenly acted irresponsibly after this law took effect. I looked, and I didn’t see the holocaust the mayor predicted. In contrast, I can find many stories where criminals continued to break the law, but that is what criminals have always done. The mayor owes the honest gun owners in Houston an apology. The news media also owes us an apology for not checking the mayor’s story.

Dallas police chief Eddie Garcia said that law-abiding gun owners should only be allowed to carry concealed in public if they pass a state-mandated training course. Remember that the open carry of a handgun without a license was, and remains, perfectly legal in Texas. Chief Garcia is saying that ordinary gun owners who were open carrying their personal firearms without a license would suddenly become monsters after they cover their holster with a piece of cloth. I don’t believe in magic shirts, but evidently, some police chiefs do.

Chief Garcia also said his officers couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad guys without a piece of paper issued by the state. I can only conclude that there is a training issue with the once-great Dallas PD.

Constitutional carry is already the law of the land in 21 other states. Law enforcement officers in those states learned to base their actions on people’s behavior.

Speaking personally, I want people to get their carry license and continue training, but the policemen I know considered any stranger as a potential threat, license or no license. I suspect that the chief already knew that, but the chief assumed the reporters wouldn’t embarrass the chief with obvious facts. That says a lot about the chief’s reputation and the reputation of the news reporters too.

The Austin interim police chief Joseph Chacon said that crime was rising to historic levels. Chacon is right, yet the chief wanted more honest citizens disarmed unless they get a permission slip from the state before they exercised their right of self-defense. Let’s be honest. Law enforcement officers are not interchangeable. Sheriffs are elected by the voters in their county, while Police Chiefs are appointed by politicians. The chief doesn’t have a political opinion of his own. He represents the political opinion of his boss. To be more precise, the chief’s opinion reflects the political leaning of the mayor’s campaign donors.

We have not seen a surge in violence perpetrated by legal gun owners in Texas. I don’t expect to see one because that isn’t what happened in other states after they adopted constitutional carry.

We have seen crime increase after big-city prosecutors let criminals walk away. That trend started before and continued after Texas adopted permit-less carry. Perhaps because of that political failing, we’ve seen more citizens protecting themselves and their families with a firearm, and doing a good job of it.

I asked a few firearms instructors in Texas if they noticed any trends after constitutional carry took effect. The number of people in their licensing classes went up and down slightly, but they saw a large increase in the number of people who wanted training in armed defense. I’m not surprised because we’ve seen this before in other states.

That is what I’d do if I was a new gun owner in Texas. That is what you’d do, and it turns out that our neighbors did too. Now we have to ask why the news media couldn’t figure that out.

We’re lucky to have Ammoland.


About Rob Morse

The original article, with sources, is posted here. Rob Morse writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily, at Second Call Defense, and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast and co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. Rob was an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.Rob Morse

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WI Patriot

“Politicians and Media Present Misleading Claims About Armed Texans”

This is nothing new, and it’s not just Texas…

DDS

And its not just about concealed carry/open carry/permitless carry/(fill in the blank) carry. Nor is it new. The made the same doomsday predictions back in Florida before it became a “shall issue” state back in 1987. If you checked, you’d find the same broken record hysteria about fender benders turning into high noon at the OK Corral repeated every time a state opens up its restrictions on carry in whatever form. Funny why the Left never mention the history of the one state that has never had any restrictions on carry of any type. Are there any gunshot survivors left… Read more »

Randy

If a politician’s lips are moving, HE/SHE IS LYING!

Hazcat

You forgot the ‘IT’ category. 😉

Tionico

more basic than that. Career politicians only stop lying when they stop breathing. And many of them, like Johnson,Ed Kennedy, etc, contunie lying from their graves.

Montana454Casull

We have had constitutional carry in Montana for several months now and nothing extraordinary has happened as the same people who open carried now carry concealed. Criminals now have to be more selective about choosing victims though. Thier life depends on it . !

Hazcat

“Speaking personally, I want people to get their carry license …” Want to explain why you think people should get a license to perform a constitutionally protected right?

You state that permit-less carry is proved to be safe and and yet you support getting a carry license. You can’t be on both sides of the fence and keep your credibility.

Tionico

Still not a bad idea. Don’t know aobut Texasbut in some states the Mother May I Card isproof of federal bckground check, and thus can be used in place of a NICS check for new acqusitioins. Many other states that do not have Con Carry also recognise and accept the Mother May I Cards Texas. I know my home state MotherMay I Card is recg=ognised in Texas, which is suprising because my state does NOT recognise Texas Cards. Same with other states.

Frdmftr

How about opposing the illegal background check instead of using it as an excuse for greater government intrusion into our rights? The background check is a violation not only of our right to keep and bear arms but also of our right to be secure from unreasonable (unwarranted) search and seizure under our 4th Amendment, and also of our right to be secure from the taking of any right without due process (criminal conviction) under our 5th Amendment, and also of our right to be secure from being compelled to give up a right in order to exercise a right… Read more »

JSNMGC

When are enforcers going to stop enforcing unconstitutional laws?

What orders will they not obey?

When will they honor their “oaths?”

At least two ex-LAPD enforcers have been posting this morning. CA gun control laws infringe more than federal laws.

Is their pension more valuable than your rights?

JSNMGC

Ha! 100% The anger here is hysterical. I tried to provide a list recently to illustrate the inconsistencies, but the least bit of subtlety and/or sarcasm is lost on many (not you). Therefore, I’ll be literal: Yes, Democrat politicians are bad; Yes, “RINOS” (most Republican politicians) are bad; Yes, never-ending federal gun control laws are bad; Yes, the BATFE is bad; Yes, California gun laws are bad; Most people here agree with all of the above. Are the majoriy of CA enforcers good? That’s were many of the ex-government employees lose their minds. Day after day they talk about politicians… Read more »

JSNMGC

There are government conspiracies. There is nothing wrong with having theories about them. Some make sense from many angles and the results of the conspiracies can be seen daily. Some theories are a little hard to reconcilie the pieces though and therefore, at a high level, seem to be questionable. I’d like to hear an open debate on some of them. I was recently criticized for saying I’d like to hear opposing parties on a lenghty internet-based debate. What’s wrong with that? The continual slide towards totalitarianism is easy to see. There are very specfic examples, and the infrastructure is… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by JSNMGC
JSNMGC

Hello authoritarian statists!

There are dozen or so people here who would love to have a warrant signed by a judge for a red flag enforcement action and enforce it against people with whom they disagree.

Some of them would give two weeks pay to light someone up using the pretext of a broken tail light and then escalate, escalate, lie, lie, escalate, and then shoot the person, claiming they made a “furtive movement.”

JSNMGC

Be careful if you fish in La Porte, Texas – friends may be helpful (yes, youtube):

“EXPOSING SERGEANT MICHAEL HARNESS: UNLAWFULLY ARRESTING PEOPLE FOR WALKING!!”
The most egregious crime in America is not respecting those enforcers who are emotional, thin-skinned, and have an ego based on power.

It is unlikely a “good apple” will be anywhere in sight.

swmft

they want to get in your face and tell you what to do ,if you have a gun they cant

DonP

It would be more accurate to say that liberals in general continue to be wrong about everything. I’m not sure, however, that they were actually wrong about things, but that they make inaccurate statements about them. Sometimes they are wrong… and sometimes they are just lying.

Frdmftr

“Chief Garcia also said his officers couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad guys without a piece of paper issued by the state.” Which means Chief Garcia automatically assumes a guy with a gun is a bad guy. Never mind Chief Garcia’s oath of office, which requires him to recognize the right of a citizen to keep and bear arms without his permission. If Chief Garcia is willing to arrest law-abiding citizens for peaceably exercising their rights, then Chief Garcia should be impeached by acclamation and required to do hard time for insurrection against the Constitution of the United… Read more »

Mac

Garcia is a liberal idiot.

Bobtail

You made a mistake. Open carry only became legal a few years ago and ONLY with a concealed carry permit. It’s wasn’t legal before that. You could open carry a rifle or shotgun.

DonP

“It has been a month since Texans enjoyed carrying a firearm in public without a permit.”

Who writes your articles? The first line implies that Texans used to enjoy carrying a firearm in public without a permit, but stopped being able to as of a month ago. Pick one of the following:

‘It has been a month since Texans started enjoying carrying a firearm in public without a permit.’

‘It has been a month since Texans were unable to carry a firearm in public without a permit.’

Either one would be accurate. Yours is not.

Boz

“misIeading” = Iies

Tionico

The mayor of Houstin shold step back and seriously consider it was HIS city (admittedly before he came on watch) that gave this nation a serious contender for Dirtiest Cop Ever status. Officer Goines has been directly responsible for atl least two unjust deaths, and is implicated in others. Further, his long track record of “fixing” evidence has led directly and proximally to the long term incarceration of dozens perhaps even hundreds of iinnocents, serving collectively perhaps a few hundred years jail/prison time. He had dozens of accomlices, all but perhaps one or two of which have thus far escaped… Read more »

Jo

Re “politicians and media are misleading the public”… The most vital and urgent DEEP understanding everyone needs to gain is that a bunch of psychopaths are governing big businesses (eg official medicine), nations and the world and that the Covid Scamdemic is a VERY DESTRUCTIVE WAR AGAINST NON-RULING PEOPLE EVERYWHERE — you and I. But that’s only ONE part of the equation. The true, WHOLE, but “politically inconvenient” and “culturally forbidden” reality is more encompassing. Review “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room –The Holocaustal Covid-19 Coronavirus Madness: A Sociological Perspective & Historical Assessment Of The Covid “Phenomenon”” by… Read more »

hp

Good article, but this statement below is incorrect. You must have a “license to carry” in Texas to openly carry a handgun. That has not changed with constitutional carry. Long guns can be openly carried in Texas without any license.

“Remember that the open carry of a handgun without a license was, and remains, perfectly legal in Texas.”

Frdmftr

So move to Arizona, where no permission slip is required to keep and bear arms on your person, concealed or openly. [Though you can get a CCW permit if you want one because it allows you to skip the background check when purchasing a firearm. I think it would be better to scrap the illegal background check in the first place: The federal government has no lawful authority to license firearm dealers.

Stag

You must have missed the laws that went into effect last month.

Bobtail

Exactly correct.