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Gun Carrying Group May Not Be Only Ones Affected By Arlington Bans
April 23, 2014 6:40 PM


ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) – One story reported on CBSDFW.COM has a lot of people talking. It started with Tuesday night’s vote on an ordinance by the Arlington City Council to ban guns and concealed weapons at public meetings.
Members of the gun rights group Open Carry Tarrant County believe they are the ones being targeted, but they may not be the only ones affected by ordinance changes.
A second Arlington ban could put heavy restrictions on handing out pamphlets.
We’ve all seen them from time-to-time – groups trying to push their cause, including gun rights advocates. Now some leaders in Arlington say the approach by some groups creates hazardous situations.
Kim Martinez believes in free speech. But she says what happened to her recently nearly left her speechless. Recalling her reaction when approached Martinez said, ‘I was just like ‘step away from my car.’ I just looked at them and said ‘No! Back away from my car.’”
Martinez says she was approached last Friday near Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Open Carry members walked up to try to hand her a copy of the constitution and literature promoting gun rights.
Not only were they carrying pamphlets, they were also packing heat. Members were armed and had their weapons openly displayed.
“It scared me. It really scared me,” Martinez said of the encounter. “I didn’t want them near my car. I didn’t want their gun near my car. I didn’t really want to hear anything they had to say.”
The Open Carry group has even documented several run-ins with police. Members ask if firefighters — who would be excluded from the ban — can stand and walk on street corners, sidewalks and medians while soliciting donations, then why can’t they?
Kory Watkins, with Open Carry Tarrant County, claimed that, “Nobody just goes to the car waving their gun around.”
Arlington council members also want to ban people from passing out literature to drivers in the roadway, but one member voted against the measure. Another vote will take place in May.
Kory said, “For us, it just means we are going to be harassed when we go pass out literature to citizens who mutually agree to want it and call us over.”
As for mom Kim Martinez, she said she was just glad she didn’t have her kids with her when Open Carry members approached her. “I applaud them for standing up for what they believe in. That’s all our rights and more people should do it.”
Open Carry members say if the ordinance passes in May then they are ready to go to court.
Sources told CBS 11 News the group will be in Euless on Thursday.

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Originally posted by JBrown:
I've been saying it for years. Texas is the new California!

Why don't you guys get off your butts and vote your anti-gun politicians out of office?

I guess it is true what they say: "Ain't nothing come from Texas but steers and queers."

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Originally posted by Gatogordo:
Why didn't you stay in California and vote all the anti-gun politicians out? Instead of running like a coward?

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Originally posted by Gatogordo:
I think they're hurting gun rights far more than helping.

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Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Get over it open carry is coming to Texas both governor candidates even the liberal demorat said they well back an open carry bill.

Guns owners should just sit in the back of the bus and not eat at the whites only counter.

Open carry of handguns is legal in most states Texas is still struck in the post civil war era when it comes to carrying handguns.

The anti's hate firearms trying to appease them is the wrong way to go.

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Since you're in Wis. you don't see the TV tapes about these incidents that I do. I'm not suggesting in any way that ALL the people who are actively supporting

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From lavaca: .... do I want thugs walking down the street with open guns? No.

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From pagosawingnut: I personally feel that it causes an anxious feeling in non-armed citizens, almost to a "scared" point.

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I prefer Concealed Carry to open carry.

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"....open carry does seem to limit law enforcement.

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If I "expose" the pistol, without good cause, I commit an offense. Law enforcement can detain, question, and/or arrest me.

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Hands and feet and blunt instruments are used in more murders in the U.S. annually than knives and firearms combined.

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Mere possession of an instrument which ***MAY*** be used as a weapon, absent any act of aggression or attempt to use that instrument in an offensive manner, is not sufficient reason to infringe upon the rights of a citizen in any way.

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Open Carry Advocates Scared the Sourdough Out of a Bunch of Jack in the Box Employees
by DAN SOLOMON
TUE MAY 6, 2014 11:12 AM

Stop us if this sounds familiar: An armed group in a Texas city, semi-automatic rifles strapped across their backs, descended on a place where you don't typically see a bunch of large guns, scaring the hell out of the people who caught a glimpse of them. It's no wonder that some people thought that perhaps the armed group might be up to no good—only to learn that the group was just exercising their right to carry a long-arm firearm openly in public in the state of Texas.

This latest example of the growing trend occurred at a Fort Worth Jack In The Box location. As NBC DFW reports:

"An email from Sgt. Ray Bush, with the Fort Worth Police Department, said Jack in the Box employees at the South Freeway location on Sycamore School Road, were scared about the armed men protesting outside of the restaurant.

“They locked themselves inside a freezer for protection out of fear the rifle-carrying men would rob them,” the email stated. “The demonstration had no signage that would have alerted anyone to their real purpose, and to our knowledge they did not attempt to contact anyone in the Fort Worth Police Department to advise us prior to the demonstration.”

Fort Worth police responded to the situation as if it was a robbery.

The response from the Open Carry advocates who marched on the Jack In The Box also followed the established pattern for these things: A lot of talking about how they felt like the police were treating them like criminals, and reminding reporters at the scene that they do have the right to carry their weapons openly in Texas.

The fact that these cases have fairly established patterns at this point is noteworthy in and of itself, proving that this appears to be a fairly calcified debate in which open carry advocates say "We have the right to do this," critics say, "Yeah, but you're scaring the hell out of people for no reason other than the fact that you have the right to do it," and open carry advocates respond that people should actually feel safer when they're around, because if someone who has a gun and bad intentions shows up, there'll be a group of armed civilians there to take 'em on.

That's what the Fort Worth group's Edwin Haros told reporters after the Jack In The Box incident:

Haros, who believes openly carrying firearms helps police, said citizens should know that the demonstrations will continue.

“It’s just for safety purposes," Haros said. "Officers can’t be there at all times. We understand that. They can only do so much.”

Going to a restaurant for a Sourdough Jack and finding it robbed would be a horrible experience, for sure, but it's not entirely clear that going to a Jack In The Box and finding it to be the site of a firefight between robbers and a civilian peacekeeping force would be much safer.

But as these demonstrations continue to occur in Texas, all of these hypotheticals remain largely irrelevant. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. Like parking a rusty 1985 Yugo on the curb in front of your neighbor's house or endlessly, noisily slurping at the bottom of your Real Ice Cream Shake at your local Jack In The Box, carrying a long-arm rifle in Texas is not illegal, and for demonstrators, the unforbidden is downright compulsory.

Still, it's worth discussing what this actually accomplishes. The stated goals of the Open Carry demonstrators range from "safety purposes" to "We're doing this because it's our Constitutional right" to a nebulous explanation of public education and, ultimately, a quest to see the right to Open Carry expanded to handguns. (Not stated, but implicit: some measure of delight in frightening people they've deemed to be their political opponents.)

If the goal is to win a PR campaign that reminds non-affiliated citizens that they're safer in the presence of armed strangers, and that those strangers are simply law-abiding citizens exercising their rights, though, it's pretty clear that the campaign's not a whopping success. It's safe to suspect that the Jack In The Box employees who hid in the freezer didn't emerge from the experience with a broader understanding of the majesty of Texas' gun laws, and while there's something to be said for playing to the base, the Open Carry campaign is losing ground even those with whom the activists share ideology. As Bob Owens, editor of a website called Bearing Arms: Saving Liberty and Lives, wrote in a post last November:

Without getting into an ideological argument over “right” and “wrong,” it seems clear that purely from a public relations perspective that long gun open carry is backfiring as a tactic to help legalize handgun open carry.

It’s time to start thinking about implementing other tactics that may be more beneficial towards achieving the stated end goal.

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Originally posted by NormanConquest:
Albert,I have to agree with your last paragraph.It's too bad that more citizens are'nt responsible + it's too bad that some of us must pay the price because of the majority's ineptitude, but that is the way it is. What Gato started this column with was true.Most people would feel threatened by an armed person,in this case perceived aggressively.It wasn't but the fear factor was established.None of that helps the cause.

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Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Kenso

So if some one sees your pistol and thinks your reaching for and shoots you they are justified in doing so.

Do stupid things go to jail.

Intent is part of what makes a justified self defense shooting.

If there is no intent to commit harm the justification is not there.

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Conduct is justified if:

(1) the actor reasonably believes the conduct is immediately necessary to avoid imminent harm;

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......we do not feel that our restaurants should be used as a platform for either side of the debate

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Too bad all these supposed pro 2A commentators here don't try researching the facts before they start running their mouths like a bunch of libtard sheep.

Texas doesn't allow open carry of pistol, only long guns. This was a protest demonstration for changing the open carry laws, where all parties concerned were notified in advance .

You know what really hurts the open carry movement?

When people practicing a Constitutional Right, not violating any laws, are attacked by a bunch of fair weather, politically correct, supposed Second Amendment supporters that take the same position as Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense . Way to go morons!

I don't see an asterisk marked footnote in the Second Amendment that says bearing arms is only allowed if it doesn't hurt anyone's feelings, or make a bunch of pansies uncomfortable.

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This was a protest demonstration for changing the open carry laws, where all parties concerned were notified in advance .