Discussion for article #236706
Well, of course. What else would you expect from Texas?
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“Well, the shootout occurred when we don’t have open carry,” Abbott said. “So obviously the current laws didn’t stop anything like that.”
Does Abbott mean that the “current laws” did not provide for the police who did stop the shootout? But hey, the more guns the more fun, like the “Gunfight at OK Corral.”
Is there something in Texas water that makes people stupid?
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In a companion bill Texas lawmakers voted unanimously to mandate that firefighters fight fire with unleaded fuel accelerant instead of water.
(Edit) Abbott said: “We did not have A and B occurred, so Texas common sense says we just need A to stop B”
How about trying this instead: First determine how biker gang members (and others) with felony records got their guns. Second, attack the gun conveyance means that fostered this. If it is the secondary market that allows unfettered transfer of guns from straw purchasers to criminals (as former ATF agents have decried) than deal with this dangerous practice by mandating Smart guns that will not fire outside the hands of original purchasers. This would certainly not be a cure all for gun mayhem, but is a much better start than simply making it easier for biker criminals and other criminals to openly carry the firearms they get because gun laws are weak.
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I think the Democrats in Texas got it wrong on the amendment. I see their profiling point but not allowing any police to check for licensing until presumably they’ve shot the gun is asinine. But, what do you expect from the Texas Lege?
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What’s so sad is that Texans work hard at shit like this.
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As though those police officers who have no regard for the rights of black people are suddenly going to carve out an exemption their minds.
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Allowing open carry is actually pretty widespread—we’ve got it here in Pennsylvania, and lately I’ve occasionally seen these knuckleheads with pistols on their hip in the supermarket 30 miles from Philly. Personally my hope is this is a short-lived phenomenon like Nehru jackets or leisure suits—a form of public idiocy that runs its course quickly as even the people who did it realize how stupid it makes them look. What can I say? I’m a cockeyed optimist.
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Maybe the fracking they’ve been doing has contaminated their water, creating mental weakness.
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I share your optimism. There is little style in wearing a gun unless its part of your uniform, in spite of the fetishist best attempts at accessorizing holsters. It’s just another freak flag like the Rolling Coal smokestacks on trucks.
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Makes sense because as soon as I read the story about the biker shooting I thought “You know what this needed? More firepower.”
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“Well, the shootout occurred when we don’t have open carry,” Abbott said.
“So obviously the current laws didn’t stop anything like that.”
My Gov Greg Abbott.
Proudly wearing stupid like a badge.
jw1
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Well, the Feds will surely back away from their “Jade Helm” takeover of Texas now!
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Nothing more reassuring than going to a bar filled with open carrier drinkers, whose thinking process can only be improved by the alcohol.
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That is probably not going to happen.
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Seriously, I’m optimistic because even among gun-rights advocates, open carry is seen as foolish and counterproductive. So they don’t like it, and it obviously violates the mores of the broader public—your average soccer mom doesn’t want to see some goofball walking around the Safeway with a nine on his hip when she’s there with her kids. Mark Twain said “Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.” So I guess we’ll see.
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As long as there is a BLACK MAN in the Oval Office this will continue.
The only way the Oligarchs can distract the masses from their Fascist takeover of the country is to make the “unwashed masses” fear and fight each other over the tiny scraps that fall from their table.
“Trickle Down Economics” is just the .01% pissing on your head.
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Why would anyone want to open carry or even conceal carry? I mean really, why? Is it some sort of wild west fantasy come true, or most of them really that fearful (which I find hard to believe). I think it has to be related to some sort of fantasy shit. Maybe a feeling of power or entitlement, I don’t know. Something I guess I will never understand.
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I see absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support your (in my opinion) overly optimistic analysis. Please cite some evidence to support your unsubstantiated claim that “even among gun-rights advocates, open carry is seen as foolish and counterproductive.” The problem with your statement is the ambiguity of the term “gun-rights advocates.” That broad appellation fails to distinguish between (a) old-style gun owners and hunters, who mostly support registration and other such regulations; and (b) gun nuts, who are snookered by the international arms merchants and their lobbying arm (the NRA) into thinking the 2nd Amendment means everybody has a right to do anything they want with any kind of weapon whatsoever. The term “gun-rights advocates” nowadays generally refers to the gun nuts. And that’s because the responsible gun owners are entirely out-shouted by the gun nuts when it comes to the actions of the NRA and the push for these kind of insane “open carry” laws.
In short, I’m not optimistic at all on this, or on a host of other similar issues as to which the borderline-fascist right wing in this country has seized control of the argument, simply by muscling the opposition aside and out-shouting everybody else. The media is complicit in this, of course. And who owns the media?
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As a result, the group “al Shabbab Right to Carry” will be conducting a major expansion effort and membership drive, opening branches adjacent to popular public venues in suburban Texas enclaves.
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