TexasCHLforum.com

Abraham wrote:Yes, Yes it does - You have to look like an LEO from now on, even your pajamas should be blue, have a star on the front and a single stripe down each leg. Psssst, having handcuffs is optional.

Makes sense?

I thought so.

Next question please.

thetexan wrote:

Jumping Frog wrote:

" I can see that is perfectly reasonable for a LEO to see a man with a gun as worthy of investigation especially in this day and age. "

I don't agree with that at all.

You don't see police routinely pulling people out of cars to prove they have a driver license. Absent other evidence of criminal behavior, I do not regard simple law-abiding carry of an openly holstered handgun to meet constitutional standards of reasonable articulable suspicion.

I don't agree with it either! We should live in a society where a man can carry a firearm openly and it be as natural as carrying groceries. We should live in a society where hoodlums with guns don't use them to rob banks and kill people and use them as an instrument to facilitate a crime. We should live in a society where the moral upbringing of right and wrong is taught in the home by loving and nurturing parents whose primary mission as a parent is to raise upstanding, law abiding and respectful young men and women. We should live in a society where the police do not feel they are targets of random violence as they try to fulfill their mission to protect us.

In a world where the showing of a gun is statistically associated with something bad going to happen, and where the police are trained to look for bad things that are going to happen we can't expect to insist that the police do not take notice of someone carrying a gun. And that has nothing to do with your constitutional rights.

You can constitutionally carry a gun. You can constitutionally carry a sign around town stating that you do not like this race or another race. You can constitutionally do alot of things. We have to be careful that we CHLers don't turn into a bunch of tough guys with something to prove like has been the case with many of the long gun demonstrations of late. I'm all for standing up for one's rights but we also need to remember that we are supposed to represent the law abiding, community welfare oriented citizens of the state.

I don't have to prove anything. I KNOW I have a right to be on the street with a gun on my belt. And I am happy to remind any officer of that fact by showing him my license. When it becomes harassment then I will have a problem with the harassment not with them asking me for the license. And I will pursue legal steps against the harassment not against them asking me for my license.

This will take a while for law enforcement and CHLers to settle into a routine, possibly years. In the meantime I will go about arming myself,(probably in a concealed manner; and not because I'm afraid of being stopped) and I will expect and even insist that law enforcement continue their work of stopping anyone who fits the profile of being suspicious in their pursuit of protecting all of us.

The equilibrium will not happen overnight and everyone would do well to lighten up a little especially in the beginning until we see how this is going to play out. We and law enforcement are on the same side in the respect that we all want a safer community and each in our own way, CHLers in carrying a weapon and LEOs in patrolling and watching out for us all which will inevitably involve some stops.

That being said, as I stated earlier, when asked I will produce my license. I have no problem with that. But that had better be the end of it. Once I have shown that I can carry I expect to be quickly on my way. If it goes beyond that then I will be at the head of the parade to get something done about the harassment.

tex