TexasCHLforum.com

fickman wrote:This will cause more businesses to ban all firearms.
Again, pragmatism. How many of you would be for a law that bans everything larger than a .32 but allows you to carry anywhere in the country (even courthouses, private businesses, etc.), as long as you turn in your other guns? (This is a reductio ad absurdum.) Essentially: are you willing to give up more of your rights and freedoms to win a pragmatic battle?

There are many ways to answer this pragmatically:
- Make them post two different signs, one that addresses open carry and one that addresses concealed carry
- Make them give verbal notice to open carry
- Remove the ability to post signs
- Boycott the places that do this and let the free market decide

This portion of your post reveals a level of political naivety. The first three items on your list are politically impossible to pass. The strongest pro-gun people will not vote to 1) require more than one sign to bar entrance; 2) require verbal notice to people carrying openly; or 3) remove the legal right to bar entrance by armed persons. To even suggest this shows that you do not understand the dynamics of politics.

Your forth item, boycott, would also be futile. Somewhere around 3% of the Texas population has a CHL. This small segment cannot mount an effective boycott. Plus, I'm not at all interested in having to drive past 2 or 3 picketers protesting against a store that used to let me enter with my concealed handgun, in an attempt to find a store I can enter.

Chas.

Mike1951 wrote:I wish there was a rule that before anyone could post anything about OC, that they had to read every existing post on the subject!

Now that's an idea!

Chas.

chabouk wrote:Oh, and I'd like to repeat my thoughts about the most common reason people say they would continue to conceal: that they don't want to lose the "element of surprise".

I'm sorry, but that's just not logical. There's no such thing as a defensive element of surprise: if you need to deploy your concealed handgun, you are the one who has been surprised and lost the initiative.

The element of surprise most certainly does exist from a defensive perspective. Every respected tactical school and trainer will agree. Predators expect compliant victims and act accordingly. If the victim uses this expectation to their advantage, it can work in their favor and their attacker may well provide the opportunity to draw and engage. If you have your gun on your hip, this element of surprise is lost.

Chas.