sjfcontrol wrote:And I find it interesting that people are considering preventing Texas Residents from carrying on an out-of-state license, that would be valid for the out-of-state residents to use in Texas. So here we would have an activity that is legal for Non-Texas residents to do in Texas, but illegal for Texas residents to do in Texas. That seems perverse to me. (You can do it here only if you're not from here?? -- Very odd!)
I think you need to be more clear about that... I have both licenses, and I am not advocating against having a Utah CFP. What I am saying, and I believe what others are saying, is that a Texas resident probably shouldn't have a CFP in lieu of a CHL. CFP should
enhance CHL, not
replace CHL.
And there is a
reason for why I think this. These things do not happen in a vacuum, and insisting that there is a vacuum does more damage to the cause than good. I would be perfectly happy to have no permitting requirements at all in the state of Texas, for either CC or OC. However, there are certain boots on the ground realities that have to be dealt with piecemeal and in a logical manner and sequence if we are ever to
successfully arrive at the unrestricted expression of our rights. Anybody who denies that reality is politically delusional.
Now, they have a First Amendment right to be politically delusional, but if their position will do more harm to the RKBA
over the long term than good,
should they be encouraged to pursue their delusions? I submit that it is wrong to encourage that.
You have a rice bowl. I have a rice bowl. Everybody has a rice bowl, and nobody wants anyone else eating from their rice bowl. What that means is that we, as citizens have our prerogatives (rice bowls), but so do legislators. We hire them to do a job, and just like
your job becomes part of
your rice bowl and you don't want anybody messing with it,
legislators jobs are part of
their rice bowl, and they don't want anybody messing with
theirs. The way to fix that, since they work for us, is to fire them and to hire another who will do what we want. But until we actually
do that, they will do their jobs
as they see fit to do them, and it will not go well for us to go against that which, in their opinions, we hired them to do. Am I making sense here?
So here is the political reality. If you hire the legislature to do a job, and they
do that job to the extent that they are able to do so according to the voting majorities in the legislature at any given time, and then you come along and
violate their intent, then they are going to react by crushing you.
That is the nature of government. ALL governments.
The problem is, when they crush
you, they also crush
me and every Tom, Dick, Harry, and Jane who
followed the law and did things in the right way, and we will become one of those states that only recognizes
resident permits from other states. That is a political fact. They will "punish" us for our "transgressions." There will be no parking lot bill passed. There will be no campus carry bill passed. There probably
will be a bill passed invalidating the use of out of state permits inside Texas for Texas residents.... ...because these things do not take place in a vacuum.
That is why it is irresponsible (and in my personal view, unethical) for someone to obtain a non-resident Utah CFP as an
alternative to a resident Texas CHL. It will wind up having a negative impact on those who
followed the law. Anyone who denies this is not living in the real political world, where real politicians not only jealously
guard their rice bowls, but where real politicians also seek to
expand their individual rice bowl as much as possible.
The correct way to approach the problem is to dismantle all restrictions on the RKBA by means of a systematic, orderly, and incrementalist approach. Unless you are advocating an armed revolution, there is simply no other way that is politically feasible. And, whenever you get a politician who will not cooperate, then you work toward firing him/her and hiring one who will. But that is a political process, and it involves the votes of at a least a
few people, probably a lot more than a few, who think that you and I should not be allowed to have any guns at all... ...and
they are part of what fills that vacuum so that it does not exist.
And whipping all of them into a frenzy is a decidedly leftist media which will jump on stories of CFP vendors who flaunt Texas CHL law and urge either politically naive and uninformed, or ethically compromised people into "cheating" their way into having a carry permit. That media is part of what fills the vacuum so that it does not exist.
NONE of this happens in a vacuum, and it will blow up in our faces, and
I will be negatively impacted; so
I take it personally - because, at the end of the day, the political always boils down to the personal.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
― G. Michael Hopf, "Those Who Remain"
#TINVOWOOT
