CHL question

[teddy salad]

I just got my CHL and was talking to my dad about it. He's 72 yrs old, lives in Florida, and has a CHL there. He was relating a road-rage incident that happened last year in Orlando.

I won't go into detailed breakdown of what all happened, but within 10 minutes there was another car swerving at his, pulling in front and putting on the brakes, etc. My mom was in the passenger seat. My dad instructed her to discreetly take his handgun, which he kept in the center console, from its holster and hold up the empty holster. The road-rage driver saw the empty holster, figured out what that meant, and promptly took the next exit.

My question: in Texas is showing an empty holster to someone you believe might pose a risk considered a violation of CHL rules? The handgun itself remained concealed, but is showing the holster considered to be implicitly in violation of rules prohibiting things like "displays a firearm or other deadly weapon in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm"?

[mgood]

IANAL!

Theres no law against showing a holster. . . . BUT . . . someone might construe that as a threat. I'd think that just getting off the road, away from this other person, would be the way to go.

[jamisjockey]

INAL,

TITLE 9. OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC ORDER AND DECENCY
CHAPTER 42. DISORDERLY CONDUCT AND RELATED OFFENSES
Sec. 42.01. DISORDERLY CONDUCT. (a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly:

(1) uses abusive, indecent, profane, or vulgar language in a public place, and the language by its very utterance tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace;

(2) makes an offensive gesture or display in a public place, and the gesture or display tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace;
(3) creates, by chemical means, a noxious and unreasonable odor in a public place;
(4) abuses or threatens a person in a public place in an obviously offensive manner;
(5) makes unreasonable noise in a public place other than a sport shooting range, as defined by Section 250.001, Local Government Code, or in or near a private residence that he has no right to occupy;
(6) fights with another in a public place;
(7) discharges a firearm in a public place other than a public road or a sport shooting range, as defined by Section 250.001, Local Government Code;
(8) displays a firearm or other deadly weapon in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm;
(9) discharges a firearm on or across a public road;
(10) exposes his anus or genitals in a public place and is reckless about whether another may be present who will be offended or alarmed by his act; or

Note the highlight subsection 4. There is alot of leeway there. Maybe one of our legal eagles can step in with some precedent if there is any. If there isn't any precedent, being the person who ends up setting that precedent could be an insanely expensive proposition.
Notwithstanding the potential for an officer or DA to stick you on subsection 8.
You can beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.
IMHO, INAL, IMNAC, and YMMV:
There are always numerous "gotcha" clauses written into penal code.

Additionally, we're talking about someone who is already exercising very poor judgement. In this case, they are essentially assaulting your father with their vehicle. Put nothing past that kind of person. "Yes, officer, he pointed his gun at me. No, I was too scared to see it. No, I just tried to change lanes and he got all irritated and pointed it at me."

Now, of course, if the conditions for the justification of self defense are met, you do have the option of the threat of force:

PC §9.04. THREATS AS JUSTIFIABLE FORCE. The threat of force
is justified when the use of force is justified by this chapter. For purposes
of this section, a threat to cause death or serious bodily injury by
the production of a weapon or otherwise, as long as the actor's purpose
is limited to creating an apprehension that he will use deadly
force if necessary, does not constitute the use of deadly force.

But note the highlighted section.
And if you threaten force to de-escalate a situation, you still had darn well be the first person on the horn to 911.
Anyways, IMHO, INAL and all that jazz.

[teddy salad]

Thanks for the input, folks. I think the moral of the story here is to not try to 'finesse' the law, instead get on the horn and call 911 and try to get away from the person.