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Re: News West 9 article about church Safety
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:51 am
by C-dub
G.A. Heath wrote:You know folks, your right, we should never correct misinformation because it could be used against us. We should not carry a gun because of the remote chance we might occidentally break concealment and cause someone who sees it might put a 30.06 sign up at their church, business, home, hospital, ect. In fact we should scrub every reference to the 30.60 requirements on the internet so that people will not be able to find it as easy as they can now. Next legislative session I will contact my representative to ask them about filing a bill to make 30.06 a secret law so that it won't even appear in law books or on the state's website! maybe we can get the DPS to start scrubbing it off their website right now.
In all seriousness, where do we draw the line on paranoia about people learning about proper signage? I agree that we should not contact a business and tell them that their signage is invalid/non-compliant. I don't think that a statement along the lines of "TPC 46.035(i) requires a church to provide notice that complies with TPC 30.06 in order for concealed carry to be illegal" is going to cause businesses to go out and start posting 30.06 signs. Statements in the media like I quoted in the original post can lead to legislators thinking that 46.035(i) is a loophole that needs to be closed. While we don't have to worry about that right now, what about in 4 years when even more people have moved in from California are registered voters and there are suddenly more anti-gun rights folks in the legislature? If we take the opportunity to educate the public that it is not illegal, and that it is perfectly normal then we head off a problem before it becomes one.
A secret law? And the only people that knew the secret were those that had CHLs. Perfect! That would cut down on the number of places putting up 30.06 signs. Sarcasm off.
I'm not sure where to draw the line. I was typing a response to the paper's error and then I thought about the potential audience. My intent was to inform the news paper of their error. Then I thought of the bigger audience. We are always talking about not correcting a business that only posts a gun buster sign or a sign that says no guns, even those with CHLs. Why tell them how they are doing it wrong only to have them turn around and do it correctly?
Re: News West 9 article about church Safety
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 9:27 am
by The Annoyed Man
I sent them one of my long-winded responses.
Re: News West 9 article about church Safety
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 10:31 am
by The Annoyed Man
I got the following reply just now from the editor:
TAM,
Thank you for your email. The issue you brought up was an oversight on the part of our reporter. It was also not the main point of the story, which was to simply show how local churches are working to protect themselves. It is also not our policy to delete comments that are critical of our work. I will check into that as you say some comments were removed. I can say there is a comment like yours on our Facebook page right now that was not removed.
Again, thank you for your comments and concerns. I appreciate the time you took to make sure we got the story right.
Mark Kurtz
News Director
KWES
Re: News West 9 article about church Safety
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 12:28 pm
by The Annoyed Man
I received a second emailed reply from the editor:
TAM,
I should have also stated in my previous email that I have instructed my team to correct the story you saw. Thanks again for bringing this to my attention.
Mark
Re: News West 9 article about church Safety
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 1:17 pm
by speedsix
...refreshing!!! methinks you have encountered a professional newsman...a vanishing breed...
Re: News West 9 article about church Safety
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 9:36 pm
by GhostTX
The Annoyed Man wrote:I received a second emailed reply from the editor:
TAM,
I should have also stated in my previous email that I have instructed my team to correct the story you saw. Thanks again for bringing this to my attention.
Mark
It's been corrected:
From OP article wrote:
...
Jones stresses that these teams in church are not security teams. They are safety teams.
Under the Texas Penal Code, it's illegal to carry a concealed handgun on church property if there is a 30.06 sign on the church property forbidding concealed handguns.
But for the price of $100 a year, a church can train their safety team how to spot criminal activity by using the online service at
http://www.ministrysafe.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
...
Re: News West 9 article about church Safety
Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 1:54 am
by terryg
G.A. Heath wrote:
In all seriousness, where do we draw the line on paranoia about people learning about proper signage? I agree that we should not contact a business and tell them that their signage is invalid/non-compliant. I don't think that a statement along the lines of "TPC 46.035(i) requires a church to provide notice that complies with TPC 30.06 in order for concealed carry to be illegal" is going to cause businesses to go out and start posting 30.06 signs. Statements in the media like I quoted in the original post can lead to legislators thinking that 46.035(i) is a loophole that needs to be closed. While we don't have to worry about that right now, what about in 4 years when even more people have moved in from California are registered voters and there are suddenly more anti-gun rights folks in the legislature? If we take the opportunity to educate the public that it is not illegal, and that it is perfectly normal then we head off a problem before it becomes one.
This. Exactly this.
Re: News West 9 article about church Safety
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:24 am
by PeteCamp
Just so you guys know...In all fairness to NewsWest 9 TV, I don't think this was a mistake by the reporter. I think he/she got the story from the folks doing the church safety seminar. (Or perhaps it was all a simple misunderstanding) Here's why.
I got a local Baptist Associational newsletter informing local churches of this event about a month before the event itself. In the quotes from the seminar leaders, I noticed the exact same error. I even pointed it out to some of our men and ladies who are CHL licensees. At the time, we thought it might be good to avoid the seminar because the presenters were so obviously ignorant of the law.
About a week before the seminar, I got another newsletter with the same information but the "no concealed carry in a church" wording was gone. There was no mention of 30.06. I don't know who started the error to begin with, but these newsletters were sent to churches throughtout West Texas well before the NewsWest 9 story.
Maybe our reputation as "fightin' Baptists" preceded us and it was an attempt to avoid local gunplay?
Re: News West 9 article about church Safety
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:19 pm
by Dave2
PeteCamp wrote:Maybe our reputation as "fightin' Baptists" preceded us and it was an attempt to avoid local gunplay?
The other denominations are afraid of Pax Meridiem Baptizatus. We know how ya'll get when we talk about Jesus turning water into "Kool-Aid"...
