Open Carry Texas - Inside The Debate | NBC News

you're trying to disarm me illegally am i doing something against the wall am i doing something against the law back in March of 2013 I was hiking with my son I had a rifle on me as we always do out in the country and a police officer came out because somebody had called the police about a man walking down the road with a rifle and so halfway through our hike a police officer shows up doesn't tell me what he's doing I doesn't have his lights on he asks what are we doing I told him we were on a hike he asked me why I had my gun on me I said because I can perfectly legally here in Texas the officer pulled his gun threw me into the car and I began rolling my video camera and from that open-carry Texas was really born because I recognized a need for education not only in Texas but within our law enforcement departments about our open carry laws on March 16th 2013 and we had our first rally June 1st and it was just a couple days after that that we registered the name open carry Texas and began sort of building this organization from the ground up today people have been engaging in Independence Day marches exercising their rights to carry weapons and that included here in Austin anyone can have a long gun or firearm in a public space like a rifle or a shotgun just as long as it's not in a threatening or harmful manner you know we used to have the wild wild west United States everybody had a gun well there's a reason that we came and moved away from that right and just with mental health issues with a city of this size that's almost a million folks where law enforcement doesn't know who's the good guy who's the now we shouldn't go back to the past you know the second amendment gives us the right to bear arms and talks about a armed militia and everything else but sometimes people forget they want us to forget that there's a second piece to that amendment that talks about well-regulated if you're going to have open carry understand that you're making yourself a target of a violent criminal that may decide I like that 45 with the chrome handles I think I'm going to just walk up from behind hit that man in the back of the head and take that gun with the standard being common sense and good judgment does it make sense and is a good judgment to have a bunch of people running around with guns visible and I think the answer is absolutely not page 36 we're about Penal Code section 46 code to unlawful carrying of weapons so if you notice my employees here they're open carrying their their handguns I allow them to open here the handguns here because this is premises under my control you can all be care your handgun in Texas on private property or permission of the property owner okay so you can cut your grass you can only carry your handgun you cannot walk down the street and open carry a handgun you can open carry a long gun rifle or shotgun okay you can do that but not a handgun there are 44 states in the United States that you can open carry handgun Texas is one of those few states that you cannot just so you know hopefully liberté that one word encapsulate what America is all about that word symbolizes the state of Texas I look forward to expanding Liberty in Texas by signing a law that makes Texas the 45th state in America to allow open carry we sell concealed carry pieces here we also sell lone guns and stuff like that but we mainly specialize in concealed carry handguns typically what we try to get people you know interested in are going to be your smaller pieces here a lot of these pieces are very easy to conceal carry you can like for the ladies for instance will get ladies inside here we actually design custom holsters for ladies so we would make actually brothel stirs so the lady can actually you know put one of these inside their bra maybe under their own armpit so it's all about that flashbang yeah and so these pieces here are designed for that this is the only thing so this is something that you can you know that you actually can have and walk down the street with when we do our open carry walks we have several rules and of course the first one is is to notify law enforcement that helps us to bridge any divides then we also make sure that everybody has or somebody has Flags and/or signs because we want to make sure that the people understand that this isn't just a gang of you know people carrying firearms we're not out there intimidating the neighborhood by having flags and having signs not only do we draw awareness to our cause but we also inform people that hey we're peaceful people and really draw attention to the absurdity that I can walk around with an ar-15 I can walk around with an ak-47 but I can't walk around with a simple handgun several men and women carried rifles through the streets of downtown Austin members of open carry Texas say they were standing up for their second Amendment right they attracted a lot of second looks and extra attention from law enforcement the two men members of the group including gun advocate pastor Terry Holcomb who were taken into custody faith disorderly conduct charges they say what happened is proof the public's perception about guns needs to change until 9/11 was the answer Dickenson Drive and Sandy Hook you can't again okay what's going on at ten Dickinson Drive in the hallway I'm a teacher in the school okay where are you in the school right now okay my name is Shannon Watts I'm the founder of moms demand action for gun sense in America which I founded the day after the Sandy Hook elementary shootings in Newtown Connecticut and just two and a half years later we have a chapter in every single state of the country we've merged with every town for gun safety and we have more than two million supporters when I started mom's to me in action I had no idea that open carry was even a thing I didn't realize it was legal and then we started having our marches and our rallies and we would be surrounded usually by men who were open caring and very quickly we realized that this is actually legal in 44 states in this country it's our job now to stand up and say this is not acceptable behavior and we won't tolerate where we live some of the things that I was seeing in the media and actually in my own downtown you know by the Alamo where it was very frightening for me it could look something like this a you're you're sitting in a restaurant I'm a mother I have four kids I'm sitting in a restaurant with my kids and I see some so twenty-something guys pull up in cars outside with t-shirts and camos on and guns and so I'm thinking to myself ok they don't look like off-duty police officers and are they going to try to make a political statement or we about to witness or be a part of massacre tonight we're just outside of Austin and we were packing all the bags with all the information that our members will need tomorrow to hand to their legislators and they're gonna hand them those cards and they're gonna tell them you should vote for open carry and this is what we want this is what the people want this is why we installed you into the legislature this year is to pass this legislation and and kind of build that bridge and let people know who we are and what we've been fighting for for the last two years 2015 is the year of open carry 2015 is the year for deaf rights got people from El Paso people from San Antonio people from Texarkana so every and Florida there you go I saw some people here that just moved from Wisconsin I remember testifying in the Capitol in Madison for concealed carry now I have to come to Texas to influence my legislator for open carry okay whatever it takes to go ahead and span the cause of freedom how many of y'all are sick and tired of getting on your knees and begging the government for permission to use your god-given right to defend yourself that is exactly why I filed 8195 this is the first bill that's been filed that does not require a license what I think is happening is this legislature thinks if they flood the bills with license carry bills that it'll drown out what we want which is our rights back your district 30 on the Senate your senator is kreygas we want to make sure our efforts are concentrated in the right direction that the legislators are seeing people that they represent and not just any old Texas citizens so we're wearing shirts we're here to show that we're organized and we want to do everything we can to make this a smooth process open-carry Texas staged this rally today in place of guns in the holsters rolled up copies of the US Constitution cans of hairspray and bananas anything to protest current gun laws governor Greg Abbott has previously voiced support for open carry laws and late this afternoon a pair of bills were filed to make it legal for anyone with a concealed weapon permit to take it onto public university and college campuses throughout Texas State Senator Brian Birdwell and state representative Alan Fletcher filed the campus personal protection act in each chamber conservative activists for a while now have felt like Texas has been way behind on gun issues because frankly some of the more moderate leadership at different parts of the government have kept these bills from the floor so we haven't even had a chance to have a discussion about open carry or a real discussion about campus carry or federal gun bans things of that nature so I think the people in the outcry are so organized this time that they're not going to be able to hold it back but Wayne LaPierre said right after Sandy Hook was that a good guy with the gun is the only deterrent to a bad guy with a gun but we don't have any data to show that that's true but what we do know is that when people open carry police believe that's a threat to them because they don't know if that's a good or a bad guy the Senate affairs committee will come to order the clerk will please call the roll Senate bill 17 would allow open carry of modern handguns in Texas right now it is legal to carry a real or replica gun that was made before 1899 openly madam chair and members my name is Angela Turner and I live in San Antonio I've been a volunteer with moms demand action for gun sense for more than a year and a half I've been exposed to volumes of threatening rhetoric and imagery from some of the very people sitting in this room today and via the websites they control and refuse to edit I apologize for the language but I want you to fully understand the character and intent of those that are asking for open carry the comments directed at our volunteers include quote I would gladly sit there and watch them with a loaded firearm on my side Rob you assault ye or anything else that they wanted to do and not do a damn thing to intervene on your behalf and after it's over I'd record your reaction to see what you would say a picture of volunteer moms with Pancho Nevarez was labeled I know what kind of action these moms went and the common thread with grotesque sexual references that I will not force the committee to endure our members experienced almost constant threats of sexual violence I know that's categorically false because I am the head of OCT and I have never made threatening statements to a single person other than Iraq he's when I was in Iraq for a few times we have had counter protesters we have had angry people show up and not once did we ever pull out that firearm and threaten anybody do you know of any texas chiefs of police or any police associations who support these bills the texas police chiefs Association actually conducted a survey recently 285 police chiefs actually responded and said do you think there should be open carry in texas yes 20 point three five percent no seventy two point six three percent short members Senate bill 11 removes the criminal prohibition on the possession of a concealed handgun by a concealed handgun license holder on the campus of a public or private institution of higher education I spent over 20 years in the military and now I am finally finishing my education I am a student and you are disarming me I have the means and the ability to handle an active shooter but I do not have the opportunity we have an epidemic in this country of sexual assaults on campus we have a real challenge of students consuming alcohol using alcohol the consequences come with that and we have an absolute challenge when it comes to mental health with kids committing suicide the last thing we need to do is to introduce now firearms in the last few minutes new bills on gun legislation just passed out of committee at the State Capitol one is to openly carry a handgun in Texas the other is on campus carry this year in Texas we have several different Cherry Hills that have different features depending on the bill that you're talking about and those are very concerning to me into a lot of Mom's across the state of Texas and we're also really concerned about the campus carry bills we were at a really pivotal point for here in Texas with bad gun bills being proposed like Tim is hearing and open carry and so we were wondering if you would be interested in helping us accomplish inside of five words to beacon we're trying to contact everyone in the Texas Legislature we're trying to contact the governor the lieutenant governor and let him know how we feel in trying to encourage other people to make their voice heard because most people are on the same page about that it's just that a lot of people I think don't know to be noisy about it in this country six million guns are sold every single year without a background check online and through private sales that means that rapists or domestic abusers or dangerously mentally ill people can get their hands on guns many of our members are actually gun owners and we all support the Second Amendment this isn't about any kind of confiscation or banning at all this is about common sense gun laws it's important for me to say I'm a gun owner I love the Second Amendment I love conservative values but hey this is not okay I don't want my children to be exposed to this and I certainly don't want this to be what Texas looks like all right everybody say hope and carry all the different things that are that are trying to come into place are ready and primed for open carry now we've got the right people in place in office they can vote for these things we've got the spotlight of state politics and we've got the spotlight of national politics and quite frankly if we don't have open carry at the end of this session a lot of people are going to be shocked there being twenty eyes and ten nays and it bill 17 is finally passed congratulations senator thank you mister thank you open carry is now in the state of Texas NBC News fans thanks for checking out our youtube channel subscribe by clicking on that button down here and then click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews show highlights and digital exclusives thanks for watching

Channel: NBC News

Views: 972,183

Keywords: nbc news, nbc, news, news channel, news station, newspaper, breaking news, us news, world news, politics, nightly news, current events, top stories, pop culture, business, health, open carry, open carry laws, concealed handguns, concealed carry, open carry handgun, gun safety, gun rights, second amendment

Id: T5Qk-xD-B14

Length: 18min 10sec (1090 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 18 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/Pyode]

This is why things like Dicks and Walmart getting rid of guns is actually a bigger problem than a lot of people seem to realize.

A lack of exposure to guns is exactly what creates grabbers. They come to see guns as these exotic, dangerous things.

Just like how gays being more open and out (and in more things like TV shows and movies) helps to curb homophobia.

[u/Joeybell21]

Homophobic?