Open Carry, Openly Hostile

Dear open carry advocates:

Get better open carry advocates, because these folks in Texas are the exact reason everyone thinks you're colossal assholes.

Open Carry Tarrant County's leader, Kory Watkins, posted video of one hostile visit to state Rep. Poncho Nevarez's (D) office to YouTube and Facebook. In the video, Nevarez tells the activists that he won't be voting in favor of HB195, to which they respond "you won't be here very long, bro" and "you need to find a new job, bro."

"As far as I'm concerned, you are a tyrant to the Constitution of the United States of America," one activist says.

Nevarez then tells the activists that they're no longer welcome and asks them to leave.

"I'm asking you to leave my state, 'cause you don't take your oath seriously," one activist responds. "Read the Constitution."

As Nevarez tries to close the door to his office behind them, an activist lodges his foot in the door frame to keep it open.

"What are you gonna do?" he challenges Nevarez.

Now, to be fair, another open carry group at the "Let's go stomp around our state capitol with our guns" rally kind of thought being openly hostile to lawmakers was, you know, a bad idea.  It got so bad that Texas lawmakers voted today to install panic buttons in their offices.

Following Open Carry Tarrant County's visit to the Capitol, the state House passed a rule change that allows its lawmakers to eject members of the public from their offices "at their discretion," according to the Chronicle. The rule change also allows House members to install panic buttons in their offices to alert the Department of Public Safety to disruptions.

Two points I'd like to make.

One, imagine a group of people went to your place of business, openly carrying and displaying rifles, told you that you "won't be here very long" and to "find a new job", called you a tyrant, and when you tried to de-escalate the confrontation by leaving, they put their foot in the door and asked you, while armed, "What are you gonna do?"  How is that in any way even remotely appropriate?  You know what attempting to change political policy through open displays of threatening behavior is known as?  Terrorism.

Would you as an open carry advocate go to your child's school, armed, to confront one of your children's teachers because you disagreed with them?  How about your own place of work?  Would you go to your boss's office, again, openly carrying, and when they tried to close their office door to get away from you, you put your foot in the door and say "What are you gonna do?"

Then why is it acceptable to do this to politicians, even if you don't like them?

Two, if this was a group of Latino or black men, openly carrying, in a government office, how many of them would be gunned down by police?  They'd be slaughtered before anyone could even ask to look for open carry permits of any type.  Not only would it not be tolerated, every single one of those open carry advocated would be dead or in jail within hours.  It would be a bloodbath.

Police in this country murder black and brown people weekly for the mere suggestion that they might be carrying an object that looks like it could be a weapon.  There is no way you'll ever convince me that open carry advocates would ever stand up for a group of armed black men walking around their neighborhood for any reason. period, point blank.

So no, open carry people?  Take your nonsense elsewhere.  It's 100% about you being a bully, and reveling in white privilege, a privilege that you would never allow anyone who looked like me to have without risking my life.

No thanks.