• We are now running on a new, and hopefully much-improved, server. In addition we are also on new forum software. Any move entails a lot of technical details and I suspect we will encounter a few issues as the new server goes live. Please be patient with us. It will be worth it! :) Please help by posting all issues here.
  • The forum will be down for about an hour this weekend for maintenance. I apologize for the inconvenience.
  • If you are having trouble seeing the forum then you may need to clear your browser's DNS cache. Click here for instructions on how to do that
  • Please review the Forum Rules frequently as we are constantly trying to improve the forum for our members and visitors.

How Texas Open Carry Activists Won

ccwinstructor

Centurion
Joined
Jul 11, 2008
Messages
919
Location
Yuma, Arizona, USA
The open carry activists did not win the open carry victory in Texas because of public opinion, at least not on the superficial and transitory image of public opinion that is usually measured. It was won because the activists developed means and methods to communicate around the elite establishment, grew their own organizations and vision, and exerted raw political power to bend the government to their will.

They had several advantages. The facts were on their side; the Constitution is on their side; and the culture is on their side. Against them were the big government elites, big media, and big educrats from the university system. They were not asking much; just to right an injustice perpetrated a 160 years ago, to reclaim something that was their birthright; it cost no money, and it was at no risk to the population.

It was not done by politely asking politicians if they would "pretty please" restore their rights. I am not saying that proper manners are not effective. They are a good tool, used properly. Activists in the political arena quickly learn to threaten political defeat very politely. That is what has happened with the open carry activists.

Their long gun open carry marches, facebook pages, and media coverage created tens of thousands of dedicated activists that were focused, knowledgeable, organized, and persistent. These are exactly the things that politicians fear in opponents. This is why the hypothetical "public opinion" means so little.

For an ordinary person, an article about an open carry event is an interesting tidbit in an endless stream of news, entertainment, and images that enter and leave her consciousness with virtually no impact. It will make no impression on the way that she votes a year from now. She does not understand the primary process, and is not interested in it. The idea of studying the political landscape and searching for weak pressure points has never occurred to her.

But the same article will notify members of the gun culture that there is a way to restore their rights, that there is a movement, organization, and tasks for them to do. It creates activists, and activists matter.

Activists had strong impacts in the last election cycle. Many opponents of open carry were defeated in their primaries. Many others faced opposition that they had not expected, and had to overcome it. Both candidates for governor felt the power of the open carry movement. Gregg Abbott welcomed it. The Democrat candidate tried to half-heartedly co-opt it. It is easy to understand why. Open carry activists had created the biggest social movement in Texas since Civil Rights. In the last 18 months, they had over 2,500 open carry marches.

The army of open carry activists did not stop with marches and defeating opponents in primaries. They watched the legislative process. At first, day by day. Then, as the elites attempted to use the system to delay the bill until it was too late to pass it, hour by hour. At the last, they were watching live feed from the legislative chambers, and directing their outrage against offending legislators on the phone lines and email servers in real time.

Finally, they prevailed. Yesterday, 13 June 2015, Governor Abbott signed HB 910 into law. Licensed open carry of modern pistols will be legal 1 January, 2016.

It was the open carry of rifles that forced the politicians to act. Not by itself. The carry was always strong, symbolic, political, speech, an act that was the seed that grew into an army of activists. It was common for open carry marchers to be cheered by members of the public that saw them as a force standing for the Constitution. Their numbers increased geometrically with YouTube videos and facebook pages.

While the media tried to gin up "public opinion" against them with vitriolic articles and poison pens, it amounted to free advertising for a mass of gun culture people who were fed up, and looking for a way to restore their rights.

The smear job done on open carry activists had no noticeable effect on voters, but it helped create an army of activists, committed, communicating, and knowledgeable. Those are the people that count. There are no armies on the other side. You need only look at opposing rallies to see that it is so.

A Bloomberg paid rally with free busing and preprinted signs might attract a couple of dozen half-hearted attendees. A second amendment rally will attract a couple of thousand, paying their own way, making their own signs, and using their spare time to communicate and organize.

This is not theory. It is fact. If you want to understand how it works, read "Rise of the Anti-Media" by Professor Brian Anse Patrick.

Second amendment supporters and the open carry movement are not winning by creating and changing public opinion. That is a positive, after the fact, byproduct. They are winning by creating raw political power. One activist is worth a hundred passive voters.

Open carry, whether hand guns or long guns, is a combination exercise of the first and second amendments, and should be doubly protected. I suspect that many who rail against it do so because they are uncertain if they have the intestinal fortitude to do it themselves.

It is, however, very effective. As Texans could legally open carry only long guns, they did so, creating a social movement that has shaken the political landscape.

Governor Abbott has signed their first open carry legislative victory. It will not be their last.


©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

Pictures and a active links at the site:

http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2015/06/open-carry-activists-win-victory.html
 

HPmatt

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
1,467
Location
Dallas
Au contraire Instructor - this is an email I just received from the delusional Mad-Moms. At the bottom is the list of Legislators it would be good to defeat:

Moms Demand Action
Mateo --

When it comes to gun laws in Texas, the NRA no longer calls the shots.

Lawmakers in Austin passed a bill earlier this month to force colleges to allow guns on campus, but it was so watered down that the gun lobby is now calling it a DEFEAT.

And that's only because thousands of people like you spoke out, and our lawmakers listened.

This kind of progress is a victory for gun sense -- and before we pick the fight hack up, we're taking a moment to thank the lawmakers who stood with us.

Click here to send a thank-you message to Texas's gun sense champions.

A true win for Texas!

These leaders stood with us from the very beginning, and they did the right thing for Texas despite intense pressure from the gun lobby and threats from extremists. They voted NO on both campus carry legislation AND open carry legislation.

But this victory wouldn't have been possible without people like you, either.

Thanks to the pressure you and thousands of other Texans put on lawmakers, this bill has a crucial opt-out that allows schools to determine where they'll allow guns -- and where they won't.

Click below to send a thank-you message to the lawmakers who listened to gun sense:

http://act.everytown.org/letter/TX-Thank-You

Thank you for your being a part of this historic fight.

Anna Kehde
Texas Chapter Leader
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America

P.S. -- Here's who your thank-you email will go to when you take this quick online action:

Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer
Rep. Joe Farias
Rep. Diego Bernal
Rep. Roland Gutierrez
Rep. Justin Rodriguez
Rep. Poncho Nevarez
Rep. Chris Turner
Sen. John Whitmire
Sen. Rodney Ellis
Sen. Judith Zaffirini
Sen. Jose Rodriguez




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Mo

Banned
Joined
Apr 2, 2010
Messages
159
Location
usa
It was not done by politely asking politicians if they would "pretty please" restore their rights.

Most important sentence in the article.

So many people (including a lot of gun owners that are critical of OC) think playing "nice guy", groveling, bragging about being "law abiding" gun owners is going to "win the hearts and minds" is going to win over their adversaries. That's not how you win. That's how you lose.
 
B

Bikenut

Guest
Where are the 'fraidy cats who constantly complain about all those terrible people who are going to cause more and stricter gun control laws by flaunting their (long) guns "in your face"? Will they step up and say they were wrong? Or will the sound of crickets be deafening?
 

FreedomTx

Newbie
Joined
Jul 15, 2015
Messages
6
Location
Behind enemy lines in occupied territory
Where are the 'fraidy cats who constantly complain about all those terrible people who are going to cause more and stricter gun control laws by flaunting their (long) guns "in your face"? Will they step up and say they were wrong? Or will the sound of crickets be deafening?

Actually they're all over on the tx chl forum still shouting the same warning about how open carry of long guns OR pistols will cause our rights to be taken AWAY and it will be OUR fault. How dare we. :banghead: Idiots.
 

FTG-05

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
441
Location
TN
I don't know where to start...

There's so much win in this thread, I may have to log back onto Arfcom or the S&W forums to get my anti-OC/OC Fudd fix........ :banghead:
 

jordanmills

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2010
Messages
101
Location
Pearland, TX
Actually they're all over on the tx chl forum still shouting the same warning about how open carry of long guns OR pistols will cause our rights to be taken AWAY and it will be OUR fault. How dare we. :banghead: Idiots.

And people wonder why I stopped wasting time going there.
 

BigStack

New member
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
30
Location
Texas
Essentially we took a page out of the left wing playbook....the squeaky wheel gets greased.

What bothered me was all the supposed pro gun people against open carry. They didn't get that even if they never do it themselves they ought to be for the option to do it if they ever need/want to.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
 

44Brent

Regular Member
Joined
May 21, 2006
Messages
772
Location
Olympia, WA
I saw some article written by a Charles Cotton (or maybe Alice Tripp?) a few months back in which they were patting themselves on the back, and denouncing OCers. It was a bizarre screed on how they were geniuses on getting OC passed, and how OCer radicals were trying to stop OC. The article was beyond bizarre.
 

stealthyeliminator

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
3,100
Location
Texas
I saw some article written by a Charles Cotton (or maybe Alice Tripp?) a few months back in which they were patting themselves on the back, and denouncing OCers. It was a bizarre screed on how they were geniuses on getting OC passed, and how OCer radicals were trying to stop OC. The article was beyond bizarre.

That's what happens when one is delusionally narcissistic.
 

nobama

New member
Joined
Mar 19, 2009
Messages
756
Location
, ,
Actually they're all over on the tx chl forum still shouting the same warning about how open carry of long guns OR pistols will cause our rights to be taken AWAY and it will be OUR fault. How dare we. :banghead: Idiots.

I loath those people more than the anti-American Moms.
 

KBCraig

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2007
Messages
4,886
Location
Granite State of Mind
Actually they're all over on the tx chl forum still shouting the same warning about how open carry of long guns OR pistols will cause our rights to be taken AWAY and it will be OUR fault. How dare we. :banghead: Idiots.

I saw some article written by a Charles Cotton (or maybe Alice Tripp?) a few months back in which they were patting themselves on the back, and denouncing OCers. It was a bizarre screed on how they were geniuses on getting OC passed, and how OCer radicals were trying to stop OC. The article was beyond bizarre.

I loath those people more than the anti-American Moms.

I used to really enjoy going back there for the news updates, but it finally turned into nothing more than the Cotton Choir. The rules were selectively enforced, especially when it came to not attacking other members, or other gun rights organizations. OCDO was the approved whipping boy for any issue that TSRA couldn't get passed.
 
Top