At Least Some People Understand the World

Hopefully this will become a common sight in every state.

According to Al Jazeera, due to the recent shooting between biker gangs in Waco, Texas, the state has moved closer to actually allowing civilians to open carry handguns. There are numerous opponents to the bill, but Texas was already headed toward allowing open carry anyway (Just look up "Open Carry Texas" if you want to know more), so this shooting was just the push the state needed to finalize steps toward open carry. Many of the opponents claim that this shooting just proves that firearms are too easy for criminals to acquire and that stricter gun laws must be enacted. Despite the gun-friendly reputation of Texas, the state actually does not have the loosest of firearm laws. It is one of six states that bans the open carry of handguns (So much for the "Wild-west" state). However, that number will most likely go from six states to five. Of course, as with all controversial firearm issues, Moms Demand Gun Sense In America was there to comment. They claim that by allowing more law-abiding citizens to open carry, the new situation in Waco would have been no different, if not created more confusion for officers. However, this is not true, as bikers are quite easy to tell apart from other civilians. But, for sake of argument, let us pretend that there was confusion. An officer knows not to fire at someone who is not firing at them, so therefore they would not be shooting at the law-abiding citizens shooting in the opposite direction on the officers. Also, the civilians may possibly have been in a line with the officers, mitigating the confusion a great amount. Another way to mitigate confusion is the fact that, as Jonathan Pranzer stated, "I don’t think lax gun laws created this vigilante system." This statement is very true. Just because one is carrying does not mean they will risk their lives in a situation that does not involve them, unless there is an innocent involved. While open carrying may not deter all crime, such as the Waco shootout, most criminal activity would be deterred and/or halted altogether. The gang members may have been shooting each other right in front of officers and then shot at officers, but the officers were able to respond are take control of the situation, resulting in over 170 arrests. While the introduction of more firearms (The officers) did not deter the gangs, most criminals are deterred from committing a crime when there is a legal firearm present. Just think about it, which would you rather rob, a citizen open carrying a firearm, who has the ability to defend him or herself, or someone without a firearm, who has very little chance to protect themselves. Also, how can a 130 pound woman defend herself from a 200 pound criminal; a firearm evens the playing field. Firearms can be used for evil, just as in both Waco shootings (The biker one and the massacre in 1993), but they can also be used for good by defending people; it all depends on what the person intends for the use of the firearm.



All this is causing such a big controversy in the firearms community.