Open Carry Texas (courtesy ammoland.com)

The above image is from Open Carry Texas’ celebratory press release [via ammoland,com]. Notice the Confederate flag? I reckon that personifies the open carry movement’s tone-deaf PR performance. Don’t get me wrong. Free speech and all that. But I’d certainly file the flag under “not helpful.” Along with the recurring Chipotle ninja issues, an “invasion” of a Texas representatives’ office leading up to the final vote and Tweeted death threats against lawmakers. Some suggest Texas would have had Constitutional Carry if not for the high-profile protests. Anyway, moving forward, should gun rights advocates take a chill pill? Or is the “we’re mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore” approach our best bet for gun rights restoration?

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122 COMMENTS

    • Combined Frontal assault. Look if a elective representative baulks because pissed off OC clowns get snippy, then denies lawful self defense by the most cost effective tool made by man, then he or she is the problem.

    • Bingo +1

      The OCT folks deserve credit for putting the issue on the radar; they also need to look at their asshattery where they came close to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

      • Yeah. Even with all their miss steps Texas wouldn’t have gotten there with out them.

      • Most of the open carry demonstrators were totally cool about it: in groups, wearing group t-shirts, smiling, taking pictures, handing out fact sheets, sometimes having a designated, prepared spokesperson.

        The majority of the asshatery came from the sitting-on-their-assery crowd who’ve done jack squat for the movement; preferring instead to sit smugly and snipe from the sidelines.

    • Yup. Carrot and stick also comes to mind.

      You can deal with us “reasonable” folks or you can deal with the Bear Jew. Either way, you’re dealing with it politicians.

    • We need both. As Benjamin Franklin said via Eric Cartman: “Its like having your cake, and eating it too.”

    • Aha–thanks. OTOH, not exactly the most obvious part of the picture I guess. Come to think of it, don’t we have a Confederate Heroes Day holiday here? On Robert E. Lee’s birthday.

  4. “Did Open Carry Come to Texas Because of Activists or Despite Them?” Clearly it was because of them. It never would have been an issue otherwise.

    • Not hardly. Many of the same people and organizations that got concealed carry passed in 1996 and that have been working on campus carry, among many other gun related issues, had this goal in mind long before the open carry activists reared their special brand of foolishness. The ground work for this was laid by many others over the past few decades -this is not an issue that just came up because a group or individuals decided to parade around with their weapons. Please review the legislative history of firearms laws in Texas and the country before giving the OC crowd too much credit.

      • The OC crowd showed up at the republican convention in mass. They let lawmakers know that they had better pass open carry or they where going to face primary challengers ( if not real physical violence from an angry armed populace) and that no excuses would be tolerated.
        I think lawmakers should live In constant fear of citizens doing them real physical harm. Your average state level politician is a sleazy f@ck anyway, lazy and crooked as a hillbilly smile. To be honest the only issue I have with the activists threats where that they had little intention of carrying them out. If I was on a jury for a guy who shot , stabbed, strangled , etc your average TEXAS denicratic stage rep or state sen, there is NO WAY I’m voting guilty. Let that man go and may he never spend his own money in a bar for the rest of his life. Hell name a high school or two after him. And out his statue( holding a gun) in front of the statehouse as a reminder to the rest of them. And I bet I’m not the only one.
        That said never make idle threats it makes you look weak. But to paraphrase another sleazy politician ” talk softly and carry a 30 round magazine in your AR”
        Before the guys started doing open carry demonstrations nobody was really paying attention. Kudos to the activists. Now let’s make the cops afraid to even think about harnessing an open carrier with videos and lawsuits up the wazoo. Then constitutional carry of hand guns, not just long guns. We got a governor that will sign it. By the way hell yes to gov abbot. He must have strong wheels on that chair to carry them heavy ass balls of his. I don’t think he’s ever backed down from a liberal or a Yankee fed.
        Let’s start taking a page from CA and COnand nullifying federal gun laws. Make it illegal for TEXAS police to enforce them. Make the ATF do their own dirty work and see what happens.

        • Your average state level politician is a sleazy f@ck anyway, lazy and crooked as a hillbilly smile.

          “…..lazy and crooked as a hillbilly smile.”-Priceless….

        • Agreed. I’d settle for a good ole tar and feathering. Possibly a ride on a rail as well. Employees should have a healthy fear/respect for their bosses. That’s no longer the case. That healthy fear needs to make a come back.

    • I agree. Lavender had submitted OC bills for years and they never went anywhere until OCT was created.

      • ^^ That’s what do many folks don’t get. We’ve tried the nice peaceful way for several sessions. All to no avail. It was time to step up the pressure. They didn’t want what was coming next. The illegal mass carrying of OC handguns in Austin was next.

  5. Activists need to drop the all or nothing my way or the highway attitude. These battles have been won in small steps and will continue to be small steps. The sooner the fringe, like Watkins, gets this – the easier the battle will be. Until then, there will always be the looney fringe element screwing things up and jeopardizing bills with amendments that bring the process to a halt. I won’t expect Watkins to give up his attention seeking, at this point I think we can expect more antics from him as he dances a victory dance for a victory he didn’t contribute to.

    • You are so correct because it’s not like if we stand in line and be quiet the elected traitors won’t try to erode our rights… What fantastical world do you live in? Our rights have been eroded for far too long because people did nothing. If we want the tyrants to understand how seriously we take our rights then we need to show them. They don’t seam to care much if we wright letters and make calls. The only thing a lifetime poo-litician understands is media coverage and money. So unless you have the Bloomturd’s stolen billions or can get the leftist media to come and talk on your couch and not still make you out as a looney Yosemite Sam then… Good luck with all that friend, I wish you the best. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” -Edmund Burke

        • I have no idea who Watkins is… The fact that you feel the need to put me into a category to reject all reason is the saddest thing I’ve heard all day. It’s pretty late in the day so good job on that one. Make a dichotomy out of every argument and most likely you are just being too myopic.

  6. If it hadn’t been for those guys keeping the heat on those worthless pols we wouldn’t have either.

    • uuuhhhmmmm, like robert has been in texas long enough to recognize the texas flag. not knowing the diff between texas and the confederacy is beyond inexcusable. open texas supporter holding a texas flag makes all the sense in the world. the only people who would be offended by the texas flag shouldn’t be there in the first place.

      robert’s mistake kinda takes the steam out of the complaint.

        • Farrago would have complained even more if it was a patch with crossed U.S./Israel flags…

        • Really had to look too closely. Thinking that in Texas, overshadowed by a Texas flag, the Battle Flag would not have been noticed, not have caused anyone to go all negative about it.

      • Perhaps he had relatives that fought and died in the War of Northern Aggression, and chooses to honor them in this way ?

        • I’m old enough to remember when blacks also had confederate flags on stuff( in the south) it was only after the 90s somebody decided it was a hate symbol. I’m proud my state fought against a governemnt saying they couldn’t leave. I’m ashamed of slavery. Those too things can easily co exist in my understanding of history. Just like I’m proud of my ancestors who where in the trial of tears, and ashamed of my ancestors who made them walk it.
          Forcing the union on the Cherokee or the southern states was wrong. When a group wants to leave a political Union it has the right to. That does not absolve the southern states from the wrong of slavery( nor northern states who’s laws kept it going also) but slavery does not make political oppression moral either. Two wrongs do not make a right.

      • Yea, it’s definitely a confederate flag. Now the question is, where do I get one for my AR15? It’s pretty badass!

  8. If it were not for the open carry of long guns, then there would have been no support for open carry of hand guns.

    What would of happened if Rosa Parks would ha e gone to tenacious the bus? What would of happened if all of the folks that went to the Woolworths to sit at the counter had stayed home?

    A right is a right and must be exercised regardless of public opinion.

  9. We need to be less sensitive to others and insist on our rights. The Texas legislature never would have bothered with this if not for this movement.

  10. Anyway, moving forward, should gun rights advocates take a chill pill? Or is the “we’re mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore” approach our best bet for gun rights restoration?

    Yes.

    Both.

    To paraphrase (poorly)…. Rosa Parks didn’t quietly move to the back of the bus so as to not upset those working on the laws to allow her to sit wherever she wants.

    • We keep it up until the GCA and NFA are repealed and Constitutional Carry is the law in every city and state in the US and territories.

  11. If they were really all that concerned with the open carry of long guns then they would’ve introduced legislation to regulate it infringe upon it. Hell, they might still propose such legislation. If y’all haven’t figured it out yet, they take as much as we let them. Push back hard or you will get nowhere.

    Relax the pressure and you will lose more ground rather than even hoping to gain any. We see this with CopBlock activities and that of other groups. After Chip Bennett and I concluded our meet up yesterday, I found that there were multiple protest events going on around Dayton Ohio so I picked one and attended. It was an event I had attended before and it became obvious this time that local law enforcement had given up trying to violate our rights. Several locals came by to inquire and ended up borrowing signs and filming police for hours. We make no progress by being nice guy all of the time.

    As the Court has proclaimed, only belligerents have rights. Want to be free? Fight like a junkyard dog.

    • “As the Court has proclaimed, only belligerents have rights. Want to be free? Fight like a junkyard dog.”

      100% agree and add know the battlefield, who the players are and constantly apply pressure while moving the pieces on the chess board.

    • “If they were really all that concerned with the open carry of long guns then they would’ve introduced legislation to infringe upon it.”

      This is EXACTLY what happen in CA. Couple of folks open carried their rifles and the next legislative session Gov. Brown band it.

      Left unaccountable Government will end your rights in a heartbeat.

      • The current politics climate in Texas would NOT tolerate any more restrictive gun laws. You can’t drive 5 mins through houston downtown without seeing at least one ” Come and Take It ” cannon sticker. Even in the more liberal areas of the city. I dunno maybe in Austin.

      • The Texas Constitution prohibits the regulating of long gun, but does allow for the regulating of side arms. It would take a state wide vote to change the Texas Constitution to restrict the carrying of long guns.

    • Agreed. ALL progress for pro-gun laws in state legislatures originates from grass roots groups. Then the NRA swoops in, takes credit, and sells out to the police unions.

      After doing nothing in IL for 40 years, NRA got trendy and recruited Chicago black man Otis McDonald for the Supreme Court. After the McDonald decision, the U.S. Federal Court in Chicago forced the IL legislature to pass a carry bill. NRA contract lobbyist for IL Todd Vandermyde loaded up Rep. Brandon Phelps “good” “NRA backed” carry bill with Duty to Inform w/ criminal penalties of 6 MONTHS or 1 YEAR in jail.

      Vandermyde previously worked for William Dugan, president of the Intl. Union of Operating Engineers local 150 in Countryside, IL, before Dugan was convicted by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Chris Cox & Chuck Cunningham at NRA/ILA employ rat scum with possible organized crime associations to do their “work” in IL.

      • It seems the real purpose of handgun restrictions has been traced by several investigations….racism. We should be pounding that fact at every turn. Let the grabbers respond to that. They will then need to defend, for a change.

        • In IL the gun grabbers aren’t the threat, it’s the NRA and downstate grassroots groups like Illinois Carry selling out their own members by putting Duty to Inform w/ criminal penalties in Rep. Brandon Phelps carry bill.
          Phelps is from Harrisburg, IL, which is 30 miles from Cairo in far southern IL. The ignorant hicks which support him don’t care about black people in Chicago, but they use blacks for plaintiffs in NRA lawsuits. Phelps pet rat Vandermyde put DTI in the bill, and now they are putting seizure language in SB 836. Treason from within is the problem.

  12. When did the Republic of Texas flag become the Confederate flag?

    Also, even this yankee knows what the Confederate flag stands for (protip: it has absolutely nothing to do with slavery or racism). So even if that had been one, I would have taken no offense from it.

    We are suffering equal and greater offenses to liberty today than our forefathers who wrote the Declaration of Independence suffered. The same people today who speciously blame open carry advocates for perceived losses of freedom probably would have told the writers and signers of the Declaration to “take a chill pill,” too.

    • Because, as he clearly and repeatedly said in the first video where he made that claim, “the penalty for treason is death.” And, as he said in his most recent tweet, he called for them to be “hanged” from the tree of liberty.

      • So, if I said that they should be stabbed by a unicorn and hanged with a rainbow then that would be a credible death threat?

        Hanged from the Tree of Liberty is an expression, not a death threat.

        • Let’s revisit the actual words.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMgkqYe7b64&feature=player_embedded

          I think the part that had legislators concerned is when he said that the legislators were guilty of treason, and that treason is punishable by death, and that “this peaceful non-cooperation stuff is gonna be… gamed up. We’re gonna step it up a notch.”

          Ominous? Perhaps. But what does he mean by it? What steps are there beyond “peaceful non-cooperation?” He says “I want to do more than put my foot in that door. We should be doing way more than that. We should be demanding these people give us our rights back, or it’s punishable by death.”

          And, as you’ll see in the video, he exaggerated the pronunciation of death. Emphasized it very clearly.

          And he ends the video with “you don’t sell my rights back to me, you’re going to find trouble.”

          Now, as to whether any of that constitutes a “threat” or not, reasonable people will have to determine for themselves. But I think any jury would find that the tone and implications of the video are threatening, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to question whether or not he was actually calling for us to kill legislators that he deemed guilty of treason.

          Here is the latest tweet:
          “I am calling for the arrest of every elected official in Texas that voted against open carry. They should be arrested, charged with treason and should face punishment that could result in being hung from the tree of liberty.”

          Now, he had previously made it very very very clear that the punishment he was talking about, for treason, was “death”. There is no use of an “expression” here, he means death. How do we know for sure? Why, because he goes ahead and says it, in paragraph two:

          “What do you think gets their attention more after they go against the people? Some phone calls? Or actual liberty or death?”

          Whether you interpret that or the original post as a “death threat” or not, all I’m saying is let’s examine the actual words, not what someone thought he may or may not have said. He clearly did get across that he was talking about the death penalty for legislators who voted against open carry. To me, the question is whether or not he was planning on carrying out that penalty himself, or expecting due process of law to handle it, but there’s no doubt that the subject was putting legislators to death.

        • Nothing gets legislators moving like talk from large sums of people of treason and punishment by death. Don’t want to ignore that. If anything, open carry is on the committee floors because of large sums of angry people.

        • @ShootingTheBull410: I viewed the video yet again to reply to your comment. Around 2:10 he says that going against the Constitution is treason for them and it is punishable by death. I watched it from beginning to end. Although he talked about “giving rights back”, there is nothing substantially wrong about the video. He’s fed up. He states that agents of government willfully violating the Constitution is treason. He states that treason is punishable by death. He states that Texans need to do more to reassert their rights.

          There’s nothing wrong with the video and he made no credible death threats. You’re reading more into it than is actually stated. I’ve said far worse.

          Now, I’ll read the rest of your comment…

        • Okay, not I’ve read the rest of your comment…

          There’s nothing wrong with the tweet. They ought to be tried for treason on this and other things. If found guilty, they ought to be punished, up to and including death. No problem there.

          Again, you’re hearing and seeing what you want to in his video and tweet, IMHO. You might even do the same with my statements in this and the other comment.

      • A “death threat” is a threat to kill somebody.
        A plea for somebody to be arrested, tried, and put to death after conviction is not a death threat.

      • It always pains me to see where people don’t understand the founders. To them treason warranted the death penalty (they didn’t go all squishy and say, “treason, should one be properly convicted in a court of law by a jury of peers, all appeals being exhausted unsuccessfully, warrants death.”) but then again, they were all educated people with a full grasp of the language spoken at the time.

  14. I think the open carry measure passed into law because of demographics . . . and nothing else. Texas politicians are not known for risking their political careers by supporting moral issues that don’t resonate with their voters. Open carry passed because there was substantial, tangible, support among Texas voters for the open carry law. Simply stated, as far as the legislature cared–that was it. Once that critical mass appeared it was going to be hard (not that efforts weren’t made to derail the law) to not pass open carry. That said, the various open carry demonstrations, the Mom’s opposition demonstrations, coupled with the nationwide growth in support of gun-ownership served to keep the issue alive and popular enough to gain the necessary political support to pass open carry. It was this groundswell of public opinion that ultimately prevailed . . . and once again handed the progressive gun-control advocates their collective heads.

    My take on things is that it was this demographic shift that caused open carry to pass. This shift in popular opinion won the day because it was powerful enough to overcome the determined agitprop efforts of the gun controllers.

    For awhile it looked like the grassroots open carry movement was being taken over by radicals. As a former leftist, this was all too familiar Allinsky/Trotskyte tactics where you take over an existing organization,hollow it out, and the subvert it’s purposes for those of your own. Fortunately, Open Carry Texas got its act together and separated itself from the ninja’s too-obvious nihilism. Still, it was a near thing. Had there been less real grassroots support, the combined efforts of the ninja’s and the Mom’s would have derailed the whole shootin’ match. But, Robert’s right, but for the intentionally destructive antics of the ninjas, Texas might have heroically embraced constitutional carry.

    • I think you have nailed it. A politician first and foremost cares about winning his next election. Everything else is secondary.

      I think we all need to study what happened in TX and learn from it both: what worked; and, what didn’t.

      Allowing the Moms to crop and photoshop perfectly benign optics into images that made carriers look scary was something that didn’t work. If we PotG are going to have a demonstration we have to be cognizant that WE are in control of our own optics. We have to make it as hard-as-possible for the Moms to crop/photoshop an image that makes us look bad.

      We ought to be flamboyant so that the press is obliged to cover our demonstration. Flamboyant need not make us look foolish and it must not make us look scary.

      Imagine the image of a group of orderly open-carriers each dressed in the garb of an ordinary profession or trade: a doctor; a lawyer; a butcher; a baker; a plumber. The observer would say that these guys are all portraying ordinary people from ordinary walks-of-life; the kinds of people who are my neighbors.

      Or, a group of open-carriers dressed in Revolutionary or Civil War or Texas Independence costumes. The observer would say that they are portraying our honorable and noble history.

      Either of these – and countless others – would be a much better image than a gang of people who just might be a motorcycle club.

  15. Give me a brake on the “confederate flag stand for” crap, it was a good symbol and the some ignorant stalwarts used it again to promote thier own brand of hatred and bigotry. I can’t walk around with a “heart of Buhdas” flag since its basicly a reverse swastika.

    Polite and public discourse is great. Most of the open carry protests were fine IMO. there were always some knuckle heads to spoil it.

  16. Well, as to understanding how the politicians work, like the riots in Baltimore and elsewhere, the commotion brings about something else with them; although in the Baltimore case does the “something else” take care of the burned out businesses as the goons who did it (Hey, thugs too! Gotcha!) sit home watching their stolen TV high on stolen Oxycontin? In Texas, the commotion again proved the rule. Maybe would have happened without the commotion, but sometimes a piece of crud clogs the dam spillways and you have overflow.

  17. Beats me…do ya’ think it would work in Illinois? I know we got most our “right” from lawsuits and court orders. And I don’t care if a redneck Texan has a confederate flag on his gun…

    • I wonder the same. I am a proud Illinois Redneck (last i checked in the mirror). I am willing to join non-rednecks and rednecks alike for a peaceful rally if one ever happens.

      • LOL my neck is RED from the sun and pre-diabetes…but with the 26year marriage to a black woman and 2 large caramel colored sons I don’t fit the stereotype…but in Cook county I’m NOT carrying openly without an army to back me up…

  18. Neither, think Texas Congress critters just wanted to vote and get back home. Once State amendment of forbidding LEs from doing what they are already forbidden to to do under Federal law..

    As far as everything leading up to Open Carry passing. Believe combination of gun owners making clear their support, Open Carry Texas doing some heavy lifting, over 800,000.00 CHL holders. Crazy Kerry? did more harm than the most anti-gun liberal . May not open carry much, but nice to have the Freedom.

  19. This has been a subject of much debate, but I think that people on both sides of the OCT/OCTC movement are missing the key ingredient, the key thing that made Open Carry actually happen…

    Texas has been ruled by a governor who was *against* open carry since 1999. Therefore, unless there was an overwhelming veto-proof majority in both houses of the Texas legislature, and an appetite to force the issue, there was no point to pursuing open carry.

    And that changed 180 degrees with the election of Greg Abbott. He made, as a campaign promise, to sign any open carry legislation that made it to his desk. So the legislature sent an open carry bill to his desk, and he will sign it.

    Simultaneously, Texas elected Dan Patrick as Lt. Governor, who presides in the Senate. Patrick had campaigned on a platform that included fighting for open carry and campus carry.

    It is my belief that replacing an anti-open-carry governor with a pro-open carry governor, is what changed the momentum and led to Texas politicians actually passing these bills.

    Did peaceful, uneventful rallies like the one outside the Alamo help the cause? Maybe.

    Did peaceful, uneventful demonstrations like “Open Carrot” help the cause? Maybe.

    Did “Chipotle Ninjas” play a role in helping the process along? Doubtful. Maybe. One thing we can say for certain is that not a single molecule of positive press was written about those incidents.

    Did Kory Watkins’ stunt in Poncho Nevaraz’s office, with refusing to leave when asked, and then calling for the death of legislators for treason, help the legislators to decide to pass open carry? Unquestionably no, without a doubt, that did not help the cause.

    • The only reason Watkins’ actions didn’t get the politician’s mind right was because the politician KNEW it wasn’t a credible threat. If that politician actually thought Watkins might carry it out, himself & right there, and that there were hundreds waiting in the wings to do it if he failed… Well, that politician would come to OC Jeebus right quick.

      These rats feign fear while their actions betray their true lack thereof. It’s no different than antis waltzing up to us and screaming about how “scared” they are. lol

      • Wrong. The only reason it didn’t derail OC was that it wasn’t totally credible. Had the threat been credible, it would have crossed the line to “the use of force or the threat of force to create an environment of fear to affect social, political, or economic change.” Otherwise known as terrorism. And that, my friend, would have killed the movement.

        As for the Lt.G, a little bird tells me that the bill to permit first responders to get training and carry while on duty was derailed by his office. Whether it was under his direction or his unelected staff, the buck stops there.

        • I’m glad to hear you think holding a gun and threatening someone with death is not a credible threat. You would do very well in the Washington D.C. government office denying CCW permits to rape victims, potential rape victims and other inocent people who were threatened by someone holding a weapon. The anti gunners agree with you.

      • Oh please, cut the krap wannabe armed revolutionary fantasy thinking and braggadoccio here. You might as well be Jennifer Macias trolling here pretending to be a KKKory wannabe thumping your chest in an anonymous forum, trying to make the responsible POTG look like “gun nuts” for all the good you are doing.

        No one here is seriously advocating, nor approving of making a serious threat on the life of a legislator- thats actionable criminal behavior, and if you really think that works, then go live in Mexico, or Afghanistan.

        You are no countryman of mine, nor a patriot.

    • After having dedicated way too much of my life to it, on the 137th day of session when the budget was passed, I left town and went to a ball game. I celebrated the passage of open carry with a hot dog and cold beer. The is so much to say about what and who in this session, but to be honest, my brain still hurts.

      STB410’s point about the change in Governor is an often overlooked piece of the puzzle. There were so many forces at play it’s hard to say one was more important than the other, but suffice to say, that his favorable stance made this a possibility. Without it, it would have died in committee a long time ago, in spite of the efforts by Phillips, Birdwell, Estes and others.

      As for the OC activist helping or hurting, the answer is yes. There was nowhere outside of pro-gun press, that it was painted in a favorable light by the media. Neutral at best. Kory’s antics however, were not helpful, both for content and timing. I’m not going to debate the whole making a stand, squeaky wheel, breaking eggs, whatever… the reality on the ground is that he became a lightening rod for the anti’s provided them with plenty of material. There is a time for a sledge hammer and a time for a tack hammer. The key is knowing when the which one.

      • I do believe that Grisham and Co do deserve props for their efforts. They certainly kept the press on handled themselves well. So please don’t think I don’t appreciate their role.

  20. The Texas open carry “extremists” did the job that nobody else was doing. While the appeasers were whining about the lack of open carry like a bunch of little girls, the men of the open carry movement were making their voices heard — loudly.

    They deserve our praise, and our respect.

  23. Given the nature of the fight taking place, the Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia is a relevant symbol in this place. The succession was started because of states rights, the decision to pass pro gun laws in the face of an anti gun head of the union sure seems like a fight for states rights.

    Also, if you show 90% of the citizens the true flag of the Confederacy they won’t know what they’re looking at.

    • Thanks for this. So when everyone thinks the stars and bars is a conf. flag, it is actually the battle flag of N. Virginia.

      • Technically, the way things were referred to back in the Civil War, the Confederate flag was the “Stars and Bars”, it’s just that somewhere along the line that got twisted into being a reference to the one we know it as now. The actual Flag of the Confederacy looks more like the state flag of Texas. Which is somewhat ironic given it’s inclusion in the picture above while the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia is erroneously called the Confederate Flag.

    • The confederates fought for states rights. The rights of the state to violate human and individual rights. You know, like CA, NY, demanding moms, feinstein, etc.

  24. Just a quick thought, but that doesn’t look like a Confederate flag in the picture, it looks like a State of Texas flag.

  25. When black people began carrying long guns and directing traffic at an Oakland California city street intersection they got the stop light they had been asking for, long after a child was run over and city elected officials ignored them. This only works when you keep control of your group and act civil.

    Sometimes it takes direct action to get the attention of the people you elect.

    • Ban it, no. Continue to call them out the Confderacy as the losers they were? Yep. They and the Wehrmacht can suck it. Wrong side of history…

  28. I did not read all the comments, so someone else may have already said this. That is NOT a Confederate flag, that is the Texas State Flag.

  29. Ok, but not exactly an in your face Confederate Flag. Actually as a States Rights proponent, I am fine with it. And NO I don’t condone slavery.

  31. Notice the Confederate flag? Actually no. Not the big one. The rifle decal is badly faded.

  33. History Lesson. Neither of those flags is The Confederate Flag, nor The Stars and Bars. The First National Flag of The Confederate States of America was known as the Stars and Bars. The Battle Flag (shown on fore end) was adopted by most units, but not all. It was not even flown by all Divisions of The Army of Northern Virginia. It was never called “The Confederate Flag” by Southerners. The design of The Battle Flag is a derivative of The Cross of St. Andrew, a Scottish symbol. Tennbud

  34. It is more important that the right is being properly restored than how it came to pass because there is no general formula for success in eliminating the infringements on the RKBA right as California’s increasing infringements show while at the same time, other Western states are becoming more and more free from infringements.

  35. Not going to mince words. Open Carry Texas opened the door, and Open Carry Texas Tarrant County nearly shut it. Aside from the name, I didn’t see or read anything similar between the two – one earned my sympathy and support, the other can go slither back under the rock back to irrelevancy. I believe the bill wouldn’t have had the same restrictions in it were it not for asinine stunts of a small few… with friends like that, you don’t need enemies.

  37. I’m pretty sure the only people who even noticed the Confederate Flag are gun people. When anti-gun people see a gun they don’t actually see a gun, their fecal matter infused brain just sees a big black scary looking blob.

  38. CJ Grisham was screwed over with his experiences, put this on the radar screen and brought the tide of public opinion. The Activists made this happen….Granted some of the activists went overboard and dang near killed this- but they brought it forward into the news and they kept it on the news.

    I truly wonder if this would have been brought up as an issue if it wasn’t for a tide of Activists.

  39. Hey, I know! Rather than collectively celebrate a victory together we all worked towards, lets just ask an extremely divisive question to sow dissent and hatred amongst ourselves?! yay!

    /sarc

  40. Uh Robert,

    I’m on flag expert. But that looks like a Texas flag not a Confederate flag.

    Don

  41. Seriously? That isn’t the confederate flag. It isn’t even close to the confederate flag. That’s the Texas flag! (moron…)

  42. It is absolutely time to stop caring what the Chipotle crowd thinks. It’s time to stop trying to reason with the leffties and just attack. Take back territory. We aren’t going to win any of them over, so stop trying to and focus on mobilizing our own. We have the numbers in america to beat them hands down. If they don’t like a country where everyone is carrying a gun they can move to Canada or the UK or something. Screw em because they sure as hell don’t care about what we want.

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