 |
After the second Mass of the day I enjoy talking with the congregation over coffee and I like the conversation which usually follows a pattern. Horses, the price of feed, fencing, theology (today it was transubstantiation and God's timeless omniscience), and guns; sometimes the odd military anecdote. Things nearly got a bit heated this morning:
LSP: Why is Texas so anti open carry?
Congregant 1: I don't know, maybe it's because of Austin and its hippies. Ask him.
LSP: Why no open carry here?
Congregant 2: This state legislature will never pass that! Too many illegals running around and we can't have 'em carrying guns.
Congregant 1: That doesn't have anything to do with it, they can't legally buy a gun anyway.
Congregant 2 (with heat): It'll never happen! It's a matter of safety!
Congregant 1: Safety! I call it tyranny!
LSP: Calm down gentlemen, please.
But it's odd, isn't it, that the Lone Star State should be so vehemently opposed to people carrying their firearms about openly. You'd think it'd be the other way around. And, if Arizonans and New Mexicans can walk about pistol on hip style, why not Texans? Similar number of immigrants, legal and otherwise. So, is our open carry ban a matter of big brother nanny state riding down duvet over our freedoms? Or some other thing?
Not that I have a dog in the fight -- priests aren't supposed to run around shooting people, you see.
God bless,
LSP
I honestly don't know the benefits that an open carry law would bring citizens. Do open carry laws make communities safer? I know some states have stupid laws with regards to shooting intruders in your house which hurt the victim more than the criminal but I am not attuned to the necessity of gun carry laws.
ReplyDeleteFor whatever reason our state constitution says: Sec. 23. RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS. Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms in the lawful defense of himself or the State; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime.
ReplyDeleteSo then for whatever reason our legislature saw fit to forbid open carry.
"priests aren't supposed to run around shooting people, you see."
ReplyDeleteI'm sure an exception can be made for liturgists.
I don't know, Teresa... some people seem to think it's a matter of personal freedom, others say it encourages crime.
ReplyDeleteI saw that WTP -- still strikes me as a bit odd that Texas would be so draconian. Not that I'm complaining, particularly.
Yes, Infidel. You are right. It's always open season on liturgists. They're a bad menace.