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
