REALLY? Open Carry Groups Aren't Stopping Long Gun Carry Into Businesses

 

open carry tools
Apparently, it’s not over after all.

It turns out that our reading of yesterday’s press release by various open carry groups was incorrect. Yesterday, we posted the following:

Advertisement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Come and Take It Texas, Texas Carry, Gun Rights Across America and Open Carry Texas Joint Statement on OC of Long Arms – May 21, 2014

Over the past year, our members have done what no other organization has been able to do – put open carry at the forefront of the fight to restore gun rights for all Texans. As we have grown, we have had to adjust our efforts based on lessons learned through hundreds of open carry events, big and small.

Looking back, it has become clear that there is one area in which we have gotten the most resistance and suffered the largest setbacks: open carry of long arms into private businesses. This is not a new phenomenon. Early on, because of our efforts, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) sent a message to all TABC licensees warning them about allowing our members to open carry into their businesses. This resulted in places like Smashburger asking us to leave our guns at home. Since then, Starbucks, Wendy’s, Jack In The Box, Applebees and most recently, Chipotle have come out asking we not carry our firearms into their establishments.

Whereas, our mission is to get open carry of handguns passed in Texas, we must once again adjust in a way that shines a positive light on our efforts, our members, and our respective organizations. We are humbly and emphatically imploring our members to cease taking long arms into corporate businesses unless invited.

Advertisement

Soon after, we received the following comment on Twitter, via Come and Take It’s Austin chapter, which helped draft the press release.

Come again?

I wasn’t the only one confused.

And then this happened.

Apparently, the press release should have been read this way:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Come and Take It Texas, Texas Carry, Gun Rights Across America and Open Carry Texas Joint Statement on OC of Long Arms – May 21, 2014

Over the past year, our members have done what no other organization has been able to do – put open carry at the forefront of the fight to restore gun rights for all Texans. As we have grown, we have had to adjust our efforts based on lessons learned through hundreds of open carry events, big and small.

Looking back, it has become clear that there is one area in which we have gotten the most resistance and suffered the largest setbacks: open carry of long arms into private businesses. This is not a new phenomenon. Early on, because of our efforts, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) sent a message to all TABC licensees warning them about allowing our members to open carry into their businesses. This resulted in places like Smashburger asking us to leave our guns at home. Since then, Starbucks, Wendy’s, Jack In The Box, Applebees and most recently, Chipotle have come out asking we not carry our firearms into their establishments.

Whereas, our mission is to get open carry of handguns passed in Texas, we must once again adjust in a way that shines a positive light on our efforts, our members, and our respective organizations. We are humbly and emphatically imploring our members to cease taking long arms into corporate businesses unless invited.

Advertisement

If I’m interpreting this correctly, they’re going to continue open carrying long guns into corporate businesses, but only if invited. Whether that means they’ll call ahead and ask in advance of it is acceptable to bring long guns to a given location, or if they’ll simply show up and then ask if it is acceptable to come inside with the contents of The Sportsman’s Guide hanging around their necks on a single-point sling made by Chinese sweatshop labor, is unclear.

It’s quite brilliant, as far as weasel-worded statements go. They more or less emulated the formula used by Starbucks, Chipotle, etc, who said that they didn’t want people to bring guns, but at the same time, made absolutely no attempt to take steps that would give those statements legal weight.

This of course is a distinction without a difference from the perspective of the general public, the media, and the citizen control cult. The citizen control cult will still take advantage of any pictures and incidents to portray long gun open carriers as being borderline insane, the mainstream media will run with their claims without a second thought, and the general public will view the claims echoed by the media with an uncritical eye, thinking, “what the Hell is wrong with these people?”

Advertisement

Everything I said yesterday

If this is indeed the official position of these groups and open carriers do indeed heed their call, then Moms Demand Action From Illegal Mayors In Everytown must be terrified.

Virtually every “success” the anti-gun cult has been able to claim recently has been tied into vilifying long-gun open carriers. If OCT, Texas Carry, and other carry groups are indeed beginning to understand how to wage a public relations campaign, then Shannon Watts is going to actually have to work to earn her money from Mike Bloomberg.

…was wrong. They really haven’t learned anything.

Expect pictures to emerge on the Facebook pages and Internet sites of citizen control groups sometime in the near future of long gun open carriers in a business of some sort, for these citizen control groups to lead another public relations charge to vilify the company for allowing long gun open carry, and the company to issue another press release stating, “please don’t bring your guns into our stores.”

Will the open carry groups them drop the “unless invited?”

We can only hope.

double_facepalm_tng1

Join the conversation as a VIP Member