Anti-Gun Activist Shannon Watts: Open Carry Texas ‘Like the Taliban,’ Might Shoot and Rape Moms

At the end of my conversation with Shannon Watts, of gun-control group Moms Demand Action, Watts said something rather astonishing. The reason that the moms in Dallas were so intimidated by the counter-protest outside, she told me, was that Open Carry Texas is “like the Taliban” and could feasibly have planned to open fire. “You don’t honestly believe they were going to shoot you?” I asked.

“I have no idea why you would actually assume that,” Watts replied. “You never know with these mass shootings. I don’t know who these people are. I don’t know if these people have had background checks. Or if they have had any training.” Watts also suggested that Open Carry Texas was full of people who mightrape the women involved in Moms Demand Action. I suggested that this was a “little extreme,” but she said that OCT’s website featured some choice comments and that she had inferred it from that.

I don’t know too much about OCT, I grant you. But I do know that one is probably unlikely to plan to shoot up and then rape a restaurant full of mothers after one has alerted the press to one’s presence and brought along one’s wives and children for good measure.

Via: NRO

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Armed protest at Alamo ends quietly

SAN ANTONIO — Gun enthusiasts gathered at the Alamo Saturday to rally for the right to openly carry firearms, without state and local restrictions that are now in place.

Demonstrators, many carrying rifles, shotguns or 19th-century pistols, cheered speakers who urged them to hold tight to their firearms, as their protected Constitutional right.

Featured speaker Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a candidate for lieutenant governor whose General Land Office oversees the Alamo, approved the use of the Alamo grounds for the event. Until 2011 the Alamo was overseen by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, which limited demonstrations at one of the state's most recognized landmarks.

Police Chief William McManus said this week that police would oversee the protest, which he expected to be peaceful.

Update 3:05 p.m.

Police have threatened to cite remaining protesters who are armed for a violation of city ordinance that bans weapons in city parks. Police did not enforce the ordinance during the demonstration, but told a small group of armed protesters who declined to leave they would be cited if they stayed.

“How do you even sleep at night,” one protester asked an officer during a five-minute standoff that gained the attention of a small crowd.

The protester labeled the police “tyrants with badges.”

Via: MY SA

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Arkansas gun rights group plans 'open carry' march to highlight new law

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas –  A dozen gun rights supporters plan to march in a western Arkansas city this weekend with their firearms on display to highlight a law that they argue allows the open carry of handguns, despite an attorney general's opinion saying otherwise.

Arkansas Carry, a gun rights group, on Saturday plans to hold an invitation-only "open carry" march in Fort Smith to highlight the disputed law, which took effect Aug. 16. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel last month said the new law makes technical corrections regarding the possession of a handgun but didn't remove the restrictions on carrying weapons openly.

Arkansas law currently states that being on a journey is a defense to prosecution for illegally carrying a weapon, but doesn't define what constitutes a journey. The new law defines a journey as traveling "beyond the county in which the person lives."

The head of Arkansas Carry, which has about 200 members in the state, says the advisory opinion by McDaniel is wrong.

"Basically we're going to do the walk because it's legal and we're trying to show that act 746 does authorize open carry contrary to what the attorney general said," Steve Jones, the group's chairman, said Thursday.

Jones said the group coordinated the event with police and prosecutors, though city officials say they're staying out of the debate over McDaniel's opinion. In an email to officers, Fort Smith Police Chief Kevin Lindsey wrote that the city prosecutor advised him there wouldn't be a violation of the law unless "an officer could prove that there was an unlawful attempt to employ a handgun, knife, or club as a weapon against a person."

Via: Fox News Politics

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