My diary of yesterday inspired an evening's worth of musings. "Open Carry Texas"'s seemingly obsessive "road rage" display in the first 10 posts I saw on their Facebook page was nasty enough that I saw at least one NRA member take them to task. As I returned to the page this morning to review them, I stumbled across posts that indicated they are deliberately setting up stunts to provoke law officers into arresting them and to draw attention to themselves.
Continued below the Orange Whassadoodle.
Here a Mr. "Cj Grisham" sets up the security officers at the state capitol for what OCT calls an "illegal arrest" by walking in and openly carrying a realistic-looking toy gun: https://www.facebook.com/...
...because (obviously) Capitol police should smile and be reassured when someone walks into the state government offices with a gun.
They also set up the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest someone carrying a black powder weapon (which is apparently legal) : https://www.facebook.com/...
Apparently some of them feel it's okay to carry black powder weapons into establishments that post a "no weapons" sign. The blog owner clarifies this with "well, if private citizens say 'no' then you should respect this, but just ignore the government's laws. He also admits to speeding and beating the tickets with a 5th amendment defense: http://opencarrytexas.wordpress.com/... A blog post written a few weeks earlier, though, chastises business owners for not allowing guns into the stores: http://opencarrytexas.wordpress.com/...
Another blog reveals that Grisham is their token flogging boy who will step up and take a bullet...err... arrest for the group. He was in court for "disorderly conduct" after pulling a gun-related stunt and the trial resulted in a hung jury according to this blog post. http://opencarrytexas.wordpress.com/...
And it turns out that they have a "legal defense" team just set up and strategies in place for marching around with guns (and hoping for an arrest) http://opencarrytexas.wordpress.com/...
So the incident wasn't an accident or a coincidence, but a well-set up situation by people who want to advance their cause through some unpleasantly extreme tactics. Someone commenting on my previous blog compared them to the Westboro Baptist Church, and I think that the comparison is somewhat apt. However, unlike the WBC, I do think these people CAN be shamed -- if NRA members step up to the plate and denounce their tactics.