A friend of mine was in the path of Ike. Their apartment complex suffered some bad damage. She’s safe at home with her parents now, but wants to head back to get her stuff, despite police advisement to stay out of Houston. She does not have a license to carry (we need to change that), but I’m glad that Texas law lets her to what she needs to do while armed:
Sebastian: Is your area a bit lawless right now?
Carrie: Things seem to be ok
Carrie: In Pasadena where my folks are is fine, I think. but they have power
Carrie: In the places without power and water, it’s not so good and will only get worse until everything is restored
Carrie: They’re arresting people right and left for looting though, and citing people for breaking curfew
Carrie: so that’s good
Sebastian: Well, make sure if you go you either take your dad with you, or carry. I doubt in a lawless area the cops are going to give a single woman a hard time.
Sebastian: Do you know whether your stuff is OK?
Carrie: Yeah we went over there yesterday and everything was fine
Carrie: We’re going this afternoon and taking a bunch to my folks’
Sebastian: Can your dad go with you?
Carrie: I think we’ll be ok
Carrie: But we’ll probably call him to meet us there and bring the truck
Carrie: What’s the penalty in Texas for carrying concealed without a permit?
Sebastian: It’s legal to have a gun in your car in Texas without a license
Carrie: hmm
Sebastian: It’s perfectly lawful for you to carry a firearm concealed in a vehicle, and to carry it to and from your place of residence from your car.
Sebastian: So you can carry, just don’t wander around with a concealed gun
Carrie: What do you mean, wander around?
Sebastian: Basically you’re allowed to carry the gun back into your house
Carrie: ah
Sebastian: And when it’s in a vehicle, it should not be in plain view.
Carrie: nod
Sebastian: If you go wandering around, it’s a Class A misdemeanor, which is a serious misdemeanor
Carrie: All right
Sebastian: What pistol do you have?
Carrie: I’ve only got that tiny .22
Carrie: It’s at my house
Sebastian: We need to get you a real gun :)
Carrie: And my dad has this massive .38 revolver
Carrie: I know
Sebastian: Can you borrow that?
Does someone from one of the gun control groups want to come on and tell me how much safer my friend Carrie would be if she were completely disarmed in the wake of a hurricane? Can someone say whether in this circumstance it ought to be illegal for her dad to lend her a firearm? Should it be a felony for me to lend her one? Is that reasonable gun control?
It has always bothered me that people act like Texas is the bastion of gun culture when open carry is completely prohibited there.
It does have a healthy gun culture. Healthier in many ways than Pennsylvania. But we have better laws in regards to carrying firearms. Far better laws, actually.
We need to get that Lifetime carry thing that Indiana has…to get rid of that Tx DPS backlog. And concealed carry on campus.
TX is pretty good but we’ve got a lot of room for improvement, and there are states with even better gun laws. The turn around time on an AZ permit is WAY faster than in TX.
Any perception of TX as a “Bastion of Gun Culture” owes more to mythologizing history than contemporary reality, sad to say.
We didn’t even get concealed carry until GWB signed it into law in 1994, and unlicensed vehicle carry wasn’t passed until last year (2007)!