Open Carry TX insists ‘we don’t see color’

[rhoenix]

The Houston chapter of the gun-rights group Open Carry Texas abruptly postponed a march it had planned for Sunday through the city’s Fifth Ward, a predominantly African-American neighborhood.

Talking Points Memo reported that the event organizer C.J. Grisham claimed to have a scheduling conflict on the day of the planned Fifth Ward march.

Prior to the cancelation, organizers had encouraged group members on Facebook to make the walk into “a big event,” in order to “show that gun rights belong to all.” The group said that it was going to conduct the walk-through of the heavily African-American neighborhoods in conjunction with a canned food drive for needy families.

Open Carry Texas has not yet announced when the rescheduled rally will take place.

On his blog, Houston open carry activist David Amad said that the group’s intention was never racist, that his group was baited into planning the march by anti-gun activists.

“In order to respond directly to this challenge by a liberal, anti-gun race baiter, we planned an event in 5th Ward. It was a spur of the moment, ‘we’ll prove you wrong’ rush effort,” said Amad.

“First of all, we don’t see color,” he insisted. “Gun rights don’t discriminate based on skin color and neither will we.”

“Our members don’t plan their walks based on skin color,” he wrote, “they plan them based on where they will be seen and be able to share our message with as many people as possible. Besides, what is a ‘black neighborhood’ or a ‘white neighborhood?’”

In an interview with Houston Chronicle writer Dianna Wray, Amad said, “If you go marching through the Fifth Ward like a bunch of stuffy old white boys carrying guns and spitting tobacco you’ll get a bad response, but if you go in there talking to people like human beings and explain what you’re doing, the response will be different.”

Wray noted, “Plus they’ll be collecting canned goods. Can’t argue with a food drive, especially when the food drive is armed.”

TPM’s Tom Kludt wrote, “It’s already been a month of awful press for Open Carry Texas. The group’s stunts at various chain restaurants prompted Chipotle to ask customers to leave their weapons at home. Even the National Rifle Association called the group’s demonstrations ”weird” and “scary.” The pro-gun lobby ultimately walked that criticism back after Open Carry Texas members cut up their NRA member cards in protest.”

It's a little difficult to claim martyrdom when you're the ones walking around people's neighborhoods and restaurants packing heat, guys.

[frigidmagi]

I don't have a much of a problem with the idea of open carry. Frankly I'm much more worried about the firearm I don't see then the one I do (that said, there are certain places that should be firearm free, bars, schools, churches, hospitals and most defintely political debates).

That said this protest movement has been at best tone deaf and at worse openly hateful and spiteful. That's bluntly not helping the conversation.

[Josh]

I'm not a fan of open carry in concept or this idiotic organization in particular. They can fuck right back off to trying to track down Obama's real birth certificate.

There just isn't a regular context around here where open carry makes a damn bit of sense, and these morons are exactly the sort of mouthbreather motherfuckers that make the rest of us look bad. It's just another extension of the militia bullshit and other fringe idiocy that makes for an easy tarring brush.

[LadyTevar]

Yeah... they don't see color. However I'll bet anyone of them would scream bloody murder if they saw a non-white person open-carry

[Josh]

Eeeeh, depends on where they're from and where they're doing it, really. There were some multi-ethnic components to the local Tea Party outfits, the biggest Tea Partier at my old job was a Mexican dude who kept a prominent copy of God's War on Terror on his desk and would happily talk your ear off about the subject if he caught you for more than five seconds.

(He was otherwise a really cool dude to work with, so I hated when he'd go political on me.)

West Texas is a lot more ethnically relaxed than East Texas and the major Texas urban areas. Out here everybody gets into the shit together in labor and all, so outside of the occasional old-school loudmouths it's not so much a thing. Back in inbred eastern part you get a lot of pure ethnic enclaves that get growly with each other, and the cities are bad for having the black part, the Mexican part, the Asian part and so on.

Houston? Wouldn't be surprised to see the lines being pretty stark. That's also where you get the most leftover Klan activity and similar inbred fuckery, Houston and the outlying area around it on over toward Cajun country.

[Josh]

Oh, and because I haven't said it again yet this evening: fuck Open Carry Texas. Fuck 'em with their fucking penis-compensating ARs right in their gaping pieholes.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Oh, and because I haven't said it again yet this evening: fuck Open Carry Texas. Fuck 'em with their fucking penis-compensating ARs right in their gaping pieholes.

Oh dont even get me started on these motherfuckers. I cannot speak for other Open Carry groups, but these motherfuckers do it for the purpose of intimidation. Harassing USMC veterans who film them, following the dude around with semi-automatic rifles for multiple blocks. Loitering around playgrounds. Hanging around in front of restaurants "protesting" without signage to indicate they are protestors and not an armed gang.

Now, a bunch of white people with guns will march through a black neighborhood. "We dont see color" my ass. They know exactly what they are doing. The implications are fucking obvious.