2 arrested at Texas Capitol gun-rights rally
Source: Associated Press
2 arrested at Texas Capitol gun-rights rally
By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press | October 26, 2013 | Updated: October 26, 2013 5:45pm
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) State troopers arrested two men said to be carrying antique pistols outside the Texas Capitol on Saturday during a demonstration by a gun-rights group that also helped spearhead a rally of openly armed supporters last week at the Alamo.
The two men were arrested for criminal trespass and have refused to identify themselves to authorities, Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said.
"The men were openly carrying suspected deadly weapons and were given the opportunity to leave the area, but refused," Vinger wrote in an email. He said no other information about the arrest was available.
Leaders of the gun-rights group Open Carry Texas said their members did not provoke troopers and were within their legal rights to carry the pistols. Victoria Montgomery, a spokeswoman for the group, described the weapons as black-powder revolvers made before 1899.
Montgomery said the group doesn't go looking for trouble but instead wants to educate the public that the kind of antique weapons carried by the men arrested Saturday can legally be open carried. Long guns can also be openly carried, though Texas law prohibits open carrying of handguns.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/2-arrested-at-Texas-Capitol-gun-rights-rally-4928872.php?cmpid=hpts
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)pangaia
(24,324 posts)Gman
(24,780 posts)I thought that's what the guns were substitutes for.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)demosincebirth
(12,543 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)tblue
(16,350 posts)Not sure what made this a "criminal trespass," but it's heartening that there might be limits to gun "rights" even in Texas.
progressoid
(49,999 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)Thucydides
(212 posts)penis less than six inches is allowed to open carry, Whats the problem dudes and dudettes.
gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)They_Live
(3,240 posts)on the sidewalk, it would stand to reason that these idiots would not be allowed to open carry even a butter knife on the TX capitol grounds. Those troopers just don't want anybody there at all unless you have a suitcase full of cash for a republican. Even more amusing is the fact that most of the lawmakers in the TX govt were voted in by these same people that were being provocative today.
gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)Francois Jeopardy
(40 posts)but carrying them openly is not a right, but a privilege. You have to have a license for it.
8 track mind
(1,638 posts)This has been years ago, but i am about 90% certain that there was some sort of "grey area" when it came to black powder weapons in the State of Texas. There was some sort of dumb logic that since the firearm was so old, it wasn't considered a real weapon and therefore not subject to the laws that a standard firearm would be. I will have to do some research on this.
Black powder guns can kill just as well as a conventional gun can. Even if it was legal to openly carry a black powder firearm, the Alamo is State property. If they say no weapons, they mean it.
This open carry bullshit is nothing more than crude intimidation and false bravado