Open Carry Texas Schedules New Date For Armed March Through Black Neighborhood

[Are_grits_groceries]

Open Carry Texas, a gun rights advocacy group, announced that they have scheduled their march through the Fifth Ward in Houston. The march, which was initially scheduled for Juneteenth but postponed at the last minute, will feature open-carry enthusiasts marching through the streets of the predominantly black Houston neighborhood carrying long assault rifles. The group has gained notoriety in recent months due to their publicity stunts which have featured members entering restaurants and stores with their assault rifles on full display. Apparently, the group has decided to up their game.

CJ Grisham, the founder of Open Carry Texas, decided to address the criticism his group has encountered regarding this planned march. When the march was first scheduled, Grisham and the group came under intense criticism for a variety of reasons. Even after OCT postponed the march, the group was under fire due to the appearance of racial insensitivity. OCT posted the following late Monday evening on the group’s website:

“We are not going to be marching through 5th Ward,” said OCT Founder CJ Grisham, “we’re going to hopefully be marching with 5th Ward.”

Open Carry Texas believes that Texas’ gun laws continue to be rooted in racism. In order to obtain a concealed handgun license in Texas, one needs to shell out over $250 in fees and requirements to do so. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate in Texas was 14.4% in 2010, the date of the last census. In the African-American community, the poverty rate was 27.1%, nearly twice the state poverty rate and almost three times higher than non-Hispanic whites. In other words, the extreme cost to obtain a license in Texas – over $250 – disproportionately prevents African-Americans from getting one.

Texas law prevents anyone convicted of a Class B misdemeanor or higher from qualifying for a concealed handgun license for at least five years. The convictions do not need to be related to violence or even involve a gun. Some examples of “crimes” that will cause you to lose your CHL or fail to qualify for one are littering, writing a hot check, or even certain traffic infractions not involving another person.
<snip>
Read the rest. Find out who they got to march with them.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/07/15/open-carry-texas-schedules-date-armed-march-black-neighborhood.html

I hope the Fifth Ward doesn't march with these fools. They have people with ties to white supremacist organizations.
They are also beyond patronizing in believing that having an African-American march with them makes it hunky-dory no matter who it is.

[Xipe Totec]

1. Well, this could backfire in a hurry. nt

[rock]

18. It does show an enormous amount of uncommon sense

[The Wielding Truth]

2. To be fair Black neighbors from 5th Ward should now march through the neighborhoods of the OC(T)

members. There should be no objections from the Open Cary people. Freedoms are for all the people. Right, OC(T)?
See how well that is recieved...

[Eleanors38]

6. I have no objection. They can come down my street

(though I am not in support of OC, nor the idea of these demonstrations. Just let everyone get their cats in).

[MineralMan]

3. Residents of the Fifth Ward should line the

streets, each of them holding a shotgun at port arms. Overwhelm these racist morons by demonstrating that they are not the only ones who have arms. Don't say anything. Don't show any signs. Just line the streets with shotguns at port arms. The open carry bunch will fade away and disappear very quickly.

Enough of this crap!

[Eleanors38]

7. How it was done. nt

[Eleanors38]

4. Should be quite interesting...

While I don't support this tactic, nor do I favor this group's over-all views and O.C., the march will fly in the teeth of a narrative which paints the Civil Rights Era from the 50s-up as almost uniformly built on non-violent strategies, when in fact the Deacons for Defense, Robert F. Williams (Negros With Guns) and others played significant roles. It also flies in the face of the Gerry-built Narrative that gun rights is about racism and keeping black people down.

The tactic is poor and dangerous, given the history of the KKK marching through black Quarters, esp. in the early part of the 20th Cen. Such a demonstration occurred in Gainesville, FL almost a century ago, and was reportedly greeted by many heavily-armed blacks sitting on their porches, FL Jim Crow gun laws be damned. The OC demonstrators should expect that as well.

[PowerToThePeople]

5. Guns, legal weapons of terror used by terrorists to terrorize the peaceful

citizens of this country.

They need to be banned and destroyed.


(Dupe thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5246387 )

[Eleanors38]

9. The authorities in Houston have a better reading of

the Constitution than you do. Tolerance ain't supposed to be easy.

[PowerToThePeople]

12. unrec.

[Eleanors38]

14. So you don't like tolerance?

[PowerToThePeople]

15. I do not like your post

I do not tolerate terrorists. Nor should any civilized human.

[Eleanors38]

16. Well, they are with us. Deal with them as you wish.

[hamsterjill]

8. The problem with this is that it's only going to take one idiot (from any side or any where)

To grab a gun and kill someone. All for shock and awe.

But the dead person will be dead regardless.

The police in Houston are already overwhelmed because of legitimate crime calls. Any person or any group who pulls a stunt like this which will force the police to take their concentration off the REAL issues and will force the police to have to babysit some stunt puller, is irresponsible and selfish.

[Eleanors38]

10. Agreed. Hear tell there are a number of single mothers

in Houston, newly-armed and trained in shotguns.

[NightWatcher]

11. and when the residents stand their ground against an invasion of armed racists???

[HooptieWagon]

13. And burn crosses too? nt

[Paladin]

17. Of course, these dipshits didn't set up their demonstration at the Galleria.

They aren't going to march down the streets of River Oaks, or the pleasant neighborhoods adjoining Rice University, or the lily-white enclaves up north in The Woodlands. No, these open carry goons are taking it into the Fifth Ward, a sure indication that they're looking for trouble. This is overt racial intimidation, one step removed from a klan gathering. The only saving grace is that, like practically all open carry activities, it makes the pro-gun militancy movement look really, really bad. These sociopaths will eventually get the bloodbath they crave; I just hope that nobody I know is part of it.