SHARE

Employees of a Fort Worth Jack in the Box must have thought members of Open Carry Tarrant County were part of a gang in early May when they walked into the restaurant carrying their loaded assault rifles. The workers called police and reported that they were being robbed and feared for their lives.

Dozens of police officers showed up, but accounts vary as to what happened after that between the officers and Open Carry Tarrant County members.

The tactics employed by Open Carry Tarrant County have drawn opposition from other gun rights groups.
The tactics employed by Open Carry Tarrant County have drawn opposition from other gun rights groups.

In a statement to the press, police said that when officers arrived, the employees had locked themselves in a walk-in freezer. They didn’t see the normal Open Carry signs that, according to police, would have alerted employees to the intent of the demonstrators.

TWB_EblastBanners_300x250

Watkins remembers it differently. Everyone was nice at the Jack in the Box. We ordered, received our food, and walked back out,” he said. A post on the group’s Facebook page said they saw no evidence of anybody having taken refuge in the freezer.

“We don’t ask for permission or call anybody,” Kory Watkins said. He and his colleagues are just exercising their rights and trying to raise awareness about the Second Amendment, he said.

Watkins’ policy of not alerting law enforcement officials and business owners to planned open-carry activities is what caused Grisham to distance himself from the Tarrant County group.

“I kept telling everybody, ‘That’s not us,’ ” Grisham said. First, he said, he believes the situation at the Jack in the Box was completely mischaracterized. “And second of all, that’s not us. We have the same goal, which is to openly carry handguns, but we’re just not the same organization.”

Watkins received a call from Grisham, who told him to quit handing out Open Carry Texas literature and flying the Open Carry Texas flags.

“You know, do your own thing,” Grisham said.

Watkins wouldn’t discuss the two groups’ differences for this article. It’s still a touchy subject that both groups would rather forget as they move forward to their next task: trying to get open-carry bills filed and passed in 2015.

 

 ********

 

Today, Watkins’ “own thing” is a weekend routine: handing out literature and business cards at the same Arlington intersection on Saturday afternoons as people make their way toward AT&T Stadium.

Watkins’ fedora is pulled low over his brow, and his AR-15 is hanging low as he crosses and re-crosses the intersection and makes his way up and down the sidewalk, waving at cars and holding up pamphlets about the U.S. Constitution and gun rights.

The demonstrators’ children play in the grass outside an aptly chosen Raising Cane chicken restaurant as their parents stand on the corner, some waving at motorists, others crossing their arms with a slight frown on their faces. The heat is uncomfortable, and the children act wilder as dozens of cars fly past.

Grisham: “We’re just not the same organization.”
Grisham: “We’re just not the same organization.” Photo Courtesy of Temple Telegram

The light turns red, and a few people lower their windows as Watkins approaches. It’s like watching a homeless man panhandling for money.

The “support is incredible,” Watkins said. “Sometimes on the news, they make it seem like something it’s not. But when you come out on our walk, you get to see the reality of the support and how people aren’t scared. We’re not scaring soccer moms. In fact, the soccer moms are rolling down their windows and taking our information with their kids in the back seat.”

But the soccer moms are ignoring them today. For the most part, children’s windows close as soon as the group of armed individuals is spotted.

Claire Elizabeth, spokesperson for the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said in an interview that many moms don’t want their kids around people openly carrying assault rifles, especially when shopping for groceries or going out for a burger.

“You don’t know if they’re a good guy with a gun or a bad guy with a gun,” Elizabeth said. “That’s a real issue for most moms.”

Moms Demand Action has already pressured Starbucks, Target, and Chipotle into banning the open-carry of firearms inside their stores. The group just initiated a national campaign boycotting Kroger at more than 2,600 locations in 34 states until the retail giant enacts a similar gun-restricting ordinance.

“It’s not really targeting any specific group of people [like Open Carry],” Elizabeth said. “It’s really about our kids being around adults who have no background check and no licensing requirements and are openly carrying a loaded firearm.”

 

North Texas freelance writer Christian McPhate can be reached at christianmcphate@gmail.com.

22 COMMENTS

  1. Lol. The data you people use to calculate such ignorance. The other countries don’t collect data on how many people the goverment kills. Guns protect us from them and allow you to write this stupid B.S.

  2. Tea Party Paranoids Tony (flimsy resume) Tinderholt and Kookie Konni (road rage) Burton are completely in favor of folks carrying large assault weapons in public. I can only hope that Burton is able to use some restraint if she runs into those dreaded local physicians and FWST “liberal” Op-Ed folks who are her sworn “enemies”–acording to her Facebook page. Tony apparently had a scream fest on behalf of the “open carry” folks while “addressing” the Arlington city council—Scary!

  3. As a gun owner of 40 years, I find the behavior of Watkins and his group completely irresponsible. What they do, while legal, paints responsible gun owners with the tar brush of extremists and marginalizes any real attempt made to extend gun rights, which by the way are the most liberal of any country in the world. These outlandish and outrages exhibitions by Watkins and his group serve no real purpose other than drawing attention to a group of socially inept people that under the guise of open carry are chasing their 15 minutes by scaring the hell out of innocents in businesses and on the street. They continually show how inconsiderate they are by refusing to ask permission from or notify the police or business of where they will be or when. Please keep your guns but at home, or the range, or on your deer lease just don’t carry them on the street even though you can. Because I can is the worst reason for doing anything.

    • Hey fed-up….think any of these deep thinkers by any chance , could possibly be, just maybe, somehow, kind of close to considering, maybe entertaining thoughs of being a Bagger or simply a greed-head Repug? Really, lets hear it. Don’t you know his Mama’s proud of him? Precious, really precious.

  4. For the record, the NRA appologized to Texas open carriers saying that an “ignorant staffer” condemned the movement. The NRA has subsequently supported our efforts to pass pistol open carry.

    So the NRA being outraged is such a far stretch of the truth it’s a blatant lie.

    • Outright lies and the NRA have a long, established history of going hand in hand.

      Actually that would be “handgun frickin’ everywhere in hand.”

  5. As a 50+ years firearm owner, I find that a community of people and their governments who cannot entrust each other with each others unalienable rights, nor wish protect each other right to act as they see fit, respect that they do so without causing harm, is a community that cannot be trusted at all.

    If their not killing anyone or obstructing any other man/woman rights, they are fine. Where as, the officers automatically step out of their uniform when arresting without true cause of harm, thus are acting illegally.

    The rule is this: Be cool, don’t be an a**hole, and your good.

    • Cops who torment and mistreat people do so because they enjoy their abuse. It has nothing to do with right or wrong, good or bad. They do what they do because they enjoy what they do. Many cops are wired differently than other folks and many of them would pay to have their jobs instead of being paid, if they had the money. They love their work. I have four close friends who are cops,three recently retired. We all went to high school together fifty years ago and still go hunting & fishing pretty often. We have to have cops, they are what they are, regular people with different likes and needs, just like crooks. There is not a nickles worth of difference between most of them. Cops are much more lucky than the crooks. It’s better to be lucky than it is to be smart, or a hard working, stand-up, decent human being. That is what one of them told me once, years ago. I thought he was right for a long time but I got over it.

  6. The coward Shannon Watts of momsdemand who blocks and deletes anyone not parroting her cause spreads lies. While running around with armed security she calls for Americans to be disarmed. She claims being a grassroots but is all Monsanto genetically engineered AstroTurf!! Our 2nd Amendment is inalienable and can’t be taken away from law abiding citizens. What will it take to get antigunners to realize it’s the criminals & gangs they should be focused on going after. Not pushing for more laws by definition criminals don’t obey.

  7. The coward Shannon Watts of momsdemand who blocks and deletes anyone not parroting her cause spreads lies. While running around with armed security she calls for Americans to be disarmed. She claims being a grassroots but is all Monsanto genetically engineered AstroTurf!! Our 2nd Amendment is inalienable and can’t be taken away from law abiding citizens. What will it take to get antigunners to realize it’s the criminals and gangs they should be focused on going after. Not pushing for more laws by definition criminals don’t obey.

  8. The coward Shannon Watts of momsdemand who blocks and deletes anyone not parroting her cause spreads lies. While running around with armed security she calls for Americans to be disarmed. She claims being a grassroots but is all Monsanto genetically engineered AstroTurf! Our Second Amendment is inalienable and can’t be taken away from law abiding citizens. What will it take to get antigunners to realize it’s the criminals and gangs they should be focused on going after. Not pushing for more laws by definition criminals don’t obey.

  9. The coward Shannon Watts of momsdemand who blocks and deletes anyone not parroting her cause spreads lies. While running around with armed security she calls for Americans to be disarmed. She claims being a grassroots but is all Monsanto genetically engineered AstroTurf. Our Second Amendment is inalienable and can’t be taken away from law abiding citizens. What will it take to get antigunners to realize it is the criminals and gangs they should be focused on going after. Not pushing for more laws by definition criminals do not obey.

  10. Daytripper, just because you post something 4 times doesn’t make you right it just makes you sound shrill and needy. Also how can a man made inorganic product be genetically engineered? What so many people forget is that the governments regulate large numbers of things for the common good. Yes I know the word regulate is a hot button word for some of you but it’s true none the less. This is done to protect the general public because some people and companies can not be trusted to do the right thing. History is full of examples of this. The problem is that Watkins and his group are causing harm when they show up carrying their long guns. It scares employees, children and their parents. That can not be casually dismissed. They are not be considerate to the public. I don’t mean that in some nanby pamby way but by not showing respect for others in the community in which they are demonstrating.

  11. Texas has legal concealed carry. Why does anyone need to openly carry a gun – rifle or pistol – into commercial areas? It makes no sense to most Texans – and we know guns, right? These folks are outliers and the Texas legislature needs to stop them. In fact, openly carrying long guns should be illegal in urban and commercial areas. It’s intended for hunting and rural living. These people are creating HUGE problems for not just every day people, but for business in this state. It needs to stop. Thanks for this piece.

  12. These folks need to be stopped. They’re awful for every day folks, as well as for business. The legislature needs to outlaw open carry of long guns in commercial and urban areas. Texans know that long guns in a store or at an intersection is RIDICULOUS. Open carry of pistols is not necessary because we have legal concealed carry. If you feel you need a gun when you’re out and about, do it like the rest of us – CHL.

  13. Those Tea Party candidates running for state offices i.e. Texas Legislature District 94–Tony Tinderholt and Senate district 10 –Konni Burton seem to think that supporting dangerous and unnecessary legislation for Open Carry is what the voters want. I can assure you, as a typical voter in these districts that I am offended at the immature embrace of this set of fringe characters. I would be very vociferous about any time wasted on such ridiculous legislation. The voters of Tarrant county deserve better. If one of these open carry people discharges a weapon in a public place accidently–especially a church or health care facility–I believe Tinderholt and Burton should be held legally responsible for the consequences.

  14. In Ohio, an open-carry state, “patriots” carry their AR-15s, AK-47s into stores, like the Walmart in Beavercreek, . all the time. The other customers have greeted these gun carriers – who all have happened to be white men in their 20s and 30s – with a knowing nod of the head, a salute, two thumbs up,”God Bless You,” “Don’t Tread on Me,” etc.,

    In August 2014, an unarmed 22 year old black man named John Crawford goes shopping at the same Walmart, selects a $43 Crossman plastic air rifle (pellet gun) off the shelf in the sporting goods dept, and carries it as he continues shopping. No one came up to him and thanked him for being an patriot like when white guys bring their loaded REAL semiautomatic rifles. Instead, someone called 911 about a black man at Walmart who had an assault rifle and was OBVIOUSLY UP TO NO GOOD. And he was aiming it at children. The police arrived and the official report states that Crawford was ordered to drop the weapon twice. After refusing to drop the weapon, and supposedly telling the police he would drop it only after he kills some crackers, a police sharpshooter fired a nonfatal shot at Crawford’s hand, making him drop the rifle, but Crawford dropped to the floor, picked up the rifle with the other hand, aimed it at the officers, and they had no choice but to open fire.

    The community staged a protest – all white people – protesting against any charges being filed against the white officers, who WOULD SUFFER ENOUGH knowing they were FORCED to kill a young family man who pointed a toy gun at them and refused to put it down. The grand jury decided the officers were justified in killing the man.

    The video was finally made public. All the details about refusing to drop the gun, killing “crackers,” having the gun shot out of his hand, picking it up and aiming it at the police DID NOT HAPPEN, but were put in the report to make the killing “justified.”. Crawford was killed TWO SECONDS after the police spotted him.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9FtNOV6Qhk

  15. Lug around “guns rights!”, “militia patriot!”, “tea party super hero!”, “just because I’m paranoid don’t mean I’m not out to shoot me!” banners or…
    simply wear similarly adorned apparel.

    Armed criminals in OC states thank gunnuts for the time-saving tip.

LEAVE A REPLY