Gun-Free Zones

By G. Romero Wendorf

This is the first time I’ve admitted this in print and will probably regret doing so, but I carry a gun on me most places I go. Have since I first got my Concealed Handgun License (CHL) in 1997, two years after the law was first passed. If I lived in Mexico, that wouldn’t be possible. I’d already be one of those missing journalists for whom their families are still looking. Only one in Mexico allowed to carry guns are the cops, military troops and, of course, the varied and sundry drug cartel members, whose numbers seem to be growing by the day.

By the way, in case you missed it, there was a shootout in Rio Bravo, south of Donna, last Saturday, between cartel gunmen and Mexican state police that left eight cartel guys dead. Whacked out on meth, no other explanation makes sense, the guys in the cartel caravan attacked the state police who were armed to the teeth as they conducted drug surveillance in one of the poorer areas of Rio Bravo. 

After killing the eight and running off the rest, the police confiscated two vehicles, tactical equipment, ammo, nine high-powered weapons, not to mention one cartel guy hiding in one of the vehicles.

The drug bosses probably wanted a report back on the attack against the state police – see how it all turned out -- but if I were the fleein cartel gunmen, I wouldn’t go home. I’d sneak across the river, turn myself into the U.S. Border Patrol and at least be relatively safe in a U.S. prison.

Thankfully, though, on this side of the river, people without a criminal record, who are at least 21, (18-21 if you’re in the military), and can prove mental competence (okay, there’s the kicker), can sign up for a certifiedCHL course and get licensed to carry a handgun, semi-automatic or revolver.

Meanwhile, the truly crazy out there are walking Texas streets carrying an AR-15 around their shoulder, videotaping it, and then acting bent out of shape when a cop shows up to ask them what they’re doing? I saw a video posted online the other day. Nice cop shows up. Asks the guy, might have been in Central Texas, what are you doing carrying an AR-15? Cop was nice about it. Just wanted to see if the guy was a nut?

If I had been the cop, good thing I’m not, I’d probably have taken the AR-15 from him, whacked him across the head, and asked him why he was scaring everyone half to death walking around with an assault rifle?

In Texas, of course, this is perfectly legal for some silly reason – carrying a long-gun out in the open. It started out sane. Guys carrying a riflein the back of the pickup truck to go hunting. Makes sense. This is as it should be in the South. But then some “Constitutionalists” wanted to start screaming that this long-gun loop-hole meant that they could carry a loaded AR-15 or AK-47 into a big-box store or go strolling down the street and nobody should protest them doing so.

I refer to these people as whackadoos. But not when they’re carrying a loaded AR-15. But they are – whackadoos.

Which is what just happened, in part, in the state of Texas. With a concealed handgun law in place, there was no reason to pass an open-carry law this past legislative session. The new law kicks in Jan. 1, 2016. 

After that, if you have a CHL, you can holster your weapon to your hip, just like Wyatt Earp, and cruise into your local convenience store looking cool. Concealment of your weapon is no longer mandatory.

If a cop sees you, however, the new law still gives them the right to stop you and ask for your CHL license, to prove you have the authority to go around carrying a weapon.

The smart ones among us will keep it out of sight, which is where mine has been since I got my first license 18 years ago.

Number one, if some nut job with a gun enters my space, whether it be a store or a sidewalk, do I want him, or her, to even know I have a gun on me? No. Why? Because they’ll probably shoot me first. There’s a lot to be said for an element of surprise.

Number two, the people who will choose the holstered Wyatt Earp look probably won’t even have a holster with a snap on it. Quick draw, that’s what they’ll choose. No stupid snap release with which the cops have to contend.

So while they’re standing in line at the convenience store, and the guy just released from the mental institution is standing behind him, still suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, despite the docs pronouncing him stable, he can pull their gun from their plain-sight holster and shoot them dead.

GUN-FREE ZONES?

On to gun-free zones. How stupid are they? The fivepoor service guys killed in Chattanooga. The poor dead theater-goers in Louisiana. All killed in gun-free zones.

You know what I do with gun-free zones? I ignore them. Unless, of course, they’re one of the places expressly forbidden by the state to carry a weapon if you have a CHL. The big ones: on the premises of a business that derives 51 percent or more of its income from the sale of alcohol (something about guns and booze not going to well together);  on the premises where a school sporting event is taking place; a correctional facility (duh); at any meeting of a governmental entity (makes sense); a polling place on election day (makes sense); inside an airport security airport (hello, Chuy); on public or private school grounds.

There are a few other places CHL holders can’t carry a weapon, but proper signs have to be posted: churches, amusement parks, a hospital or nursing home, and a meeting of a governmental body.

If you ignore those places, and you’re caught carrying a gun, criminal charges range from a felony to a misdemeanor.

The crimes don’t apply to private establishments, private businesses, even if they post a sign. The only time you’re in violation of a law is if the business owner finds you in possession of a gun and asks you to leave. If you refuse, the owner can call the cops, and you can get arrested for trespassing.

So, really, with regard to private property, no big deal. I still carry my gun. People just can’t see it.

I was sitting with a banker buddy recently, and the subject of guns came up, and I mentioned I never leave home without mine. And he said, “But didn’t you see the sign on the door?”

Some banks have the sign on the door – No guns allowed – and others do not. I don’t understand the ones who do. Bank robber’s going to see the sign and turn around and go home? Some idiot insurance underwriter has convinced them that they risk less liability with the no-gun sign on the door. But if the bank robber bursts in, high on meth, and goes berserk and starts shooting everyone just for the hell of it, the odds are, the idiot insurance adjustor isn’t going to be there.

Which is why I choose to ignore your sign, I told my banker buddy.

Those private-business/bank signs are about as stupid as gun-free zones. The crazies who get the guns, like the recent killer in Louisiana, where’s the first place they head? To gun-free zones, like the theater he shot up, that had on its front door, big and bright: Gun Free Zone. 

Sadly, the crazy guy chose to ignore it. And because of that, two innocent people are dead; more wounded.

We already have tons of gun laws in place, and yet somehow this nut job fell through the cracks and the FBI background check didn’t tag him as a looney tune, so he got to buy a gun, because he had never been involuntarily committed, even though it was clear to everyone who knew him that he was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

Create more gun laws, that’s the ticket. No, finda way to stop the crazies from getting their hands on a gun. Impossible. Which is why I choose to ignore the signs that say: Do not carry a weapon inside this establishment.

Unless it’s one of those previously mentioned places – correctional facility, for example – that’s expressly forbidden by the state. Or a school. Which is another crazy law. Every time I visit a school campus, I have to leave my gun inside my truck. And I think, what will happen if an armed whackadoo shows up? Will he take out the campus cops and kill us all? Will the campus cops run like they did at Columbine?

Clearly, schools would be safer if those of us with a CHL were allowed to carry them on campus. But that’s not going to happen any time soon. The legislature barely got the new law passed to carry a gun on a public college campus. It has to remain concealed, however, at all times. The new law kicks in Sept. 1, 2016. Universities will have the option to create their own gun-free zones.

So when the crazed nut job shows up looking to kill a bunch of people on the college campus, God forbid, where is the first place going to be that he heads?

To the gun-free zone, of course.

Good luck with that.