The last couple of months have been
rough for proponents of open-carry gun laws. No fewer than seven
restaurant chains have taken a stand against firearms being brought to
their businesses, after activists in Texas conducted provocative
demonstrations in which they toted semi-automatic rifles into various
eateries. Texas law allows rifles (though not handguns) to be carried on
display in public, but some patrons and employees were unnerved and
angered by the demonstrations, and a national group advocating for
reforms, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, pressured the
companies using social-media campaigns. After
Mother Jones published
videos of the gun activists in action, Sonic and Chili's Grill & Bar became the latest to officially reject guns on their premises.
There has also been a particularly dark side to the story of the gun activists: As I first reported in mid May, members of
Open Carry Texas and their allies have used vicious tactics against people who disagree with them, including
bullying and degrading women. Just last week
they harassed a Marine veteran, pursuing him through the streets of Fort Worth on Memorial Day.
In an extraordinary statement, the NRA denounced the open-carry demonstrations as "foolishness" and "downright weird."
Evidently the National Rifle Association has come to realize that
none of this is good for business. In an extraordinary move on Friday,
the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action—the organization's powerful
lobbying arm in Washington—issued
a lengthy statement
seeking to distinguish between "responsible behavior" and "legal
mandates." It told the Texas gun activists in no uncertain terms to
stand down. [
Also see update below.]
"As gun owners, whether or not our decisions are dictated by the law,
we are still accountable for them," the statement began. "If we
exercise poor judgment, our decisions will have consequences…such as
turning an undecided voter into an antigun voter because of causing that
person fear or offense." The NRA praised the "robust gun culture" of
Texas—a state that has loosened laws
as aggressively as any recently—but then laid into those Texans "who have crossed the line from enthusiasm to downright foolishness."
Recently, demonstrators have been showing up in various public
places, including coffee shops and fast food restaurants, openly toting a
variety of tactical long guns. Unlicensed open carry of handguns is
legal in about half the U.S. states, and it is relatively common and
uncontroversial in some places.
Yet while unlicensed open carry of long guns is also typically legal
in most places, it is a rare sight to see someone sidle up next to you
in line for lunch with a 7.62 rifle slung across his chest, much less a
whole gaggle of folks descending on the same public venue with similar
arms.
Let's not mince words, not only is it rare, it's downright weird and
certainly not a practical way to go normally about your business while
being prepared to defend yourself. To those who are not acquainted with
the dubious practice of using public displays of firearms as a means to
draw attention to oneself or one's cause, it can be downright scary. It
makes folks who might normally be perfectly open-minded about firearms
feel uncomfortable and question the motives of pro-gun advocates.
The problem has been on the NRA's radar at least since April. In a
roundtable discussion hosted by a Texas podcaster on April 28, Charles
Cotton, a long-serving member of the NRA board of directors based in
Houston, and Alice Tripp, lobbyist and legislative director for the
Texas State Rifle Association (TSRA), squared off with CJ Grisham, the
founder and president of Open Carry Texas. Cotton and Tripp, who have
both been deeply involved in passing pro-gun laws in Texas for many
years, warned Grisham that his group's demonstrations were causing them
major grief with their allies in the capitol.
"We do control a massive number of votes," Cotton pointed out.
"I'm in the capitol three times a week," Tripp added. "Every
[lawmaker's] office I went into today asked me, 'Can't you do something
to stop the rifle demonstrations?'" One lawmaker told Tripp that he'd
gotten a phone call from the Republican mayor of Arlington—the site of
several provocative open-carry incidents—who'd been "absolutely
incensed." The demonstrations were seriously harming the overall mission
to ease gun laws further, she said.
"The New Black Panthers did exactly what you folks are doing," the NRA board member said.
Grisham, whose group sees its demonstrations as a means to legalizing
the open carrying of handguns in Texas, was having none of it. "I would
like to vehemently disagree," he said. He went off about "the two major
foes" of his organization, the "ultraliberal gun control bullies" of
Moms Demand Action—and gun rights defenders who don't go far enough.
"When you've got the TSRA and the NRA basically coming down on us for
standing up for our rights, that's where our problem is," he said.
"Because now you guys are siding with Moms Demand Action."
"CJ, when you make a statement like, 'We align ourselves with Moms
Who Demand Action,' or whatever the hell their name is, those are
fighting words," Cotton replied with growing exasperation. "You alienate
the people that can get this done."
He continued: "The New Black Panthers did exactly what you folks are
doing. They marched on the convention center during the Republican
convention here in Houston [with] their rifles and shotguns…No arrests
were made, but the legislative response was, 'We're going to stop
this.'" State law was watered down in the next session as a result,
Cotton said, freeing local governments to ban the possession of firearms
under some circumstances.
"They might not like our methods, but our methods are working,"
Grisham told me in a recent conversation with regard to the NRA's
pushback. "We're out there educating people on the street. We're showing
them firsthand that you can see a gun out on the street or at a
restaurant and it's not going to shoot you. I'm not going to let Open
Carry Texas be beholden to anyone that doesn't get our mission."
Some corporations are growing nervous and
moving proactively to prevent gun activists from putting their brands in
the crosshairs.
For the NRA, furthering its agenda in state capitols may not be the
biggest concern at this point. In light of the recent corporate
backlash,
Slate's Dahlia Lithwick proposed late last week that the war over gun policy may now be fought more in the crucible of
the free market.
The battleground has grown to include retailers: An open-carry rally at
a Home Depot in suburban Fort Worth on Saturday drew roughly 150 armed
citizens as well as some
withering criticism, according to the
Dallas Morning News. Home Depot, whose
owner is deeply conservative, signaled that
it was fine with the demonstration.
But other corporations are growing nervous and moving proactively to
prevent gun activists from putting their brands in the crosshairs, says
Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action. A large restaurant
chain and a major retailer, she told me, "have reached out to us to
discuss what policies they could put in place to keep gun extremists out
of their businesses." (She asked that the two companies not be
identified due to the sensitivity of the discussions.) "Gun extremists
believe that when a company is silent they tacitly support open carry,
which clearly isn't the case."
It may be that a broader cultural shift—or at least a strategic
one—is stirring within the gun lobby. In its statement on Friday, the
NRA also cracked open the door to so-called "smart guns," which aim to
improve safety through innovative technological features. Historically
the NRA has vigorously opposed them as yet another catalyst for dubious
government overreach, but now says: "In principle, the idea would seem
to have merit, at least in some circumstances." That pivot comes not
long after
a businesswoman in California and
a gun dealer in Maryland spoke out about harassment and death threats for trying to sell the cutting-edge weapons.
The NRA has also backtracked recently from its long-held stance against laws meant to disarm domestic abusers—a major factor in
gun violence against women—by quietly supporting
recent such legislation in states including Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The NRA's ability to wield outsize political control may now be
starting to change, too—at least with some of the hardcore base to which
it has long catered. On Sunday, Open Carry Texas dismissed the
criticism of its tactics: "The NRA has lost its relevance and sided with
the gun control extremists and their lapdog media," the group tweeted,
adding, "We don't fight for rights at the discretion of the NRA."
Update June 3, 2014, 7:15pmEDT: The NRA is now beating a retreat from its condemnation of the Texas activists. Timothy Johnson of
Media Matters for America reports
that the NRA's top lobbyist Chris Cox appeared on a NRA radio show on
Tuesday to apologize for and repudiate the NRA's lenghty post
criticizing the open carry movement: "Cox said that the statement was 'a
mistake' and that 'it shouldn't have happened,' adding 'our job is not
to criticize the lawful behavior of fellow gun owners.' Cox also blamed
the statement on a 'staffer' who Cox said 'expressed his personal
opinion.'"
That's an intriguing explanation given that
the piece
appearing on the NRA-ILA's "News & Issues" page was 1,500 words
long, contained links to an array of research, and had no byline on it.
Eric Lach at
Talking Points Memo has more on the Texas activists'
angry response to the NRA's Friday post, which apparently prompted the organization to rethink things.
On the radio broadcast Cox went on to emphasize what he said was his
organization's official policy: "The National Rifle Association
unapologetically and unflinchingly supports the right of self-defense
and what that means is that our members and our supporters have a right
to carry a firearm in any place they have a legal right to be. If that
means open carry, we support open carry."
Update June 4, 2014, 12:30amEDT: The Texas activists
welcomed the NRA's about-face: "Open Carry Texas would like to both
thank and applaud Chris Cox and the National Rifle Association for
clarification on their stance of open carry," the group said in a
post
on Facebook. "We remain confident that the NRA will aid with
legislative support to help in getting an open carry bill [for handguns]
both drafted and passed in the 2015 legislative session." Said one
commenter: "
So, folks aren't recommending they cut up their NRA cards and mail them in anymore?"
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