Opposing sides of Texas gun culture are attending each other’s events according to a story in the New York Times.
Moms Demand Action held a counter rally nearby a gun rights rally last month in San Antonio. Open Carry Texas, a gun rights group, recently learned MDA was meeting in a Dallas restaurant, and with guns in hand, stood in the parking lot.
“They crashed our Alamo event,” said C. J. Grisham, 39, the president and founder of Open Carry Texas. “Let’s crash their event.”
Gun rights’ supporters are pushing to change the law to allow the open carrying of handguns, and they are using the freedom to carry rifles as part of their campaign. Advocates say they are trying use these tactics to convince people that carrying unconcealed guns in broad daylight should not be a cause for alarm, but such displays do scare some.
Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, said the women attending the meeting, as well as customers inside, were frightened by the group.
Current Texas state law requires a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Carrying a rifle openly, in public, is mostly unregulated and does not require a license