Gun-control advocates sometimes ask if the NRA will always have a "never give an inch" attitude or whether there is something so extreme even that group would speak out. Well, now we know: Asking gun owners to show a little restraint does not violate the spirit of the Second Amendment:
Even the National Rifle Association thinks some Texas residents are taking public gun toting too far.
The notorious gun lobby has slapped members of Open Carry Texas as “downright weird” for their insistence on bringing loaded semi-automatic rifles, including AR-15s and AK-47s, into family-friendly establishments like Chipotle and Starbucks.
The statement, released Friday, came one day before a throng of some 150 people, some armed with semi-automatic rifles and copies of the U.S. Constitution, assembled peacefully outside a Home Depot in North Richland Hills, a Dallas/Fort Worth suburb.
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But the NRA, whose vice president Wayne LaPierre endorsed “a good guy with a gun” in schools and other public places shortly after the massacre at Newtown, said in a blog posting that “a small number (of Texans) have recently crossed the line from enthusiasm to downright foolishness.”
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,” the statement says. “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.”
