Biker shootout in Waco
Larger issues
Regarding “Biker brawl” (Page b5, Monday), this is not the Wild West anymore. Some of our legislators seem to feel we have to protect ourselves from what? Episodes like Waco will only increase. Gang members already are heavily armed. I would not want to be a policeman, having to make hard choices when you have to assume everyone has a gun.
Do we really want weapons on college campuses? As a native Houstonian of an age where I have seen good and bad, I have walked all over without fear. If the open carry passes, I would be terrified. Texas is near last in health care, the needs of the elderly, hunger, education and all the things I feel need to be addressed.
Noel Foreman, Houston
Gang problem
If you are a cop pulling up to a Waco-like war scene, the issue of open carry versus concealed carry is irrelevant. The guns are already drawn and firing. The cop has the same issues regardless of whether the state allows open carry or not.
A majority of states allow open carry. The Waco event did not happen in an open carry state. It happened in a state that, at the moment, does not allow open carry.
Furthermore, the cops were already at the scene when the firing started. How many of the bikers had any kind of permit to carry guns? We do not know. I suspect not very many of them, but I don’t know. When a bunch of guys start beating each other with chains in a parking lot you have a problem that has nothing to do with open carry. Larry Medford, Houston
Darwin Award
Open carry will allow me to find and wear clothing that could possibly expose a weapon inadvertently. By the law today, I could be arrested for any exposure of the weapon by accident.
I assume the editorial is implying that an officer coming upon such a scene would possibly be confused upon seeing an individual with a holstered weapon who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Almost daily I encounter plain-clothed law officers with a visible holstered weapon. Their ID badges are not always visible at the time. Other police officers are well aware that these plainclothed law officers are out there.
Any private citizen who is armed and comes upon a scene like the biker brawl and does not leave the area as fast as possible and draws his weapon is a candidate for the Darwin Award. Gerry Etheredge, Huntsville, Texas
Let’s hear it
Regarding “Details emerge in deadly biker brawl” (Page A1, Tuesday), I would like to suggest to Gov. Greg Abbott that he redeploy the state’s government’s troops from watching the U.S. military troop-exercises to watching the motorcycle gangs in Waco.
If Gov. Abbott can make a cogent argument that our military-uniformed heroes who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are a greater danger to the public than the biker-gangs (“Abbott orders troops to keep eye on feds,” Page B1, April 29), I would be very curious to hear that argument.
P.A. Moye, Sugar Land