‘Open Texas’ stunts get publicity for gun activists—and put pressure on Gov. Abbott
Let’s spell it out.
The “open” rallies and armed protests on behalf of businesses defying state health orders are also publicity stunts for the do-away-with-gun-laws crowd.
They want attention.
They want to embarrass government leaders.
Most of all, they want to push Gov. Greg Abbott and lawmakers to do away with licenses, restrictions and all state and local gun laws.
Look, this is not about gun rights, or the right to carry. In Texas, we have that.
This is about the crowd that wants to carry any gun anytime, anywhere.
And they threaten anyone who stands in their way.
You saw the armed demonstrators in Fort Worth on May 1 when the Basement Bar tried to reopen in the Fort Worth Stockyards.
Protesters armed with modern semiautomatic rifles lined up across the sidewalk, some displaying white supremacist and extremist militia symbols.
It’s been that way at stunts across Texas.
One of the protest leaders, fitness trainer Philip Archibald of Plano, was featured last week in a New York Times report on the armed protests.
On Facebook, he made it clear that it’s all about publicity.
“If you have a business .. and worried about how you’re going to get people in the door; let us help!” he wrote.
“ ... Who’s ready to start being profitable again?”
On the homepage for his fledgling group. Freedom Initative Texas, he added:
“We are letting [Gov. Greg] Abbott know we will not stand for unlawful executive orders ... The guns not only bring this point home but gain us extra attention ... The whole point of a protest is to gain the attention of the press and hence the government.”
On May 4, a West Texas sheriff arrested four of Archibald’s fellow protesters in connection with gun law violations at a demonstration outside the “reopening” of a West Odessa bar.
Two days later, Open Carry Texas founder CJ Grisham wrote on Facebook that officials like Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis “deserve to be threatened.”
“I have zero sympathy for these thugs,” he wrote — “I’m not calling for violence, but the sheriff’s actions are responsible.”
In the Times story, Grisham is quoted: “We go out there because we want peace, but we prepare for war. I hope this never happens, but at some point, guns are going to have to cease to be a show of force and be a response to force.”
Archibald, the Plano activist, also takes some credit for freeing makeup artist Shelley Luther and reopening her Dallas salon.
“What we did for Shelley and Salon A La Mode is huge,” he wrote.
“ ... The purpose of this is to buy these businesses time to harass/build law suits.”
His group neither freed Luther nor reopened her salon.
But Luther’s Arlington attorney, Warren Norred, has also represented Open Carry Tarrant County.
In Dallas, Luther appeared May 9 at a “Set Texas Free” rally in Dealey Plaza with the pro-gun activists in the crowd.
The emcee that day was former state Sen. Don Huffines, a Dallas Republican. He’s been making the rounds of regional Tea Party events lately, drumming up grassroots support without saying whether he will run for office again.
Huffines is a longtime supporter of former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul and his son, Sen. Rand Paul.
Huffines was a one-term senator who sponsored so-called “constitutional carry” gun bills that were so extreme they couldn’t even pass the Legislature.
He sounded off against Abbott.
“If he believed in liberty, he wouldn’t have shut the state of Texas down!” Huffines shouted in what seemed like a dry run for a 2022 stump speech.
Huffines kept shouting: “He destroyed more jobs in 60 days than this state has created! He’s made more people dependent on government for their food! For their livelihood!
“You can’t even go to work! They’ve destroyed your business! You can’t even go to church over Easter! You can’t baptize your children! ... They have destroyed everything that’s left!”
Huffines went on: “It was Abbott that did it!”
See?
These stunts aren’t really about small business owners.
They’re about attention.
And politics.
And — sooner or later — guns.
This story was originally published May 16, 2020 at 3:39 PM.
