Open Carry Texas Announces Anniversary Open Carry Hike

Open Carry Texas
Open Carry Texas

Temple, Texas –-(Ammoland.com)- On March 16, 2013, active-duty soldier MSGT CJ Grisham was arrested while joining his son on a 10-mile hike to earn a Boy Scout merit badge.

As he always does while walking out in the country, Grisham was carrying his legally concealed Kimber .45 and a legally carried Blackjack Firearms AR-15, semi-automatic rifle.

Responding to a non-emergency call reporting a man with a rifle, Temple police officer Steve Ermis walked right up to Grisham and attempted to disarm him without a word of warning or identifying the nature of the confrontation. Grisham, having done nothing illegal, was hesitant regarding this unlawful disarming and was met with Ermis’s service weapon pushed up against the back of his neck in front of his teenaged son.

After his arrest, Grisham realized that there is a lot of ignorance about open carry laws in Texas and started the official non-profit organization, Open Carry Texas (OCT).

Since the founding of OCT, our great state has seen a miraculous turn-around regarding gun rights and laws. Working with local law enforcement agencies all across Texas while also educating the public at large, OCT has been able to positively influence politicians in the pursuit of extending open carry to modern pistols in addition to the already legal open carry of pre-1899 black powder antiques/replicas and long rifles.

At 10am, on Saturday, March 15, 2014, OCT will recreate that historic hike with a massive ten-mile open carry march along the same route Grisham and his son were on last year. Over a hundred armed patriots are expected to attend the peaceful exercise of this fundamental right and local law enforcement has been notified about the event that will begin and end at the intersection of Mouser Rd. and Airport Trail in Temple.

OCT is an organization dedicated to the safe and legal carry of firearms openly in the State of Texas in accordance with the United States and Texas Constitution and applicable laws.

About Open Carry Texas: Our purpose is to 1) educate all Texans about their right to openly carry rifles and shotguns in a safe manner; 2) to condition Texans to feel safe around law-abiding citizens that choose to carry them; 3) encourage our elected officials to pass less restrictive open carry legislation for all firearms, especially pistols; and (4) foster a cooperative relationship with local law enforcement in the furtherance of these goals with an eye towards preventing negative encounters. Visit: www.opencarrytexas.org

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richard

its hard to believe how this cop just comes up and no identification and just starts to disarm CJ. What could have happened if CJ was not a law abiding citizen? That officer needs more time back in the classroom.

John S Brofka

Although the officer responding was woefully ignorant of a citizen’s 2nd amendment rights in the great state of Texas I can understand his misapprehension. This can be easily corrected with the proper training, training, training.

Chaplain Dale Stearns

That’s about right the people don’t care anymore I am going to backup the MSGT. God Bless Chaplain Dale Stearns

Davied M. Russell

Police officer is a moron and needs to be busted back to door jerking.

Jim

The po-leese in Temple was way out of line on that deal, but with county prosecutors (and county money) they managed to hand-pick a liberal judge to find the open carry guilty of something….I never did figure out what he was found guilty of. You must understand that folks in Temple Texas, that serve on juries don’t look at things like most Texans, I suspect. The prosecution managed to present only a part of the story and railroaded this fella to a guilty of something result. It is on appeal at this time, so who knows. If my comment isn’t… Read more »