- There is great concern about the upcoming open carry law that will go into effect this next January 2016. Law Enforcement will certainly face a new paradigm of social interaction. While some Law Enforcement Officers will continue to ignore the rights of the American Citizen, there will also be some American Citizens that will test limits; for no other reason than to get their few seconds of fame on the internet.
- This new paradigm will certainly be responsible for the death of both law enforcement and private citizens. Whether or not those deaths would have occurred without the new paradigm will be challenging to qualify. In any case, the world will continue to turn as it always has.
- Most of the CHL’s to date will continue to carry concealed after January 2016 for the sole purpose of avoiding issues on both sides of the fence. The ones that carry openly in the beginning will most likely be those that like to test limits. What is worse – is those liberal progressives that will intentionally use their handguns to show “how it could be” if someone does something stupid for no other purpose but to be a martyr for the faith.
- In any case, Officers that don’t want the risk should consider a safer, less challenging, job. American Citizens that don’t want the drama should either carry concealed or not at all. Life is a challenge in either direction. The real issue is that the paradigm is changing and might be changing a bit too fast. This paradigm is a good shift and should not have been necessary in the first place. Government over-reach and societal complacency has allowed the previous paradigm to devolve into a despotic relationship. While the paradigm shift back to reality is necessary, it will certainly cause turmoil with the confused masses that thought the old paradigm could have been saved with a little more time and money. All of that is now irrelevant and we need to move on.
- There is a program that would actually help fix the problem from the start; ICS (incident command system). From its inception it was touted as a way to run everything from a major emergency to a birthday party. The idea is simple; get everyone involved at some level, keep them organized, give them some responsibility, and let them take part in the success of the mission. If you are confused about how this might work with open carry and law enforcement – read the Nine Principles of Policing (Peelian Principles) listed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_Principles, the Texas Government Code 431 (Definitions and Subchapter “H”), and the Texas Government code 437.
- Many of the cities throughout the State of Texas have started Citizens Police Academies with the purpose of getting the local community involved in law enforcement. Some Sheriff’s Departments have also taken the challenge to provide county wide programs. These programs help stop the divide of “Us v.s. Them” attitudes and bring the community together for a common purpose of safety and freedom. Rather than having law enforcement departments like Austin Texas or Houston Texas that will certainly create a greater chasm, or rift, to separate the Holy officers from the lesser CHL’s, LEO Departments should be working on creating programs that would teach CHL’s more about how they can participate in assisting the LEO Departments.
- While some might think I am advocating citizens chasing criminals, shooting criminals, or making arrest… that is the farthest from my mind. Ninety percent of law enforcement has nothing to do with running, chasing, shooting, or arresting others. A large percentage of law enforcement is mitigation. Mitigation is a term used to identify all the techniques and procedures necessary to prevent crime from occurring in the first place (See the 9 principles). Another part of law enforcement is investigating crimes that have occurred in order to solve the mystery and take corrective action. Programs like the Citizens Police Academy are excellent for bringing the common citizen into the law enforcement program whether they own a gun or not.
- College and University Administrators are the world’s worst at working with others. Their Holier than Thou concept of credentialing will naturally force them to reject the idea of working together with lesser people. The idea that un-credentialed (or lesser credentialed) individuals could be allowed unsupervised responsibilities is so foreign to them that there simply is not a parking space in their brain to address the issue. These will be the toughest and most difficult to adjust to the new paradigm. Expect radical, almost religious in nature, opposition to the new change.
- I actually foresee violent outburst of righteous indignation over the next few years with the sole purpose of martyrdom to stop the paradigm from evolving onto college campuses.