Open Carry Texas Activists Are Pretty Upset With Walmart Right Now...[old article]

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Open Carry Texas Activists Are Pretty Upset With Walmart Right Now

The mega-retailer’s confounding policy resulted in a tense confrontation.
By
Dan Solomon
Date
Feb 4, 2016

fter open carry went into effect in Texas on January 1, some businesses were inconvenienced by the size of the signs they had to put up, and other businesses were inconvenienced by the fact that they were forced to choose a side in a culture war when they mostly just wanted to sell hamburgers. But one corporation decided to punt the inconvenience over to a particular subset: its store employees. At Walmart, the official company policy regarding open carry is that customers are allowed to bring visible handguns into the store, but that store staff are responsible for verifying that the customer has a proper license for the weapon.

If you’re curious just how that works out for everybody involved, check out this video, posted by Open Carry Texas, of an encounter at the Walmart in Devine between an openly carrying patron and an employee who requests his license.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/open-carry-texas-activists-are-very-upset-with-walmart-right-now/

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Now, Aaron Darby—the man in the video—is right about one thing: Walmart doesn’t need to verify his permit in order to avoid jeopardizing their liquor license. That’s an extra precaution the store elected to take. But Darby is wrong about something more important: He has no right to walk through a Walmart with a gun if a store manager tells him to either produce a permit or leave the store until he’s no longer armed. Although police require probable cause to stop a person and demand to see a permit, a business owner is under no such restriction.