Triangle Tactical Podcast and Blog on Guns, Gear, and Competition Shooting
Officer Ermis seemed to react negatively when Mr. Grisham appeared to adjust his rifle after the officer let go of it, which set this whole thing in motion.
Personally, right at the beginning, I think Officer Ermis was a quick to pull his pistol, and he turned on the “asshole” attitude prematurely which seemed to fuel Mr. Grisham’s reaction. I’m not super familiar with all of the open carry intricacies in Texas, but it should be noted that Mr. Grisham was convicted just a couple days ago of “interference with duties of a public servant”.
In a perfect world, a citizen walking down the road in a rural area with a slung rifle in a non threatening manner wouldn’t even get a response from law enforcement. Unfortunately that isn’t the world we live in, and with our current system, if you are going to open carry, especially a rifle, you should expect an interaction with law enforcement whether you like it or not.
In my own experience, dealing with police officers when you are carrying a gun is a roll of the dice. Most of the time they don’t really care, once in a while they are gun guys and want to talk shop, and every now and again you get an officer that treats you like a criminal. I don’t like rolling the dice, and I don’t like being treated like a criminal, so I tend not to open carry because I don’t like the attention.
