Prometheus 6

Road rage plus the right to carry unregistered weapons in the car? I don't think so. 

Alice Tripp, the legislative director for the rifle association, conceded that the groups had been seen as an odd couple. “Everybody kind of went, ‘Oh my God, what’s the A.C.L.U. doing here with the gun people?’ ” Ms. Tripp said. But she said they had found common ground on self-defense as an endangered liberty.

Unusual Allies in a Legal Battle Over Texas Drivers’ Gun Rights
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

HOUSTON, April 4 — Keith Patton was driving home one night in February when police officers pulled over his red Ford Explorer for a traffic stop.

His license and insurance form were in his gym bag on the floor near the back seat. Under the bag was a .357 Magnum.

Mr. Patton, 51, an oil-field geologist, software tester and martial arts instructor from suburban Katy, told the police about the gun, which he said he had bought hours before from a co-worker for target shooting. Moments later, he was handcuffed and on his way to jail, facing a charge of unlicensed carrying of a weapon.

The arrest might have been routine elsewhere, but this is Texas, where a code rooted in the days of the highwayman recognizes the right of travelers to be armed, and the Legislature has repeatedly endorsed that principle.

Defiant police officers and prosecutors, however, saying they retain law enforcement discretion, have continued arresting and bringing cases against motorists like Mr. Patton found with unlicensed handguns.

The conflict has led to a legal standoff and a new effort by legislators to resolve the issue. It has also inspired an unlikely alliance between the gun lobby, which has long drawn support from the political right, and civil liberties advocates, long identified with the left, in defense of pistol-packing travelers.