A man was arrested at a Missouri WalMart wearing body armor and carrying "tactical weapons" -- legal carry in the state. They're holding him while they figure out what to charge him with, if anything.

Officers responded to a call of an active shooter at the Walmart Neighborhood Market in Springfield, Police Lt. Mike Lucas said. But no shots were fired and no one was injured, police said. The man was pushing a cart and recording himself walking through the store with a cell phone when the manager pulled the fire alarm to notify customers to escape, according to CNN affiliate KYTV.

"His intent was not to cause peace or comfort to anybody that was in the business," Lucas said. "In fact, he's lucky to be alive still to be honest."

The facts are still to emerge, not least details of his actions while heavily armed in public. But the implication from the early reporting suggests that he's a provocateur, not a terrorist, that the "active shooter" report was false, and that it'll be tough making serious charges stick.

In any case, his behavior and the authorities' reaction to shows the sand is shifting under open-carry, at least the long-barrelled sort intended to intimidate people and provoke a reaction. A hostile police response is now incoming, even for the whites (though note that this guy was detained by an off-duty firefighter, pulling their own gun in public).

Consider this tweet, doing the rounds the last couple of days:

The answer is "leave, 'cause if someone calls the sheriff that saloon's gonna be full of holes." Read the rest

Appears the new open carry laws in Texas, which have expressly allowed guns onto College campuses and into psychiatric hospitals, are back firing against open and concealed carry enthusiasts. Private business and property owners can ban firearms from their property by either posting signs, or verbally informing armed people they are not welcome to carry their weapons. Firearms enthusiasts are finding a lot of new signs around Texas.

The Trace has observed a wonderful exchange on a Texas gun rights forum:

Others had a more measured responses. “I would LOVE to OC everywhere I go,” Lynyrd wrote. “The fact is, it makes some people uncomfortable. Time may change that, but it will take years.” He cautioned his fellow gun owners to remember that “most all of the places we go outside our homes is still PRIVATE PROPERTY.” (Business owners can verbally notify open-carrying customers that they are not welcome in their establishments, regardless of whether a sign is posted or not.)

Weighing in again, the original poster, LTUME1978, felt that for Texas’s concealed carriers, the damage had been done. “The lid is off this can of worms and it will never go back,” reads a later post in the thread. “I hope the right to walk around looking like Wyatt Earp is worth it to the open carry folks because a lot of us are loosing our right to concealed carry and it may cost some of us our lives for your privilege to play cowboy.”

Students at the University of Texas at Austin will protest a new law that will allow more guns on campus.

Instead of signs, the students are protesting by "strapping gigantic swinging dildos to our backpacks," which is in violation of the campus' obscenity policy.

Jessica Jin, who set up the Campus (DILDO) Carry event on Facebook, invokes the argument that allowing more guns on campus will make students safe is a fallacy. She's urging students to send campus leaders that message by strapping on the plastic phalluses.

"You're carrying a gun to class? Yeah well I'm carrying a HUGE DILDO," Jin says in the group's description. "Just about as effective at protecting us from sociopathic shooters, but much safer for recreational play."

Read the rest