On a sidewalk outside the Texas capitol yesterday, a group pushing for relaxed gun laws staged a provocative demonstration by making a firearm, the Wall Street Journal reports. Come and Take it Texas used a small machine that milled metal into the lower portion of a rifle, which group members planned to assemble into a usable gun. The act was designed to illustrate the group's view that the state is deluded in thinking it can completely control guns, said co-founder Phoenix Horton.
The protest, which some gun-rights advocates criticized, was part of a larger rally that attracted dozens of citizens wielding rifles and calling for a change to state “open-carry” laws. It foreshadowed the many hot-button issues likely to be debated in coming months by Texas legislators, who meet every other year. Texas has relatively few restrictions on the acquisition of firearms, but it is one of only six states that doesn't allow people to openly carry legally owned handguns. Texans can openly display rifles and other long guns which is why dozens of people at the capitol proudly toted rifles.