Even in Texas the government can violate your Constitutional right to bear arms.
Army Master C.J. Grisham, a popular military blogger, was arrested during a hike with his 15-year-old son, because according to the arresting officer, he was “rudely displaying” his gun and “in this day and age people are alarmed when they see someone with what you have.”
Grisham has a concealed carry permit and was within his full legal rights while carrying the AR-15 rifle and .45 caliber pistol, but the policeman said people “don’t care what the law is.”
“Do you care what the law is?” Grisham asked the officer.
Grisham told Fox News he was carrying the AR-15 on his shoulder to protect himself and his son from the wild boars, coyotes and cougars known to be in the area. Because Texas is a right-to-carry state, gun permit owners can openly carry rifles and other hunting firearms, as long as they’re not threatening anyone with the weapons.
But the veteran and his son were only halfway through the 10-mile hike working on his son’s Boy Scout merit badge, when the officer stopped them in their tracks and asked them what they were doing.
The policeman then ripped Grisham’s rifle away from him and threw him on top of the car all in front of his young son. Luckily for the military man and unluckily for the policemen arresting him, he remembered his video camera and instructed his son to record the entire arrest.
“Just because a guy has got a firearm, he’s dangerous?” Grisham asks the officer in the video.
“Yes, sir,” the officer responds.
The war hero was originally charged with resisting arrest, but the police decided to reduce the charges to interfering with a peace officer while performing a duty.
“For the first time in my life, I had to sit in jail,” Grisham told Fox News. “I’ve never been in jail — never been accused of a crime. I was treated like a street thug.”
“I’m still frankly and honestly 100 percent confused about what I’m being charged with,” Grisham added.
After serving 18 years in the military, fighting overseas in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and receiving the Bronze Star with Valor, Grisham said he is considering leaving the military after this unsettling experience.
“It doesn’t seem like our rights are being respected,” he told Fox News. “For me, it’s a difficult turning point. I wonder what it is that I’m fighting for. If our basic rights are being violated this way — what is my purpose?”
He is planning on suing the police department for “illegally arresting and disarming” him and has started an online defense fund to raise money to cover the cost of legal fees. “I am fighting for gun rights and against illegal search and seizure,” the website reads. The original goal was to raise $11,000, but Grisham has already raised $24,o99 as of Wednesday morning.
Watch the videos below and decide for yourself if Grisham was in the right.
