Sky Chadde

The Huey P. Newton Gun Club and the Indigenous People's Liberation Party stand across the street from the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse.

In hopes of raising awareness of police brutality, two groups walked single-file together through downtown Dallas Monday afternoon with rifles slung over their shoulders. The Huey P. Newton Gun Club, which marched down Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in August, and the Indigenous People's Liberation Party stopped in front of the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse. As about 10 members stood in a line on the sidewalk across the building's entrance, three members went inside and attempted to hand a report directly to U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana.

They got as far as her division manager with the report, compiled from data obtained through open-records requests, which shows that the majority of victims of Dallas police shootings are from the minority community. It's the same report Dallas Communities Organizing for Change released to the media last week. To the marchers, the numbers in the report are evidence of a systemic problem of police abuse toward minorities.

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theise

"I have a gun in my pocketbook, and I'm not afraid to use it. Now, who wants a cookie?"

Texas, the most gung-ho gun state in the country, may be getting just a little bit less infatuated with firearms. This year, the percentage of gun purchase requests submitted in Texas is significantly lower than last year. The Houston Chronicle reports that 1.1 million gun purchase requests were submitted last year, compared with 910,000 this year.

It's not clear why there has been such a marked decrease. Gun advocates offer several reasons, including fear of Congressional legislation limiting gun ownership. But one possibility could be that gun owners are simply aging out.

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Renelibrary

The tiny city of Argyle has its own police department and school police chief -- do their teachers need to carry firearms as well?

With around 2,000 students in the district's three campuses, Argyle ISD is a small, quiet district located smack dab in the middle of Denton and Fort Worth, off Interstate 35. And this school year, some teachers at Argyle ISD have a secret: Several of them have a guns hidden away on their bodies while they're busy writing lessons on the classroom whiteboard.

See also: Starting Today, Some Texas Teachers Are Learning to Become Armed School Marshals

For the upcoming school year, Argyle ISD is one of a few districts in North Texas that will be implementing the controversial Protection of Texas Children Act passed by the Legislature in 2013. The bill allows for certain districts to train appointed administrators or teachers to possess firearms in their classrooms in case of emergencies. The move was first suggested as a response to the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting and is the brainchild of freshman Representative Jason Villalba.

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Kathy Tran

The woman in the passing car shouted, "Black power!" And the gun-rights advocates lined up on the sidewalk outside Forest Avenue Baptist Church on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard returned the call. In the heat of a Wednesday afternoon, about 30 black men and a few women, dressed head-to-toe in black, stood with long guns slung around their shoulders. They marched to protest police brutality in general and to encourage gun ownership.

A few groups were represented in the ranks of the marchers, said Charles Goodson, an organizer of the march and head of the Huey P. Newton Gun Club, which wants people to know they have the right to own guns. Many marchers had Black Panther patches on their black fatigues. Marcher Priest DeBrazier said the Panthers were there in response to the slaying of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri, but Goodson said the march had been planned before Brown's death August 9.

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M Glasgow

Let's just pretend for a minute that all these people are wasted. Great idea, right?

Guns, most people seem to agree, should be handled carefully. Drunks, most people seem to agree, are not generally known for their powers of caution. But at least one DFW gun club has decided that, hey, you know what would be a nice addition to Texas gun shows? Booze.

Alcohol sales are currently prohibited at Texas gun shows. But the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission announced Friday it would consider changing an internal administrative rule to allow the sale of beverages at gun shows, in response to the gun club's request. Carolyn Beck, a spokeswoman for the TABC, said she was unaware which group made the request.

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YouTube

An open carry advocate talks to some kids at Dealey Plaza.

As they've been doing on each third Saturday for months, advocates for the open carrying of firearms gathered -- semiautomatic weapons in tow -- at Dealey Plaza over the weekend. As usual the demonstrators, who call themselves Come and Take It Dallas, handed out literature and preened with their armaments of choice.

Wanting to make this trip downtown special, someone decided to film the group's activities. That video has now been uploaded to YouTube. It's a great watch, complete with direct camera addresses about foreign tourists who want to take the group's guns and direct witnessing to a couple of kids. There's even an extended, deeply weird shot at about the eight and a half minute mark featuring a street preacher decrying sexual iniquity intercut with images of an intimidating looking pink rifle. Check out the full video below.

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Kory Watkins for Texas

Kory Watkins and his Open Carry Tarrant County group won an injunction against Arlington.

According to Arlington law, demonstrators can't hand out literature to drivers who are not parked. It would seem, then, that distributing anything -- even pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution -- at busy intersections is out of the question. But earlier this year, that's exactly what members of Open Carry Tarrant County did -- and they did it with long guns strapped to their shoulders.

Police responded and, with armed men yelling at them, ticketed two members. Arlington responded, adding a few lines to its original law making it more difficult for demonstrators to distribute pamphlets. The OCTC guys said this violated their First Amendment rights, so they sued Arlington in late May. And yesterday the group won a temporary victory.

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Patsy Lynch

Some Texas teachers will store guns in safes in case of an emergency.

When the Sandy Hook school shootings occurred in December 2012, Jason Villalba had one toddler and one child in kindergarten. Like all parents, Villalba felt an urgent need to offer better protection for his kids. Unlike most parents, Villalba had just been elected to his freshman term in the Texas House.

Villalba authored a controversial bill that would allow for certain school officials to act as undercover marshals on school grounds. He spent a good part of the 2013 session ensuring its passage, and now the young law is entering its first trial period.

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Kolten Parker/San Antonio Express-News via Washington Post

For the last week or so, as America's mayors and well-heeled urbanists descended on our fair burg, we have touted ourselves as the bonafide Florence in Texas, a cultural oasis in a vast desert of philistines.

Well, kind of. Turns out we still like our guns just a bit more than our cultural centers, as the map above demonstrates.

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Kathy Tran

Open carry advocates brought long guns into a Target recently, and now some moms are asking the store to crack down.

Toni Gallego knew what she was going to get her granddaughter for her birthday. She knew the store where she was going to get it, too. She shopped at Target all the time, buying formula and diapers. Then she saw the picture: long, black rifles in the big box store's toy aisle. The day before, she had dropped $160 there. She said she hasn't been back since.

Gallego, a retired educator, said she's never supported the use of guns. She hates that her two sons have them. Recently, she saw that Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, an organization that advocates for the sensible use of guns, was to host a "Stroller Jam" outside Target's shareholders' meeting. Come moms, with your strollers, and show Target it should prohibit open carry in its stores. With her granddaughter in a stroller, Gallego made her way to a shady corner of Ferris Plaza Park, across the street from Union Station in downtown Dallas, around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

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