Texas Open Carry gun advocate, Walmart worker clash over handgun in store

Chron – by Craig Hlavaty

In a video released by Open Carry Texas last week, a man who was openly carrying a handgun at a Walmart in Devine, Texas, is asked by a store employee to present his handgun license and the man caught it all on his camera phone.

The man who is at the center of the video, Aaron Darby, and a Walmart employee argue for a few minutes in the clip before Darby leaves the store. He refuses to show the employee his handgun license.   

Darby says Walmart also called Devine police to the scene. He says that he went to the store’s customer service desk and was soon met by two Devine officers who asked to see his handgun license.

“I complied and explained to them that there was no probable cause of any crime being committed and that, by law, I was not required to do so.”

He says he apologized to them for the time they wasted in responding to the call.

“They agreed, reviewed my (license to carry) and said I was good to go back to shopping,” Darby says.

Darby says the incident occurred on Jan. 20. He says he’s filed a complaint with Walmart’s global ethics department and has spoken with local management.

He added that he’s patronized that store while open-carrying every day since the incident with no problems.

Earlier this year, when open carry became the law of the land in Texas, Walmart corporate enacted this practice. Managers on duty are now tasked with confirming that open carriers have proper licensing in addition to everything else in their job descriptions.

Brian Nick, the senior director of national media relations for Walmart, says this practice is currently in place in Walmart stores across Texas that sell alcohol (in Texas’ case, that means beer and wine).

“We will continue to allow customers to carry firearms on Walmart property as long as they follow local, state and federal firearm laws,” Nick says.

“In line with Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission requirements, our stores that sell alcoholic beverages will not allow customers to carry non-licensed handguns or long-arms into our facilities.”

In other words, it’s OK to bring in a handgun to Walmart if one is properly licensed because the store’s alcohol sales are 50% or less of the total gross receipts.

In addition, Nick says Walmart also films every firearm sale at its locations and a member of management escorts gun-buying customers out of the store after each sale. This is a common practice already at leading sporting-goods outlets like Academy.

In Texas, police cannot stop and demand that you show them an ID based solely on you open-carrying. They can request you do so though, but they cannot demand it without probable cause.

As Fortune reported earlier this year, Arkansas-based Walmart phased out the sale of AR-15s and similar weapons in summer 2015, citing low demand from customers.

CJ Grisham, the founder of Open Carry Texas, said TABC’s general counsel agreed with him this week that Walmart doesn’t need to check for licenses. He said he wishes TABC would step in to stop Walmart from doing so.

“We began these talks a few weeks ago and they have done nothing to educate licensees that their liquor license is not in jeopardy by not checking to see if people open-carrying are licensed to carry,” Grisham said.

Meanwhile, Grisham says he and others in the Open Carry movement are not done with Walmart by any means.

“We have begun applying political pressure to the issue as well as trying to bring some negative attention to Walmart for harassing its customers,” Grisham said.

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