Lovett v. State

OPINION1

ELIZABETH KERR, JUSTICE

Citizens have a right to film the police. Texas citizens with a proper license also have a right to “open carry” firearms, though that right is not unlimited. Citizens may exercise both these rights simultaneously, although—as we will explain—circumstances can justify a police officer’s asking a lawfully armed citizen to put away a deadly weapon and expecting that request tó be honored.

This is true even when, as here, the weapon that Kenneth Wayne Lovett displayed is statutorily excluded from the definition of a “firearm”: in our view it is not reasonable to…