the Texan psyche

“In Texas, we don’t carry guns because we have to,” Mr. Pruett told me later. “We carry them because we get to.”

There’s no telling how many Texans actually walk around armed, but by Department of Public Safety figures, 247,345 men and women, more than 1 percent of the population, may legally carry a handgun provided it is truly concealed and not out in mischievous view.

From the New York Times, Bull’s-Eyes of Texas: Getting a Gun License, by Ralph Blumenthal