For all the clichés about pistol-packing Texas, the state is one of the few that has not yet succumbed to the gun lobby’s big push to let citizens carry handguns at the hip wherever they go. That may be about to change as the State Legislature convenes next week with open carry a top priority of the Republican majority and with Governor-elect Greg Abbott pledging to sign it into law. The result could produce a far from reassuring civic tableau if even a modest number of the 800,000 Texans who have concealed-carry licenses choose to strap their weapons on in public.

In the antic ways of gun-rights zealotry, one group — Come and Take It Texas — is planning to promote the cause with an armed rally on Tuesday at the Capitol at which supporters will flaunt rifles and shotguns, which already are legally allowed for open carry. And should any lawmaker miss the point, the group is planning to use a 3-D printer to manufacture guns at the rally. The stunt, however, is creating division in the open carry ranks, with a rival group — Open Carry Texas — finding it counterproductive and planning a rally later in January where participants will wear empty holsters, according to The Texas Tribune. Empty holsters are not much of a symbol of moderation, but gun safety advocates maintain hope that the issue might be derailed, as it was in the last Legislature.

The Austin debate is the latest barometer of the nation’s gun culture, as it veers somewhere between eerie and lethal. In Newtown, Conn., where 20 children were shot dead in the 2012 school massacre, some victimized parents, rebuffed by Congress on stronger gun safety laws (and perhaps by recent polls showing waning popular support on the issue), have begun lawsuits against the gun’s manufacturer. They are rightly asking how a powerful weapon created for combat could ever have been marketed on the home front as a novelty. On the other hand, residents around Aurora, Colo., where 12 were shot to death and 70 wounded in the 2012 movie-house massacre, can now take advantage of a cut-rate Groupon offer for supposed expert advice on how to wield the weapons many are buying and concealing.

America’s concerns and cautions about guns never quiet, particularly on the Internet. Lately, gun-rights counselors are advising women on how to better secure their handguns, so there’s no repetition of the tragedy last month when an Idaho mom was shot dead at a Walmart as her 2-year-old son rummaged in her purse and fired her fully legal pistol. (“Bra holsters are also on the market now.”)