BARACK OBAMA began the new year, the last of his presidency, with a tearful plea for gun control. He explained that he was compelled to take action because Congress has failed to. Mr Obama announced executive actions that included a modest expansion of background checks and an exhortation to federal agencies to enforce existing laws. He was confident, he added, that Ronald Reagan would have supported the idea. Meanwhile, in Texas, some gun owners were exercising a newly acquired right: to carry firearms openly in public. The collision of these two events shows how the rival sides in the gun debate can see the same outrages—the shootings at San Bernardino being the most recent example—and draw opposing conclusions.

Texas is now the largest state where gun owners can carry firearms openly. Since the mid-1990s, Texans who wanted to carry guns in public places have had to acquire concealed-weapons permits and hide their guns under layers of clothing (which can be sticky in a Texas summer). Thanks to a law passed by the legislature in 2015, gun owners with permits can now carry them undisguised. This was a popular move: in Texas, as elsewhere in America, the number of people who think the best response to gun violence and fear of terrorism is for upstanding citizens to arm themselves has risen in the past eight years, just as the sales of guns have risen with each rumour of restrictions on sales.