Texans frightened by the sight of a gun? Who would have guessed?

Temple, Texas, is a city of 70,000 near Fort Hood, a major U.S. Army base, in the heart of a state not famous for liberal gun-control politics. Temple has nevertheless become the scene of an unusual challenge to the right to own and bear arms.

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A Temple police officer stopped Army Master Sgt. C.J. Grisham, a decorated veteran of the Iraq war, when he went out on a 10-mile hike with his 15-year-old son, Christopher. The boy, working on a merit badge for hiking, needed to qualify as an Eagle Scout. Officer Steve Ermis arrested the sergeant, cuffed him, ordered him into a squad car, and charged him with the crime of “rudely displaying” a legal AR-15 rifle. His rifle and a .45 caliber pistol were seized. The sarge said he carried the weapons because he sometimes accosted feral hogs and cougars in the wild Texas woods. Christopher recorded the incident with his video camera, and it has captured 3 million views on YouTube.

Sgt. C.J. Grisham has since been interviewed by Glenn Beck and Alex Jones among others.