Posted on 01/16/2013 4:59:39 AM PST by Tailgunner Joe
AUSTIN -- The City of Austin's Health and Human Services Committee spent the first hour of its Tuesday meeting discussing ways to expand gun control and safety.
"We are taking part in an important discussion that's going on at the national level," said Austin City Council member Mike Martinez.
The committee took part in a question/answer session with Austin Police Assistant Chief Sean Mannix. Mannix says since 2010, Austin police seized more than 780 guns through a buy-back program called Guns for Groceries. Mannix says the weapons seized are either destroyed or used by the police department.
APD also has a firearms unit focused on gun crimes at gun shows and illegal gun smuggling stings. The department is also a member of The Major City Chief's Association, which engages in discussion with Vice President Joe Biden related to legislation requiring states to recognize concealed carry laws and to require background checks at gun shows.
Committee members asked if the City of Austin has statistics on how much gun violence is connected to gun shows. Mannix said, "No, the background of a firearm in Texas is hard to trace."
They asked Mannix what APD is doing to enforce gun lock-up laws in private homes.
"We usually respond after something bad has happened, rather than going into private homes and enforcing laws for citizens who fail to secure their guns," Mannix said.
Andy Mormon, the mayor's chief of staff, says Mayor Lee Leffingwell is one of five mayors in Texas who are part of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition. The group aims to prevent guns from going into the wrong hands, to require every gun buyer pass a criminal background check, to get guns off streets and make gun trafficking a federal crime.
"When the mayor speaks, he speaks for the City of Austin. He represents us," said Martinez.
The committee talked about the Travis County commissioner's decision Tuesday to allow nine more gun show contracts to take place this year. Then it went into executive session to discuss legalities of local gun restrictions.
Ed Scruggs is calling upon City leaders to ban gun shows from Austin public places. On Tuesday he presented the committee with a petition with 346 signatures urging City leaders to ban guns in public places.
Several members of the public spoke at the meeting.
If Texas ever does secede, hope one of the first acts is to deport half of Austin. However, I suspect they will self-deport to a blue state.
LOL! Buffoons. If only they had banned guns and killing people at Sandy Hook. We wouldn't be having this goofy "discussion".
sarc/
The TxDOT HR manual was recently updated to allow employees to CARRY at work, not just secure weapons in their cars.
The mayor of Hanoi in the Hill Country and his commie buddies can piss and moan all they want.... I can carry anywhere state law says I can.
I only go to the San Francisco of Texas when I absolutely have to.
/johnny
I look forward to watching the long line of the tie dyed brain dead pushing their hybrids and electric cars and smelling of patchouli, out of state.
BRAVO SIERRA!
So the ONLY reason they're having this "discussion" is because it's being "discussed" on the national level?
Liberalism truly is a mental disorder.
So because someone somewhere is discussing Honey Boo Boo, I believe we should discuss Honey Boo Boo as well.
Liberals are of a diminished mental capacity.
First, Austin should be physically taken off the map and moved to California.
Second, a “secured” gun is useless when it takes time to “unsecure” it to protect your life when seconds matter.
Third, criminals don’t obey laws.
Not mentioned in this report was the promise by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot to sue the City of Austin and Travis Co. if they banned gun shows. That’s what I like about Texas. (For those outside our borders, that’s the Dairy Queen theme song here:)
Austin...... Just tryin to earn some street cred with their NY buddies.
This represents a whopping 0.044% of the city; the mayor should take notice of that!!”
...nope. The mayor won’t refer to it as “346” sigs. He’ll say “hundreds”.
“I look forward to watching the long line of the tie dyed brain dead pushing their hybrids and electric cars and smelling of patchouli, out of state.”
****
We looking at colleges for my kid to attend. Although he has the grades for automatic admission, we’re excluding UT-Austin from the list because of the liberal infestation.
Good call.....nothing but steers and queers in Austin
Austin ... Where Californians go when they need a job
Ha!
When the mayor speaks, most of us laugh.
These people are morons.
If the guns were voluntarily sold, then they weren't seized. The quality of journalism is pitiful now days.
>> On Tuesday he presented the committee with a petition with 346 signatures urging City leaders to ban guns in public places.
As one of the commenters quipped: “In a city of over a million people, I’d call that an epic fail.”
Well, that's comforting (sarc/) since the alternative is a leftist wet dream of unannounced, warrantless searches.
“Austin police seized more than 780 guns through a buy-back program
If the guns were voluntarily sold, then they weren’t seized. The quality of journalism is pitiful now days. “
Absolutely right. Talk about keeping Austin weird.....
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