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Arrest in Austin September, 2013 The State Trooper, center, has a holstered antique revolver in his left hand. About a year  ago, Open Carry Texas held a demonstration at the Texas State Capitol at Austin.  Several people were arrested.  Charges were slow in coming.  It appeared that they might be charged with the catch-all of "disorderly conduct".  The open carriers repeatedly said that they were doing nothing illegal. There is breaking news on opencarry.org.  It has been reported that seven people who were arrested over a year ago, in conjunction with open carry, have had all charges against them...

One of the difficult things to quantify about defensive gun uses, is how often they occur without a shot being fired.  The survey information indicates that it happens somewhere between a few hundred thousand to a few million times per year in the United States.  With the Internet, we are becoming more aware of these events.   Sometimes, they are reported in local media.  It in the vast majority of cases, there is no report to police; if there is a police report, there is no media coverage; if there is media coverage, it is strictly local.   I recall numerous...

Some mass killings have occurred at clubs.  The most infamous has been the "Happyland social club" in New York City, where 87 people were murdered by arson in 1990.   An armed citizen may have stopped an attempted mass killing in El Paso, Texas on Sunday, the 16th of November.   A 23-year-old Hispanic man had been thrown out of the appropriately named "Club Khaos" at about 1 a.m.  He returned to the entrance of the club and started shooting.  He hit five people; one of them is in critical condition.  From the elpasotimes.com: A 21-year-old man was hit in the...

The Houston school board granted approval Thursday for the district to open one of the nation's first public Arabic immersion elementary schools. The new school reflects Superintendent Terry Grier's push to graduate more bilingual students. The district opened a Mandarin Chinese immersion school in 2012 and plans to have about 50 schools with Spanish dual-language programs next year after doubling the number last year. "The fact is, America is a really terrible example of learning two languages," said school board member Harvin Moore, who sends his 10-year-old son to the Mandarin school. "I'm proud of the fact this district has...

Bundick says the rainbow is what the area’s all about. “It’s the most recognizable way that people can identify and say, ‘This is a safe community. This is an accepting community,'” he said. The Austin City Council gave the project initial approval. Now the details are getting worked out with the city’s Art Commission. Funding for the project will come partially from city money for public artwork. The Austin PRIDE Foundation is also donating money.

Both Governor candidates in Texas endorsed the concept of legal open carry of modern pistols.   The open carry of long guns is protected by the Texas Constitution, and the open carry of antique pistols is allowed under current Texas law.   The conventional wisdom is that once elected, candidates avoid campaign promises.   Governor elect Abbot did not back away form his promise on open carry.  From dailytexanonline.com: Abbott also said if legislation allowing firearms to be carried openly in public came to him, he would sign it into law. “If open carry is good enough for Massachusetts, it's good enough...

Hodges I suspect this sort of activity has been common in the war on drugs.   But this is the first case that I have heard where it has been documented that a gun was planted on a child so as to get them in trouble with school authorities.   It would of course, be even easier to do so with a few cartridges, and much less traceable.   From yourhoustonnews.com: A 28-year-old woman was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for planting a pistol in a child’s backpack and anonymously reporting him to the school. Heather Hodges was the live...

Battleground Texas rode into the Lone Star State promising to make the state more competitive for Democrats. They have failed. Not only that, the Texas Democrats might have been better off if the president’s personal political support group had never shown up in Texas. Their brightest star, governor nominee Wendy Davis, flamed out. Despite the backing of President Obama, the media, Hollywood and rich liberal trial lawyers (or perhaps because of all of that), Davis underperformed the Democrats’ showing in 2010. Bill White lost to Gov. Rick Perry 54-42 four years ago. Wendy Davis is set to lose 58-31. Or...

AUSTIN - With the formalities of a lightly contested election almost out of the way, the stage is all but set for the arrival of the most anticipated political newcomer in recent Texas history. The George P. Bush era appears ready to begin. About a quarter-century after first speaking at the Republican National Convention, and two years after filing paperwork to run for a then-unspecified state position, the 38-year-old grandson and nephew of presidents is expected to easily be elected land commissioner Tuesday. And while he has maintained a relatively low profile this year, holding few public events and focusing...

2nd Lt. Joshua Nelson was off duty when he intervened in a situation where a disturbed young man with a knife was threatening his mother.   The officer used his concealed carry firearm to defuse the situation, and talk the man out of hurting anyone.   Lt. Nelson said that he just used his military training.  From laughlinaf.mil: According to police reports, the young man was mad at his mother, who he had a knife to, because she wouldn't buy him a gun.  Nelson told his wife Brittany to go alert the store manager and call the police. Nelson, who has...

Yesterday ABC's This Week (10/26/14) profiled George P. Bush, a Texas land commissioner candidate who is a grandson and nephew of the more famous George Bushes.  It was part of This Week's "Closer Look" series, which seems to be intended as a place for upbeat profiles of political heavyweights. But a brief exchange about climate change showed the limits of this kind of journalism. Given its impact on land issues, correspondent Jonathan Karl had good reason to ask Bush about climate change. KARL: As land commissioner, he'll oversee millions of acres of oil and natural gas reserves. But he also...

A union of federal immigration-law-enforcement workers issued a statement “pleading” for the American people to pressure Congress to block President Obama’s expected executive orders on immigration. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services union president wrote of “constant violations to the Immigrant and Nationality Act” in his letter. “This statement is intended for the public: if you care about your immigration security and your neighborhood security, you must act now to ensure that Congress stops this unilateral amnesty. Let your voice be heard and spread the word to your neighbors,” wrote union president Kenneth Palinkas. “We who serve in our...

Cleburne police are investigating after a video circulated online of one of its officers coaxing a dog toward him before shooting it. The short video, taken from a body camera’s perspective, shows a man’s arms wielding a handgun while the officer summons two dogs toward him. As the animals approached with their tails wagging, the officer fired several times. As one of the dogs fell to the ground, the officer, who has not been identified, took aim at the second dog. The video ends abruptly, before showing what happened to the other dog. Although the video shows that the animals...

Elections are only a few weeks away, and most polls show that Texas Republicans again will control all statewide offices and large majorities in both houses of the Legislature. On the surface, Republicans should be pretty happy with the results. By just looking at a map of the party makeup of the Texas House, Republicans appear to control vast swaths of the Lone Star State. The devil is in the details; however, as we've provided you numerous scorecards from various organizations showing the voting records of House members in the 2013 Legislative session. Creating a map using these scores (Empower...

If the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game. Were instructions given on filling out anti-HERO petition?-A— Annise Parker (@AnniseParker) October 15, 2014

"There are two things that I harken back to this. The only way that we are going to beat this is person by person, moment by moment, detail by detail. We have those protocols in place, the city and county, working closely with the CDC and the hospital. The second is we want to minimize rumors and maximize facts. We want to deal with facts, not fear.

HOUSTON, Texas -- As Ebola grips Texas, Governor Rick Perry is nowhere to be found. This week the governor is on a previously-scheduled trip to Europe. His absence during this trying time not only questions how seriously he takes the threat of the deadly virus, but also marks a missed opportunity for him to appear presidential prior to the 2016 elections. Perry will be visiting England, Germany, Poland and Ukraine to spreading his message of economic prosperity and business development. He will also be exploring "opportunities to expand the export of liquefied natural gas from Texas to Poland and...

In a brief filed with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, Texas attorney general and GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott argued that lifting the state’s ban on same-sex marriage would not encourage opposite-sex couples to procreate within wedlock, and therefore the ban should stay in place. Abbott reiterated the “responsible procreation” argument he has already made in defense of a same-sex marriage ban, saying that the motivation for denying marriage rights is economic, according to the Houston Chronicle. “The State is not required to show that recognizing same-sex marriage will undermine heterosexual marriage,” the brief reads. “It is...

The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked Wisconsin from enforcing its strict voter identification law in this year's election.. By a 6-3 vote, the justices granted an emergency appeal from civil rights lawyers who argued it was too late to put the rule into effect. Lawyers for the ACLU had noted the state had already sent out thousands of absentee ballots without mentioning the need for voters to return a copy of the photo identification. It would be "chaos," they said, for the state now to have to decide whether or not to count such ballots because the voters failed to...

WFAA is reporting, via their breaking news app, that the Dallas Ebola patient has died.