Gun owner action needed on Texas campus carry bill

Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 10 May, 2011 | David Codrea

[marktwain]

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“Campus carry passes Texas Senate,” attorney David Kopel reports at The Volokh Conspiracy.*

Campus carry already passed the House as a stand-alone bill, so it seems likely that the House will concur with the Senate amendment. Texas Governor Rick Perry has repeatedly indicated his support for the measure.

Jack Burch, CEO of Hill Country Shooting Sports Center and a politically involved right to keep and bear arms activist, offered a look at the political process via an email to Gun Rights Examiner:

Today the second amendment was dealt a good hand. During a series of floor amendments on an unrelated bill, SB 1581, Senator Zaffirini was able to get passed an amendment, number 4, that referenced higher education. Senator Wentworth proposed amendment 8 which was in fact his entire campus carry bill.

This is allowed if the amendment is "germane" to the original bill. A point of order was brought up and the parliamentary had to research to see if amendment 8 was in fact germane. Thirty minutes later the lieutenant governor announced that it was germane.

Senator Ogden, the bill's author, had a choice to either let his bill pass or kill it to prevent campus carry. He chose to pass his bill. The interesting item here is that the bill's author is a republican who is against campus carry and it was a democrat who is against campus carry who facilitated it's passage in the senate.

Now time is short for it to pass the house but this bill has wide support in the house so we will know the future of campus carry very soon.

[marktwain]

Anyone know the status of Campus carry in Texas?

[basil]

According to this article, it looks like it has a pretty good chance of being passed.

[ExTxMarine]

Anyone know the status of Campus carry in Texas?

Well, it was dead as a stand-alone bill when it reached the Senate. However, a smart state Senator attached it to the college funding bills that were still in committee and those passed, so it was set back on course.

If the college funding bills passed in the Senate, I KNOW the house will pass them - so this should be a pretty good thing!

So long as Governor Perry doesn't go soft on us and role over for the College Deans!