Posted on 04/13/2015 11:55:23 AM PDT by Windflier
Tomorrow, April 14, the Texas House of Representatives is scheduled to consider House Bill 910, NRA-supported open carry legislation sponsored by state Representative Larry Phillips (R-Sherman). HB 910 removes the requirement that Concealed Handgun Licensees (CHL) keep their handguns concealed and gives them the option of carrying them either wholly or partially visible in a belt or shoulder holster. After having established a 20-year record of law-abiding and responsible behavior, Texas CHLs have earned this personal protection option that 43 states currently allow.
Eighty members of the House have signed onto the bill. Rep. Phillips deserves strong praise for his work to line up this many co-authors for the measure. You can check to see if your State Representative is a co-author of this NRA-backed bill by clicking here.
Call and email your state Representative before Tuesday afternoon and urge him or her to support HB 910 but to oppose any amendments that are not acceptable to the sponsor. As we previously reported, amendments to allow localities to "opt out" of any open carry law and to require that CHLs choosing to carry openly use law enforcement-style retention holsters were rejected by the Texas Senate on the companion bill, Senate Bill 17, sponsored by state Senator Craig Estes.
Sure we can, but think of this as putting one foot in front of the other on the way to our goal. It's an improvement over the existing status quo.
Yes indeed it does look like a step forward so CONGRATS on that!
If TX can manage somehow to get rid of the rest of the various “infringements” of our 2nd Amendment rights, we will move there!
If only our public schools would teach American history and policial science, we wouldn’t have all these problems (licensing, restrictions, backgroundings, applications, waiting periods, fees, etc). The one and I believe ...only consumer good that we have an EXPLICIT Constitutional RIGHT to purchase/keep/whatever...and carry around with us if we wish, are arms (guns). The govt has NO business, NO right whatsoever to stick its nose into this, NONE at all.
IMHO.
Thanks.
This is already a done deal; by the time legislation like this comes to a floor vote, it has already been through the committee hearings, amendments have been offered and accepted or rejected, and this floor vote is a formality.
The Dimocrats will do everything they can to stall it, but when it comes to a final vote, it’s going to pass.
“Constitutional Carry” is the subject of another bill.
The Dimocrats will do everything they can to stall it, but when it comes to a final vote, its going to pass.
Thanks for the educational insight into our state legislative process. I really appreciate that.
It's what we love about you, Johnny. You truly set a good example for the rest of us to follow.
So you are still required to have a license to carry?
I have no reason to believe this law will not pass.
I think it is unconstitutional. That is what I'll be complaining to the legislature about.
/johnny
Thanks for the ping!
Yeah, contrary to the propaganda, Texas is not as wild as the publicists would like you to belive. We were quite late to the concealed carry party. The basic problem, is that we have far too many ‘Republican’ legislooters who are really just Democrats who know they couldn’t get elected if they were honest about it. This causes a lot of problems, as the dems make sure the person elected speaker is suitably liberal. Granted, a lib in Texas is a ‘conservative’ in the northeast, but they still manage to cause lots of problems.
I think it is unconstitutional to require a license, fees and special training in order to bear arms.
Thanks for the ping
One step closer to Constitutional Carry.
Do not know if I will ever open carry but love the option to be able to. I hate the idea of every time I go out if I am will have some butt head chastise me of “printing” my favorite SIG P226.
/johnny
This has been a long time coming....hope the house shows some good sense today.
It never hurts to call...They should be going into session here just after lunch...
Its going to be a lonnngggggg day...
Lessee is the Strauss thugs screw this thing up...
That’s what you need to call and tell them NOT to succumb to...
Joe Strauss is still one of those guys that needs to have his Huevos Rancheros kicked up through his ears...
Just got this in email from Ken Emanuelson of Grass Roots Texans:
"While House Speaker Joe Straus has done nothing to conceal his contempt for the conservative senate, the states lieutenant governor and the agenda of the governor, he is now using the power of his office to stall more than 100 bills passed by the other chamber.
As of 4pm April 9, some 110 Senate bills are awaiting referral to a House committee for a hearing.
Indeed, Straus is obstructing not only the Senate, but the ability of House members to more easily pass their own legislation under the tight constitutional clock. Straus refusal to refer the Senate measures takes away the ability of House members to execute an over and eligible procedural move that expedites the legislative process.
This treatment of the Senate isnt exactly unique; Straus also slow-rolled House bills.
Among the measures passed by the Senate but left stacked at the door of the House are the $4.6 billion in tax cuts passed by the Senate, reforms to transportation funding, improvements to the business tax, and a host of other measures such as open carry legislation. On the last point, Straus refusal to refer the Senates open carry bill impedes the ability of House members to substitute it for HB 910 when that bill comes to the floor next Tuesday.
From his petulant tone at the front end of the session deriding the Abbott/Patrick work on transportation as a gimmick to obstructing major Senate measures, Straus seems intent on log-jamming the session.
Its shaping up to be a long, hot summer in Austin
"
It's all down to what Joe Straus is going to do. Apparently, he's blocking at least a hundred Senate bills right now, and could just as easily block this one, too.
Let us hope we even get the option. I just got an email from Grass Roots Texans which claims that House Speaker Joe Straus is blocking over a hundred Senate bills from reaching the floor. He could do the same with the Open Carry bill :-(
Someone needs to unseat him in 2016....
From Wikipedia...
Straus was renominated to the Texas House in the Republican primary held on May 29, 2012. With 10,362 votes (62.9 percent), he defeated opponent Matt Beebe, who polled 6,108 ballots (37.1 percent).
Straus was again renominated to the Texas House in the Republican primary held on March 4, 2014. He received 9,224 votes (61.2 percent) to his challenger Matt Beebe's 5,842 (38.8 percent).
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