Posted on 05/14/2021 6:37:04 AM PDT by zeugma
I got this in email yesterday from GOA Texas.
Tag! You're it Texas Senate!
Hello friend,
The Texas House took another step forward last night to move Constitutional Carry forward - despite the games being played by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
As we told you earlier, the Senate passed HB 1927, the Constitutional Carry bill, last week. However, the Lt. Governor pushed through a packet of amendments that not only weakened the bill but also opened the door for anti-gun members of the Texas House to kill the bill on a procedural defect.
Last night, bill author Rep. Schaefer brought up HB 1927 on the House floor. Anti-gun Rep. Chris Turner brought a point of order against further consideration of the bill, but, after lengthy discussion, withdrew the point of order.
The House then voted to send the bill to a conference committee to fix the errors caused by the Senate. And Speaker Phelan appointed a very strong team of Constitutional Carry supporters to serve as the five House conferees.
This allows us to use the final 2½ weeks of session to get a truly strong Constitutional Carry bill to Governor Abbott's desk.
Now, once again, we wait for the Senate . . . Next Steps: Looking at the Senate (Again)
The House has called for a Conference Committee and appointed five conferees. Now, the Senate needs to also appoint five conferees. The Lt. Gov.'s choice of conferees will be revealing, as we see whether he appoints those who supported the bill early, or the holdout Senators, or those who opposed the bill.
Next, the 10 conference committee members will need to work together to develop agreed-on language. Then, the House and Senate will each need to take another vote on the final language before the bill goes to the Governor's desk. TAKE ACTION NOW!
Once again, we ask you to call Lt. Governor Patrick at 512-463-0001. Tell him that you are holding him responsible to get a strong Constitutional Carry bill to the finish line. Urge him to appoint Senators who were early supporters of HB 1927 to be part of the Conference Committee for HB 1927.
And call your State Senator. Urge him or her to support a strong Constitutional Carry bill without the amendments added by the Senate.
Or, email the Lt. Governor and your State Senator together using our handy email form.
Contact Lt. Governor Dan Patrick NOW!
We are very happy with the conference committee members that Speaker Phelan appointed: Rep. Schaefer (chair), Rep. Burrows, Rep. Canales, Rep. Guillen, and Rep. White. This is a strong, bipartisan team of members who have strongly supported the bill. Four out of the five are joint authors who put their name and their support behind HB 1927 early. We have many reasons to believe that these members will push to make the bill stronger and remove the Senate's defective amendments.
Rep. Canales (D, HD 40) even gave a stirring speech in support of Constitutional Carry during the House floor debate on HB 1927, stating that Constitutional Carry gets rid of the "hodgepodge" of "gotcha" laws and urging members to support it to "keep people out of jail for no reason whatsoever." Read his speech here (page 1164).
The House's example should serve as a reminder to the Senate that this is common-sense legislation to protect innocent Texans and that there is no reason not to move forward a strong bill.
Be sure to join our text alert system for more updates-simply text your zip code to 833-922-1212.
For Liberty,
Rachel Malone GOA Texas Director
Felisha Bull GOA Texas Deputy Director
The TX Senate passed this last week. Main issue now is to get it thru conference and to Abbot’s desk.
Mine is Matt Schaefer and Louie Gohmert. I think I’m good.
Will this permit both concealed carry and open carry?
In the past few days, the Louisiana legislature passed a veto-proof bill making Louisiana a Constitutional Carry state.
That's the idea. Those against the bill managed to attach several bad amendments to what was a pretty clean bill in their attempt to kill it. My 'republican' senatecritter participated in that.
Yeah, well Texas is pretty much always late for the party, contrary to the image the state likes to project.
Why is the Lt. Governor involved and not the Governor?? What is HE doing pushing through amendments?
The LTGov essentially controls the floor of the Senate. Texas government is different from most states in that respect. The LtGov is arguably more powerful than the Governor in many respects.
“Mine is Matt Schaefer and Louie Gohmert.”
Schaefer is a member of the Texas House of Representatives and they’ve already acted. Louie Gohmert serves in the US House of Representatives (Congress) and has nothing to do with the Texas Legislature. Now you need to become aware of who your Texas state senator is so you contact that person which is where the action is with the state senate due to send members to the Conference Committee.
“Will this permit both concealed carry and open carry?”
That is what “Constitutional Carry” means.
His name is Bryan Hughes. He sponsored the Heartbeat Bill. I think he knows what to do.
I’m really, really, upset with Patrick. He came from the grass-roots, got screwed over BIG TIME by the corrupt Texas GOP...but now seems to be joining them.
If there’s evidence that shows CC causes increased violence in any way, how about SHOWING us that evidence, rather than engaging in hypothetical arguments?
Personally, I’m fine without CC, if there’s REAL evidence that it is counterproductive...but I don’t think that evidence exists.
Patrick is Doworst part 2
“Patrick is Doworst part 2”
Looking that way - and he supported Dewhurst over Cruz for US Senate in 2012...tried to make it sound like he had to go with ‘the establishment’, as he was rather new in the job. But now I’m starting to wonder...
They only recently passed open carry, they pretended they already had it but limited the guns you could carry to some sort of antique as I recall.
Maybe now we begin to see why he is drawing a primary challenge.
LT gov Patrick responded to pressure, and pushed to get the bill through the Senate. He needed all 18 Republican votes to do it, and arguably, needed at least some of the amendments to get those votes.
Now, as the article says, he needs the get the Conference Committee up and running, fast.
Not much time left.
As I understand Texas procedure, they only need 16 votes in the Senate, now, not 18. 16 is a majority in the Senate. They needed 18 votes to bring the bill to the floor, the first time, to overcome the Texas filibuster rule.
It can be done, if LT Patrick pushes it.
Governor Abbot is for it.
The Chair of the Republican Party in Texas is now Allen West, and he has been pushing hard for it.
With enough pressure from the grass roots, I think it can be done.
On Thursday the 13th, LT Gov Patrick selected Conference Committee members for HB1927.
They are supporters of the bill. They will do everything they can to get the bill passed.
They are Senators: Chales Schwertner, Brian Birdwell,Bryan Hughes,Donna Campbell and Brandon Creighton.
LT Gov Dan Patrick deserves credit for acting quickly to get this done. He is making the right moves.
He is reported to have tweeted the legislation is "close to the finish line".
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