Monday, May 6, 2013

Texas House Passes 12 Bills to Soften Firearms Laws

 Fox News

The Texas House approved a bushel of bills Saturday to further soften gun laws that were already among the country's most firearms-friendly, allowing college students to carry handguns in class, putting potentially armed marshals in public schools and exempting the state from any future federal bans on assault rifles, high-capacity magazines or universal background checks.

Dubbed "gun day" by supporters and opponents alike, the parade of votes came as tens of thousands of members of the National Rifle Association attended the group's annual convention in Houston. Gov. Rick Perry welcomed convention attendees Friday with a video of him taking target practice using a semi-automatic rifle.

The 12 approved gun bills must all clear final, procedural votes before heading to the state Senate. Still, they advanced with only minimal delay, cruising past Democrat-led efforts to block or stall them. Nearly all were approved by simple voice votes.

A Democratic parliamentary point of order managed to shoot down just one, a bill by Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, that would have allowed the use of a concealed handgun license as valid proof of personal identification -- even though obtaining such licenses requires a background check that's not necessary to get driver licenses and many other forms of ID.

The fiercest debate in the Republican-controlled chamber came over the plan to allow students over 21 who already hold concealed weapons permits to take their handguns into college classrooms. The issue became exceedingly volatile during the last legislative session in 2011, and ultimately failed.

What do you think? 

9 comments:

  1. Good for Texas. More and more states are doing the same thing. Face it, Mikeb, you have ten states, and we have forty.

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  2. Sounds good to me. Looks like the national push for gun control drove enough people over to our side and helped pass things that didn't pass last year. If it didn't drive people over, it at least cemented our side, causing a lot of people who had been apathetic, but on our side, to get active.

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  3. Greg, I find it amazing that someone who claims intelligence would praise laws which enable access firearms to people who should be prohibited from owning them.

    The nice thing about people like you, Orrin, et al. Is that we don't need to make you look like idiots--you do a wonderful job of that on your own.

    Keep on commenting--one of the things that harmed the gun lobby in Australia was bozos like you who don't know when to shut up.

    Keep up the good work, Greg.

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    1. Laci,

      I would say, "Hello, Pot, meet the Kettle," but that would imply that your criticism of Greg was true.

      Considering your various comments on this blog, and the various logical arguments Greg has offered, it's more a matter of "Hello, Pot, meet the alabaster vase."


      As for your continuing references to Australia--please continue. Between your glorification of that gun ban and your attempts to twist the text of the Constitution, you show us your real goal. Your "jokes" about Sherman and nukes also show us the endgame you're comfortable with: outlawing most or all civilian possession of guns, and killing as many people as needed to silence objections--even if that means decimating areas of the country that resist your goal.

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    2. Laci, it's cute how you put words in my mouth, then criticize those words. I don't support laws that enable dangerous people to have firearms. I disagree in many ways with your assessment of who those people are, and I recognize that the proposals presented here wouldn't do much to keep such people disarmed.

      But in the spirit of generosity, if you'd like to go through a particular proposal in detail, I'm willing to do that. It would require you to come back and participate in the discussion, of course.

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    3. Name one of those proposals that would allow those prohibited by law to own a gun, Laci, just ONE! All Texas is doing is further streamlining its gun laws and attempting to make schools safer.

      There is no softening of any law what so ever in Texas. Texas has the strictest and most expensive CHL laws in the country. Almost NO open carry provision of weapons except long guns, which is rare albeit accepted, and needs to be changed yet doesn't look like that's going to happen, yet.

      CHL laws are strong and strictly enforced. Texas is NOT Arizona. And yes, you still DONT MESS WITH TEXAS!

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  4. Texas has become pussified over the last several decades, probably because of all the damn Yankees moving there; but this is a good thing.
    But Pooch, be advised: "Don't Mess with Texas".

    orlin sellers

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  5. The Senate may be a tougher nut to crack (or maybe not--I'm not particularly familiar with Texas politics), but it's a good start.

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  6. I'm sure Laci and others would warn us that this is just a bunch of politicians bowing to the whims of the gun lobby and not representing the true wishes of the 90%, or is it the 120%, I cant keep up with the numbers the gun control industry puts out.
    My belief is that state level politics more accurately illustrates the true wishes of the electorate. the number of people represented by each state level senator or representitive is much smaller. So the feedback from a vote on an individual issue is much more pronounced.
    This was illustrated in my home state of Minnesota where all of the "responsible" gun laws were proposed on a state level and none made it to a floor vote in either house. And as it was on a national level, a democratically controlled house and senate.
    A question I would have is at what point of state and county governments standing up and declaring their opposition to passing these additional gun laws will the gun control industry come out and admit that maybe they're a little bit off (or maybe a big bit off) on the 90% figure. Or will they never admit to it and become a shrill as they claim the NRA is.

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