Some Texas Republicans can’t seem to win enough.
The Legislature approved two key bills near and dear to gun owners: open carry and campus carry. Gov. Greg Abbott just signed them both into law, which now means that Texans licensed to carry concealed weapons can do so openly; they’ll also be able now to pack heat on college campuses.
http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/13/texas-gop-scuttles-legislative/
If you’re a gun owner rights advocate, you’d be happy. Correct?
I guess not entirely.
The state GOP was unable to approve a resolution that slapped around four Republican lawmakers for “standing in the way” of Texans’ gun ownership rights.
Good grief, folks. You won! You got what you wanted! But as the Texas Tribune reported, the notion of such a resolution made some GOP officials uneasy: “But the very prospect of it riled some party leaders, sparking heated debate about the committee’s role in the Capitol and seriously complicating party fundraising in at least one instance.”
The party lost a vendor who’d been a major fundraiser and who had been uneasy about the resolution rebuking some lawmakers.
However, some members of the State Republican Executive Committee wanted to single out House Speaker Joe Straus, Rep. Dennis Bonnen, Rep. Larry Phillips and Sen. Joan Huffman for their opposition to a “Constitutional Carry” amendment, which translates into allowing unlicensed Texans to carry firearms.
Some members of the Texas GOP need to settle down. Take a breath. You won the contest over these two key gun-related issues.
While we won the contest over Open Carry and Campus Carry, they are definitely not the best possible laws that could be passed.
The restrictions possible on Campus Carry are going to have to be hashed out; for example each campus — even in the same system can have different rules. And it isn’t Open Carry either – doesn’t make a lot of sense.
And Open Carry – they didn’t make it legal to Open Carry; they made it a defense to prosecution !! That is huge. And the police can use Open Carry as Probable Cause to stop someone and demand ID.
Think some towns won’t use that as an excuse to harass people? They already do for Open Carry of Long guns which has been Legal for decades and decades.
So while I think that most of the legislature needs to be censured on general principles; Strauss’ actions last session has proved he is no friend to 2ND Amendment Advocates.
Bob S.