I have been following open carry
legislation very closely over Texas' 84th Legislative Session. There
seems to be some political tug of war and it is not what you may think...
Many may think that the republicans in Texas would all be in favor of
liberty and the democrats would provide opposition to any expanded gun rights,
but you would be wrong!
Many
republicans that ran their last election campaigns on expanding gun rights, err
privileges, I would like to call out some of the activities and some of the
most divisive representatives and senators.
The
Senate passed SB17 in March 2015 and referred it to the House where it sat
idle. SB 17 would allow those who have
qualified for a CHL to also carry a handgun openly, in a belt or shoulder
holster. Current Texas law allow the open carry of long guns like shotguns and
rifles.
House Bill 910 sponsored by state Rep. Larry
Phillips (R-Sherman) would allow current CHL holders to openly carry in a belt
or shoulder holster. This bill was was passed by the House on April 20,
2015 and was referred to the Senate where it sat idle until May 18, 2015.
It was finally picked up by the committee for public testimony.
Senator Joan Huffman (R-Houston) presided over the testimony and while
there were a dozen or so Mom's Demand Action supporters that recited a form
letter, there were only a handful of open carry supporters two in particular CJ
Grisham of Open Carry Texas and Terry Holcomb Sr of Texas Carry who both stated
that they would be the only people testifying in favor of HB910 from
their respective groups as not to delay the proceedings any further.
Senator Estes made a motion to remove what was known as the Dutton
amendment which would have prevented law enforcement officers from asking a
person who is openly carrying a pistol for a license without probable cause or
reasonable suspicion that a crime had been committed. Then HB910 finally
placed on the calendar May 21, 2015, it went on to have its 2nd reading May 22
where some some shenanigans came up. The bill was expected to easily pass
and then a heated debate came up. Amendments were added, withdrawn,
postponed. The most controversial amendment that was added back to HB910
by Senator Huffines to put a ban on
police from stopping people solely because they are
visibly carrying a handgun.
The Dutton/Huffines amendment stirred up the political elite
and law enforcement agencies. The Dutton/Huffines’
amendment simply enforces or codifies our federal constitutionally protected 4th amendment right. The bill was postponed until later in the
evening.
"This
is a mistake, and I think it's a mistake the state of Texas will come to
regret," said Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston. Huffman, a former prosecutor
and judge, added: “This is just a backdoor to constitutional carry, because,
really, any person could just carry a gun without a license because they know
the police can’t inquire of them if they have a license.”
Rep. Gene
Wu, D-Houston, a former prosecutor, said that with the amendment, HB910 would
be the effective equivalent of so-called "constitutional carry"
The
amendment took on bi-partisan support with nine democrats voting for the bill
with the amendment as a way to reduce perceived racial profiling.
“If somebody is going to be profiled for
walking around the streets of Houston or Austin with a gun, someone who looks
like me is more likely to get stopped,” said Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who
is black.
 |
| courtesy www.opencarrytexas.org |
HB910
finally passed the Senate vote and should move straight to the Governor, but wait,
there’s more. Oh, snap there is a
clerical error in the wording of the amendment that will require HB910 to go back
to the House. I guess you want to read
the clerical error?
So, now the bill is sitting on the House calendar today May 26, 2015 and it is expected that the House will overwhelmingly pass and move to the Governor’s desk for signage.
This post is
not to discount the desire to pass unlicensed open carry but a recognition that
there has been a lot of hard work by countless people and groups to expand gun
rights in Texas. Texas is currently one
of only 6 states that do not permit some form of open carry of modern
handguns. Many of the gun rights groups
maintain that the compromise is a win while other contend it is simply a weak
legislature that did not have the appetite to go on record with their vote for
unlicensed open carry. I fall in the
latter camp. We can continue to fight
for an expansion of our gun rights by supporting groups like Lone Star Gun Rights
and Open Carry Texas. These groups will
be active post 84th legislative session by outing the RINOs like Senator
Huffman, Representative Phillips. At the
same time these groups will applaud liberty loving legislators like Representative
Stickland and Huffines.
