Constitutional Carry has been filed in Texas

[ArcadiaGP]

Doubtful to pass. Legislature blocked it last time. They just barely got open carry through.

Texas Legislature Online - 85(R) History for HB 375

 

[Alamo]

It would actually be a set back for unlicensed carry to pass this time around, because it would cement in place the currently prohibited carry areas (after all, if you don't trust people who have been vetted to carry in certain place, why would you trust anyone else?). It would probably come with even more restrictions.

The major objective this legislature should be... and will be if my reading is right ... removing all, or nearly all restrictions on where one can carry with a license. The documented law-abiding record of license holders is fantastic -- while the license-holding population of Texas has sky-rocketed, the absolute number of license holders (over 1 million) who got convicted of anything as remained basically the same in absolute terms (right around 100 per year), so the rate has been heading steadily down for years.

Once we remove all the restrictions -- the flip the switch and dump the licensing scheme.

 

[Alamo]

By the way, the early filings are for either bills that are non-controversial, or for brownie points with the voters. The good, controversial stuff is held until the legislature starts to avoid giving opponents time to study it and rally against it. Stickland knows he's not going anywhere with this, he PO'd a good portion of the Leg last time, so this is just waving the flag for some of his constituents.

 

[Alamo]

There are (at least) two "constitutional carry" bills that will be heard in the Texas Leg. Both of them are scheduled for hearings today.

HB 375, by Rep Stickland. Last I heard there were 83 registered to testify, 42 still remaining, and more people continue to register. They get 3 minutes apiece. This bill has managed to make Mommies-without-enough-to-do into supporters of Licensed Carry. Heh. Austin's former police chief, Art Acevedo, who testified last legislature against OC and campus carry, has since moved to be chief of police in Houston. He sent a lieutenant to testify against in his place. I don't know if he is really that busy or he's just phoning it in. some of the organized police groups, the associations of whatevers, have testified against constitutional carryj, public safety, cops can't tell good guys from bad guys, etc.. Not able to watch the testimony, so I don't know if they also explained why cops in a dozen or more other states can figure it out but Texas cops can't. A retired cop who testified two kinds of cops - real cops and "snowflake pencil pushers" who lobby against HB 375.


HB 1911(I'm sure that number was entirely accidental... ) by Rep White, I suspect is the more likely candidate to pass, if for no other reason that I also suspect that a lot of reps don't like Stickland -- he is a stalwart 2A guy, but not the only one, and he almost torpedoed open carry last legislature with some last minute maneuvers that on their face were 2A friendly, but threatened to shunt off some otherwise aye-votes. Here is a press release on it from Rep White's office:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3J5UNeUqF7SMlhFcEZNQUFYVkk/view