TX House pass bill allowing unlicensed carry in public during disaster.

[ArcadiaGP]

Texas House passes bill allowing unlicensed handgun owners to carry in public during disaster

Texas moved closer this week to allowing unlicensed gun owners to carry firearms in public following a disaster.

The Texas House has approved a measure that lets gun owners carry their weapons in the open, or concealed, for a week after a government declaration of a disaster. The vote was 102-29.

The next step will be a state Senate hearing, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

“I don’t want someone to feel like they have to leave their firearms back in an unsecured home for a week or longer, and we all know how looting occurs in storms,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Dade Phelan, a Republican. “Entire neighborhoods are empty and these people can just go shopping, and one of the things they’re looking for is firearms.”

Critics of the bill, which will take effect in September if the Senate approves it, say that rather than ensuring safety, allowing unlicensed handgun owners to carry in public would only add to the chaos surrounding a disaster.

 

[dudley0]

If the were not allowed to carry a week before the disaster than why let them a week after?

... or is this a move toward letting everyone carry all the time?

 

[Kirk Freeman]

The best way to repeal a law is to riddle it with so many exceptions that the law becomes feckless.

 

[Alamo]

If the were not allowed to carry a week before the disaster than why let them a week after?

... or is this a move toward letting everyone carry all the time?

This one of the few crumbs the Texas Leg is going to throw 2A supporters this session.

Back Story:

The current Speaker of the House sold his NRA "A" rating and alleged republican/conservative credentials to get the votes to be Speaker. There are 83 Republican representatives and 67 Democrats. There is a split in the Republicans between conservatives and squishes.

The previous Speaker, Straus, retired so at the beginning of the session the Speaker's seat was up for grabs. Apparently his designated "heir" was Dennis Bonnen, and Bonnen used exactly the same strategy as Straus to win the vote for Speaker - and screwed Republicans even worse than Straus did.

Bonnen made a deal with the Democrats that if they would vote for him for Speaker he would appoint Democrats to some key committee positions. Combining the Democrat votes with the squishes gave him a majority. Bonnen kept his word to the Democrats (but not to the Republican Party!) and appointed an NRA D-rated Democrats to chair the Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee and an F-Rated Dem to chair the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee - and his appointments of members to those committees give Republicans only a one-vote advantage in each committee. Traditionally these are the two committees that handle all gun-related bills. He also appointed a D-Rated Dem to be Vice-Chair of the Calendars Committee, which determines which bills that made it out of committees will get a floor vote. Any single member of the Calendars Committee can tag a bill and stop it from advancing.

When the SHTF, Bonnen described us as "a few fringe gun groups." There have been some nasty incidents over this, but it appears that it may have brushed back Bonnen a bit, in that unexpectedly there are a few lower level gun bills advancing, but nothing of the caliber that should be roaring through the Leg. The Republican Party as a whole, through its caucuses, identified five legislative priorities, of which the first one is constitutional carry. Bonnen of course has pissed all over that, and probably all over the other priorities as well.

So while the "unlicensed carry" after a disaster is nice, it's just a crumb compared to what should have been.

 

[Herr Vogel]

To avoid making another thread;
The Texas House of Representatives just passed HB 2286, which would prohibit state law enforcement officers from enforcing federal laws regulating firearm suppressors. Link to full text below.
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/86R/billtext/html/HB02286E.htm
I'm not holding my breath or anything, but it's heartening to see that the 'gun sanctuary state' idea continues to crop up, even if limited in scope to a single NFA item.