Open carry passage potential in Texas

[Alamo]

With reference to the amendment preventing stops solely on the basis of open carry, the squeals begin:

From the Austin police chief who seemed to think that college women don't need to be armed because we have lots of good resources to help them after they've been raped:

Yesterday's amendment to Texas' Open Carry Legislation is beyond belief and Aiken(sic) to open season for gang members, drug cartels, outlaw motor cycle gangs and any other criminal or extremist to defy the law with impunity, just brilliannt! If criminals, drug cartels, and extremists had a seat at the policy writing table they couldn't have come up with s better Amendment.

By prohibiting law enforcement from stopping or detaining to check for CHL, Texas is authorizing within our state lines any and all criminals to carry a firearm. My heart goes out to domestic violence victims and the victims of violent crimes in our State. Through this amendment we are facilitating the victimization of the people we are sworn to serve, protect and lead.

Here is a scenario, next time groups face off in our Capital City at the Capitol, Klan with their hoods on, Panthers with their faces covered, ISIS sympathizers with their faces covered and just about any other extremist group, armed with firearms authorized by Open-Carry, law enforcement will have absolutely no authority to ensure the people who are armed as they wish..........why bother common sense has officially died and writing any further would be fruitless.

https://twitter.com/ArtAcevedo/status/590502152725999618

Status: Panties wadded AND urine-soaked.


From CLEAT:

Charley Wilkinson, who heads the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, or CLEAT, the state's largest peace officer organization, said he will urge lawmakers to remove the amendment before final passage."We don't want officers to abuse their authority and power which is why we have a lot of recourse and remedy if the officer does a wrong thing," said Wilkinson. "I would hope that cooler heads would prevail here, and we would keep these fundamental tools for the officers to protect the public."

Open carry bill passed with amendment to discourage racial profiling - Houston Chronicle

Status: Somewhat bunched. This is somewhat disappointing, since IIRC CLEAT has been pretty supportive of CHL. (I expected Chief Acevedo to blow fuse or three).


But wait. Someone with a grip on things:

Houston Police Officers' Union President Ray Hunt, however, said he did not have a lot of "heartburn" over the change.
"It's kind of a common sense issue," said Hunt, who added police still would be allowed to stop someone with a gun if there was some other reasonable suspicion they were going to commit a crime. "I mean, we don't stop some people who are driving cars to see if they have a license."

Open carry bill passed with amendment to discourage racial profiling - Houston Chronicle

Status: Yeah, what-evs. Let's go find some real problems.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

 

[Alamo]

Some people have noted that Acevedo's little tirade against the no-stop-for-open-carry amendment is Exhibit 1 for why the amendment is necessary. A member of another forum who commented to him to that effect had his comment deleted. Touchy touchy.

 

[Alamo]

Oh great. Stickland, representative from OCT/OCTC, is going to torpedo the no-stop-for-open-carry amendment. He is "slyly" touting it as enabling unlicensed open carry, in other words, he is encouraging people to illegally carry. Also, he appears to be trying take credit of it, when he had nothing to do with the amendment.

The bill has to go through the Senate still. It was probably on a very fast track until now -- if it makes it through at all at this point, I will bet that the Senate will strike that language, the bill will then have to be reconciled in a conference committee between the houses, and the House will have to agree to dump that amendment to get passage. IIRC the bill will then have to be voted on AGAIN in the House. At this point the Legislature will be very close to running out of time.

I swear the OCT/OCTC crowd acts like sock puppets for MDA.

Did Stickland trick Texas House into unlicensed carry? | The Star Telegram The Star Telegram

 

[Alamo]

So the gun bills have been in the doldrums for the past two weeks, or so it seems. The Texas Leg goes through about 10,000 bills in a session (of which the budget is numero uno), which presents plenty of opportunity for conflict even among members of the same party. It appears that there are some power struggles between the Senate and the House, of which one expression is that it is said the House is refusing to take up bills that originated in the Senate and the Senate is refusing to take up the same type of bills originating in the House -- apparently some kind of gamesmanship about who can then claim credit for passing X, (where X = licensed open carry, etc). At least that is the rumor, but it apparently happens often enough that the Leg now has the chambers take turns originating the appropriations bill - one session the Senate proposes it, next session the House.

So even tho the House and the Senate both think licensed carry should be legal, and each has voted for different (but nearly identical) bills, licensed OC is at a standstill because they refuse (for the moment) to vote for each other's version (both chambers have to vote for the SAME bill for it to go to the governor).

Secret agents have said not to worry, one will go forward before end of the session, it's just temporary lull while the other 9000+ bills are being hashed out.

Campus carry should also pass, but the academics are still throwing hissy fits about it, and apparently have enough sway over some legislators (including no doubt the Speaker of the House) that it appears in jeopardy again.

HOWEVER: the Cavalry appears! It looks like the Senate is going to finally pick up the House's version of Licensed OC, HB910 (which is the better than the Senate version) and pass it --- while also attaching the entirety of the Campus Carry bill to it as an amendment! Then, as I understand it, it will go back to the House for a concurring vote. [STRIKE](Again as I understand it) this is a straight up or down vote by the entire House, no room for debates, poison pill amendments, and the like, and I think the Speaker can't just park it in a committee to die[/STRIKE]. The House will vote on any amendments added by the Senate (i.e. Campus Carry) but the bill cannot be parked in a committee, and no new amendments can be proposed to gum up the works. Given that a majority of the House has already voted in favor of OC and Campus Carry, then the mega bill should pass, and that will be a wonderful thing to reasoning human beings. Oh, but on the campus of UT teeth will gnash, and professors will hurl invective-filled emails across the internet as they barricade themselves under their desks, and MDA will self-urinate. I'm pessimistic by nature, but oh how I hope this comes to pass.

Standby for good news...

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

I've been wondering about this...it has been a while since there's been an update. Good luck!

 

[Alamo]

Well it made the press, so I guess it is "official": Deal revives campus carry gun bill | www.mystatesman.com

 

[jmills]

Open carry with a permit seems reasonable. I don't think I will open carry. My vote would be that all states adopt such a policy. Get a permit, carry a gun, concealed or open, you have a permit.

 

[Bill of Rights]

Open carry with a permit seems reasonable. I don't think I will open carry. My vote would be that all states adopt such a policy. Get a permit, carry a gun, concealed or open, you have a permit.

Why should one have to seek out, beg, and pay a fee to exercise a God-given right?

Are there other rights you're willing to treat similarly? Perhaps the 5A or the 8A? Or maybe, given all the unrest it causes, the 1A?

 

[Alamo]

Gah. They are dragging this out forever. The Senate and the House are apparently in a big struggle over tax cuts -- each has a bill doing it in different ways, and each wants credit for it. Thus they are not moving on each other's bills, and everything is bottled up. Plus the Dems keep throwing parliamentary sand in the gear to try to slow everything down. Governor Abbott visited the chambers yesterday, that seems to maybe have greased things a little bit, there's some movement on various lesser gun bills, and the big ones (open carry/campus carry) are now scheduled for some action next week. Only about three weeks left in the session, so time running out. grr....

 

[Lebowski]

Whats the general consensus over people open carrying down there when it becomes legal?

I'm a member of TexasGunTalk and from what I've gathered in my modest lurking and minor participation is that most who support the bill say they probably won't actually OC, and a lot of people believe that OCing will make you the target of criminals or make you look like a jackass. I'm sure plenty will enjoy the newfound freedom to OC when able to, but I thought it'd see more support in the gun community for OC.

Thanks for keeping us posted @Alamo . I'm actually going to be enjoying some time in Texas next week down on my property and hanging out in the Big Bend area.

 

[Alamo]

Whats the general consensus over people open carrying down there when it becomes legal?

I'm a member of TexasGunTalk and from what I've gathered in my modest lurking and minor participation is that most who support the bill say they probably won't actually OC, and a lot of people believe that OCing will make you the target of criminals or make you look like a jackass. I'm sure plenty will enjoy the newfound freedom to OC when able to, but I thought it'd see more support in the gun community for OC.

Thanks for keeping us posted @Alamo . I'm actually going to be enjoying some time in Texas next week down on my property and hanging out in the Big Bend area.

My knowledge of what everyone else thinks is largely limited to TexasCHLforum, but I think that's pretty accurate, that most folks who conceal carry now will continue to do so if OC passes. It will be nice to not worry legally about being seen with a handgun on one's body, but really, that's not a big, or even a tiny problem now. Frankly I, and I think a number of other Texans, see adoption of open carry as not a very significant advancement of 2A in Texas. We could have had some really good legislation this time around that significantly reduced the legal limitations on keeping and bearing arms.

Instead, the OC issue, with the help of the histrionics of the more militant OC supporters, sucked up all the political air, made OC a lightning rod for everything about the 2A, poisoned the legislative well, and buried much more valuable legislation. With 10,000+ bills being filed in the Senate and House, only a few gun bills are going to get traction, and OC and campus carry pretty much wiped out the rest. I think there are a few small ones that will make it through, but overall VERY disappointing session so far, and only a couple weeks left.

The legislative plan now seems to be for the Senate to pass the House bill on licensed Open Carry, and the House to pass the Senate Bill on Campus Carry. The amendment to the House bill that statutorily forbid law enforcement from checking for a license simply because someone open carries was stripped in the Senate. Pretty sure that is direct of result of the OC militants announcing that because of that amendment Texas was really getting unlicensed open carry. Thanks guys, nice job. Way to go. (There are cases in federal court that speak to this issue, of course, so it may be moot, but basically once again the OC noisemakers threw sand in the gears).

Stand by for good news, I hope.


Oh, and have a nice time next week, I haven't made it to the Big Bend area yet, really need to make a trip out there. Best wishes to you and have fun!

 

[Alamo]

HB910 (licensed open carry) is finally on the Senate floor. The Dems are throwing up all the same bogus amendments they offered weeks ago when the almost identical SB17 was considered and passed. So far they are being shot down in short order, but this is tiresome. grr.

 

[Alamo]

Well it appears that licensed open carry has passed both chambers and will go to the governor's desk next. There was some confusion for awhile about whether the bill the Senate passed was the same as what the House passed, but according to the official legislative website, the next stage is the governor's desk.

Finally!

ETA: Or maybe not. Some reporter published a tweet claiming the Senate secretary says it has to go back to the House for a concurrence vote. Then to the guv. They worked late on this, but so late now no one to call to confirm. Jeez.

ETA again: Appears it needs a concurrence vote for some minor changes. How hard can we make this? Double jeez.

 

[CathyInBlue]

Well, those changes are not the Dutton Amendment. The Senate passed their bill with Dutton intact, thankfully.

GUN WATCH: TX: Open Carry Passes Senate, with Dutton Amendment, on to Governor Abbott

 

[Alamo]

Depending on who you ask, there is either a typo or three word difference in the Bill passed by the Ssnate. Before the bill can go to the governor, both chambers must pass exactly the same bill. So as I understand it the House will vote to concur or not concur, no amendments, no debating, just yes or no.

so so yes the Dutton amendment is in what the Senate passed, but not exactly as it was passed in the House.

 

[CathyInBlue]

Sounds like a half-assed attempt to scuttle it at the finish line to me.

 

[Alamo]

Sounds like a half-assed attempt to scuttle it at the finish line to me.

Don't think so, just bad proofreading by somebody. The Dutton amendment got a lot of attention in the Senate, and Senator Whitmire went full retard on it while trying to filibuster it. Unfortunately the Senate sponsor of the amendment was not prepared nor nimble on his feet. If his written homework was half as sloppy as his oral presentation, a wonder there wasn't more wrong with it.

 

[Alamo]

HB910 is licensed open carry, and SB11 is campus carry. They have been the flagship gun bills since the Texas legislature started. Versions of both bills have passed each chamber so there is documented majority support for both goals.

Yet somehow, despite the Senate version (SB11) being received in the House over two months ago, the Republican leadership of the House has arranged for the campus carry to be filibustered to death in the final hours of the legislative session. This is so appalling, so disgusting, that I could just spit nails.

ETA: There's still a half hour to go for this bill, but opponents have lined up over 100 amendments to be head, and they've been thru only 6 or so. Unless some kind of parliamentary rabbit is pulled out of a hat, the bill is going to turn into a pumpkin at midnight.

Licensed open carry, HB910, is supposed to come up later this week, I can't wait to see what happens. Theoretically all that has to happen is for the House to have a straight up or down concurrence vote. I can't wait to see what shenanigans the 'Republican' speaker of the House comes up with for that...

 

[Alamo]

WAIT A MINUTE.

Apparently the rabbit just popped out of the hat?! There was a sudden move to vote for passage, and boom, 101 to 47 it passed! How did they skip all those bloody amendment? What the hell?