After remaining conspicuously quiet on the issue until now, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has let it be known that if a Constitutional Carry bill makes through the legislature and onto his desk, he’ll sign it into law.
As the Texas Tribune reports, Abbott said . . .
“I support it, and I believe it should reach my desk, and we should have ‘constitutional carry’ in Texas,” Abbott told North Texas radio host Rick Roberts.
As recently as a week ago, Abbott had declined to say whether he supported such a proposal, which the House passed earlier this month. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said the Senate does not have the votes for the legislation, but he is trying to find a way to move it through the process.
Last week, Patrick created a new committee with a majority of permitless carry supporters. The House legislation, House Bill 1927, was then referred to the panel, and HB 1927 is set for a hearing Thursday.
HB 1927 passed the House on April 15. Patrick, who hasn’t always been enthusiastic about permitless carry, is now motivated to find the votes needed to get the bill through the Senate. Abbott’s endorsement of the bill will help, plus there’s the fact that Patrick wants to be Governor one day. Being seen as soft on gun rights won’t help him in that effort.
The prospect of Texas joining 20 other states in the constitutional carry club — four more states added just this year — has all of the usual suspects apoplectic about what will happen if the average Texan is able to exercise their Second Amendment rights without a government permission slip.
For instance, there’s the Dallas Morning News in ‘This is what police fear will happen if permitless carry becomes law in Texas’ . . .
For instance, if an officer patrolling overnight stops someone with a handgun who is acting suspiciously, the person won’t necessarily have to produce a handgun permit.
“You’d have to do the vetting process right there. You’d have to run their criminal history and find out whether they have convictions that would disqualify them [from having a handgun]. … It’s a time-consuming, dangerous process at three o’clock in the morning,” [Texas Municipal Police Association executive director Kevin] Lawrence told us.
Other law enforcement officials, including Dallas Police Chief Eddie García, have expressed concerns about people walking around in public with handguns that they don’t know how to handle, which could lead to accidents.
Lawrence said he and other officers object to the term “constitutional carry” or the notion that having any restrictions on carrying handguns is a violation of the Second Amendment.
“Nobody, nobody really and truly believes that everybody should be allowed to carry a gun,” he said.
Moving on down to Houston, the Chronicle says ‘Dan Patrick, kill Texas’ ‘permitless carry’ bill before it kills us’ . . .
Visualize for a moment the worst drivers you’ve encountered on the road lately, the ones who swerve in and out of lanes and can’t be bothered to use a blinker, the ones who treat I-10 like Texas Motor Speedway, the ones who can kill you and your loved ones in the back seat with one errant turn of the wheel.
Imagine how much worse those people would drive if they weren’t even required to take a class, or pass a test or obtain a license to operate that hunk of menacing metal. Thankfully, no lawmaker is reckless enough to propose that idea.
Now picture those same folks — the careless, the clueless and the just plain dangerous — operating a loaded pistol instead. And imagine that there are indeed Texas lawmakers reckless enough to argue they shouldn’t have to take a single safety class, or demonstrate any level of proficiency with the weapon, or make any effort to obtain a license at all.
If these hysterics sound familiar, they should. These are exactly the same sky-is-falling predictions of doom, gloom and blood-clogged gutters that have been tossed around by the media and police chiefs in every other state that considered constitutional carry. The sky would fall, cats would sleep with dogs, and neighbors would open fire on each other if the grass wasn’t cut often enough.
Except…none of that has happened. Anywhere. A full twenty states — that’s 40% of the country for the the mathematically challenged — allow citizens to carry without a permit. And surprise, surprise…none of those dire prognostications have come true.
You know what? None of that will happen in Texas either if constitutional carry becomes law. And that sound you’re hearing is probably the Lieutenant Governor twisting arms to get the necessary votes to push the constitutional carry bill through the Senate.
Abbott finally got off that fence he’s been straddling. The pain in his crotch must have gotten unbearable.
It sounds like Patrick has demonstrated he is NOT a guy that should be gov. Now pandering.
Texas has always lagged behind on 2A civil rights enforcement.
They talk, now they need to walk the walk.
Missouri is the place for freedom.
As with anything 2A that is positive, I won’t hold my breath, I’ll believe it when I see it.
“Wild, wild west”, “Blood in the streets”…yeah yeah, we’ve heard it time and time again, and it just didn’t happen…perhaps dems and the liberal media should concentrate their false efforts on places like chicago, where the blood does actually run in the streets…
First time I heard that was 1987, when FL was proceeding down the road to “shall issue”, and it has never changed regardless of the particular issue. “Two-gun cowboy rigs” was my favorite, like there is some reason such carry should be feared. In order to allay such fears legislators in their wisdom were persuaded to insist on CONCEALED carry, don’t know they ever realized they’d been snookered. Then “gunfights in the streets” while “the streets running red with blood”. You’d think, after 35 years, they would be purely ashamed to repeat the same disproven claims over and over, but they have never slowed down. I will be proud of Texas when Constitutional Carry arrives, may get a BBQ rig for celebrations. Already have a purty Cimmaron SAA, have to look for some fancy leather. If I do that, it *will* be loaded.
“You’d think, after 35 years, they would be purely ashamed to repeat the same disproven claims over and over,…”
Leftists/liberals/authoritarians, etc. have no sense of humour, nor any amount of shame. Indeed, they are completely adrift from reality that is not of their imagining.
You and I are not the ones those old claims are aimed at. They’re intending to propagandize the Useful Idiots produced by today’s public school systems.
““You’d have to do the vetting process right there. You’d have to run their criminal history and find out whether they have convictions that would disqualify them [from having a handgun]. … It’s a time-consuming, dangerous process at three o’clock in the morning,””
Bullshit. The cop asks for the SSN, and dispatch responds a few seconds later with the info if the citizen is prohibited or not…
B-but, that still shifts the burden of policing onto the police! Can you believe the audacity?!
Not to mention the lunacy of the “Imagine how much worse it would be if the state wasn’t collecting money for giving its full approval to bad drivers’ deadly ineptitude!” argument.
Same as any traffic stop.
Well, any traffic stop when you dont resist arrest.
When they run the drivers license # they get a check on warrants and previous arrests. I have to believe that Abbot thinks it won’t pass so he is just covering his political arse.
The cop wants you SSN or wants to know if you’re packing? BS.
If a firearms isn’t being used in the commission of a crime, that you have or don’t have one is of ZERO relevance to ANYONE.
If I have to interact with LE I always declare my concealed weapon and it’s whereabouts on my body, or, even if it’s in my vehicle. I also proffer my CC license and ask them if my offering to disarm would make them feel safer during the encounter.
I just think that it’s useful to be upfront with LE about it so there’s no misunderstanding. They have a very dangerous job, you know.
In the few instances where I’ve done this the officer never took me up on my offer to disarm. The officer just said that he appreciated me being up front with him about it and then went on about business (traffic ticket, being engaged in a controversy with a neighbor or even a stranger, etc.).
Again, it’s a accommodation to LE’s safety and security that as a responsible citizen I feel compelled to render.
And then there are officers who will take your gun, unload it and empty the magazine, run its serial number, and not let you anywhere near it until he is done with you, and leave it on the trunk of your car. All in the name of “officer safety.” What about my safety?
It may seem the polite thing to do, but it has nothing to do with the police officer’s safety. That officer is in no danger from you, whether you volunteer to disarm or not. If he’s a jumpy wreck or an authoritarian jackwagon, volunteering to disarm might help protect *you*, though…
My NV permit does not require me to declare (at least not in Nevada), though I haven’t been pulled over in many years. The only ticket I’ve ever been issued was way back in the ’90s.
I would only declare *if* I was asked to exit the vehicle. Otherwise, I tend to agree with Mark N’s position.
It seems some of the below commenters for my post may have had quite different experiences with LE than I have. That said, one thing I left out of my description of interactions with LE is that I carry a pistol bag and do not carry on person or in the vehicle outside of the bag.
So, it’s easy for me to hand over the bag to LE or to place it out of my reach or leave it in the vehicle, all intended to allow the officer to have possession of the weapon if he desires it.
Oh, I also allow an officer to fish out my DL from that bag if it’s a traffic stop. So, I’m never near the weapon at all during the event.
Oh, I respect the opinions of other commentators here and am pleased to “converse” with you. In the process I often learn more than I pass on.
Jesus, David, where the hell do you live? I have had interactions with cops on the highway while I was armed for some 45 years, and I have NEVER had the kind of experience which would cause me to do that. I have a car I bought in 2010, installed a Kimber Ultra the same year. Gun is still there, 85,000 miles later, both coasts, has never caused me or any cop the least worry. Biggest problem I have is remembering to remove it when getting service, out of worry it might be stolen. NEVER concerned with cops.
Larry,
I live in Spring, TX is what some would consider to be an upscale neighborhood.
Again, I respect your opinion. But you might be interested in reading an online recommendation from an ex-cop about what to do right in a traffic stop: https://fightfastvideos.com/blog/2019/09/18/how-to-survive-a-traffic-stop-when-youre-armed-by-derek-smith/
This is not the only online reference I found on this topic. But I didn’t post them all because the advice from other members of LE were quite similar.
Best,
David
If the cop has no reason to suspect criminal activity right now, he should be required to get a damn WARRANT to investigate the individual’s background anyway. Like, have some manner of probable cause, not just harassing someone to demonstrate he’s the boss. If that is too much trouble, do not do it. Asshole. This attitude needs to be defunded.
God help them.
New Hampshire has been nothing but The Purge, Escape From NY, Road Warrior and Breakin’ 2 Electric Boogaloo since we got Constitutional Carry.
Sometime I can’t drive to work there’s so much blood in the streets. I have to canoe.
But then you would get stuck amongst all the bodies floating along.
As one 603’r to another, and having carried since ’15, love your /S.
NH is pretty safe as long as you dont go to stupid places and play stupid games with stupid people.
Honest question does New Hampshire actually have bad parts of town or relevant gun crime? I know it is low enough on the federal reports as to not really exist but helps to get resident observations.
Manchester and Nashua occasionally have drunks settling beefs in the middle of the night. Same as any city.
99.99% of the time though when something happens it’s some asshole from Mass who shouldn’t even be here.
Sununu, build that wall!!
I’m a Texan and former Marine infantry officer with a little less than 8 years of duty in the 70s and early 80s. Of course, the Marines trained me on combat weapons but my Father had long before introduced me to firearms (he was also a former Marine infantry officer during WWII).
When I married and moved to Texas after an education on the east coast my wife wanted to carry just like me. She was easy to train as I’m a bit uncompromising on firearms. So, she got her license to carry within about a month or two of my instructing her and some formal qualification classes.
So, I see both sides of the issue of constitutional carry. Both she and I are concealed carry licensed but we got trained in the use of firearms but from different instructors. Neither of us has ever mishandled a firearm.
Still, if forced to decide on constitutional carry for the average citizen who is new to firearms I’d come down on the side encouraging training as it’s the responsible thing to do if someone is new to firearms. But the licensing part I can do without as it makes an easily accessible government record of gun ownership and I don’t trust the gun-grabbers one bit.
Then teach vol classes weekly to everyone you can contact. Make that your mission. The 2nd says NOTHING about you placing restrictions on your neighbor
Is Self-evident/Right from our creator hard to understand?
I have to agree, putting requirements or restrictions is just belying your fudd status. How hard is it to understand shall not infringe?
Nice work Texans!
I heard somewhere that there were three gun-friendly Texas bills under consideration in the Texas State House, but, I can’t find that reference.
Anyone, out there with a better memory than this 69 year old?
Here’s an authoritative, online reference to all proposed, new, gun-related legislation in Texas: https://www.uslawshield.com/2021-gun-law-texas/.
There are dozens. Constitutional Carry is but one of them.
I fear both the Gov. and Lt. Gov. are just playing political games.
Has anyone notice that the Houston chronicle took out the comments on there story’s? Guess they did not like being called out on bias and corrected?
“On there story’s”.
🤣
Media becomes hysterical?
Who cares? Every move you make is the wrong move to them so lets stop worry how the media portrays it and start taking our rights back.
We need to stop arguing and caring about them.
I’m all for constitutional carry in The Lone Star State, but the crucial pending gun legislation in Texas is that making it a 2nd amendment sanctuary state, which serves as a giant🖕🏻to the coming gun bans by Senile Joe, Kamaltoe, and the power grabbing Bolshevik Democrats.
Y’all pissin straight purple down there. Get that passed
“Y’all pissing straight purple down there.”
Now, that’s a country saying I’ve never before heard.
What’s the meaning of that, pray tell?
Means they are losing their red color going purple and with the move ins they liable to be blue by next year.
Can’t even pass simple pro gun things anymore
Any more? There was no ability to legally carry a firearm *at all* until 1994, after it was pushed and pushed for at least a decade, and even then it was just as unfriendly as it could possibly be made. More and more and more bills have been passed since, easing the procedure until, now, we may finally get Concealed Carry, and you imagine the path is getting more difficult? You need to wake up a bit!
Meant “Constitutional Carry”. Finger fart.
Act like they bleed red but they pissin purple cause they know deep down they are blue
Matt,
I get it now. Thanks for the edumacation in politically oriented slang.
Best,
David
Even though Gov. Abbot is squishy, if this passes and Texas joins the growing portion of the nation that honors the 2A as written, it will be like the fat kid finally getting on the teeter-totter and making the whole thing start to move the other direction. Once we get to 26 States with CC, the argument against it from the remaining States will wither. And I’m thinking of the Nutty Ninth that recently ruled we don’t actually have any right to carry at all.
Again, Abbot and his cronies may be pandering, but if/when this passes, it will be extremely difficult to reverse, once Texans finally get a taste of “carry” freedom. They won’t give it up easily, and their votes will reflect it.
Please never forget that this coward skipped out on 1/6 Freedom Day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5iqYuFmzqg
In Texas, you have to be lawfully arrested before you’re even required to hand over your ID.
Pig’s a liar, because of course.
In CA, we have three levels/tiers of contact:
– Consensual conversation
– Detainment
– Arrest
There is no requirement to present any ID. We are only required to provide our true legal name *if* the LEO declares he/she is detaining or arresting you for suspicion of a crime. Sans such a declaration, you are not required to provide any information. This is why it’s so important to begin any contact with (1) a request for the LEO’s name and badge number, and (2) a request for clarification of the stop/contact.
In TX you are required to show a valid ID upon request of any LEO. Regardless of why they stopped you.
I’m not sure about Abbott but, Dan Patrick is BS’ing everyone. He has always been against constitutional or any kind of carry law. If you dive into his history you will probably find that he wants to do away with the 2A.
And yet these police chiefs want us to “Back the Blue”?
There are 20 other states worth of police chiefs that they can phone up and understand how to adjust. But oh, that kinda sounds like a little bit of work … can’t have that going on.
“…nothing will happen in Texas…”
Might be a bit premature: Texas is a whole ‘nuther country. The disappointment in “constitutional carry” laws is that they are just “laws”, subject to the whims of party politics.
If the US Constitution is not authority enough for personal possession and carry, why do we envision “constitutional carry” laws as some sort of victory?
The Second Amendment overrides every contrary provision in the Constitution. Yet, “tradition and history” supports restrictions, just like the 1st Amendment (“hate speech”; libel and other restrictions).
So, OK. We won…..for the moment.
5 more to go then we can squawk for national reciprocity.
Yay Texas welcome to a little freedom.
Come on Nebraska, let’s make a corridor of freedom.
We’ve already got A LOT OF FREEDOM here in The Lone Star State. Currently any Texan can legally carry a loaded rifle just about anywhere with virtually no restrictions, and Texans can currently carry a loaded concealed handgun in their vehicle with no licensing requirement whatsoever. A major justification for constitutional carry in Texas is the fact that if no license is required for concealed carry of a handgun in a vehicle, why is a license required for carry outside of a vehicle.
No surprise that the liberal rag Dallas Morning News would turn to Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia as their preferred expert on gun control in The Lone Star State. Chief Garcia only arrived in Texas a few short months ago from (wait for it) SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA, so predictably Garcia will always view the 2nd amendment through the lens of the state where he was formed as an LEO. Garcia is also a native of Puerto Rico, and grew up in the U.S. territory with notoriously strict gun control, licensing, and ammunition restrictions laws in place that have denied residents there basic 2nd amendment rights for decades. So Chief Garcia has quite the anti-gun background & pedigree required to maintain proper liberal Democrat standing. The Texas Police Chiefs who are pro gun control are almost exclusively limited to an irrelevant number of out of state bureaucrats hired by the liberal Democrat political machines running Austin, Dallas, Houston, & San Antonio.
OMG!! “There will be blood running in the streets!!” Says the insane snowflakes as they run screaking in horror, eyes bulging, crashing into each other seeking escape from certain death.
Maybe they’ll run back to California ?!!?
Couldn’t be that lucky
He could just be saying that knowing it won’t get to his desk. Texas and Florida are quite anti gun despite their reputations, although Texas is much better than Florida, which won’t even let the words constitutional carry be uttered in a committee.
Any assertion that Texas is anti gun is not just a lie, it’s a d@mned lie. Texans can legally open or conceal carry ANY rifle practically ANYWHERE with no licensing requirement or restrictions. Texans with handgun carry licenses can open or conceal carry handguns with few restrictions. Texans can legally conceal carry handguns in their vehicles WITH NO RESTRICTIONS whatsoever! Texas WILL PASS 2nd amendment sanctuary legislation in next few weeks and will likely pass constitutional carry as well. So YOU Stateisevil are a d@mned liar with your “Texas is anti gun” bull$#it!
The fact that Abbott has made a public declaration of support is meaningless unless there is a bill on his desk to sign. At this time it could easily just be a cheap and easy way of going on record as pro-2A without having to take an action that could someday rebound against him. Just to get his NRA member constituents off his back.
When I lived in Texas in the 1980’s the law as I remember it was that no-permit carry was fine if you were more than a certain distance from your home, based as it was explained to me, on the theory that you couldn’t be expected to avoid the danger zones in unfamiliar territory. Did that change?
Hank, you’re describing the Texas Constitution, which allows carry loaded, unloaded, open or concealed, zero restrictions at all, “while traveling”. There was no carry license at all, and there was always discussion of what precisely “traveling” meant. To my knowledge the Constitution has not been Amended, but I was missing from the state from 1981-91 so I may have missed it. BTW, the prohibition against carrying was mostly ignored if you were white, I even saw an article once by a reporter who claimed to be present in the Capitol when a group of legislators commenced show and tell about their carry guns, which they had with them at work, while there was no legal way for them to do that, they couldn’t even claim to be traveling.
“Nobody, nobody really and truly believes that everybody should be allowed to carry a gun,”
That’s nearly true, comes very close. People convicted of violent crimes should go to jail and lose the right to do all sorts of things, including possession of a gun. When they get out they should not get their gun rights back unless they convince the court they are not merely punished, but are reformed.
If mental defective persons, if judged in a court with defending counsel protecting their rights, are found to be a danger to themselves or other then they too should lose the right to carry a gun.
Non-violent convictions should not result is loss of gun rights upon completion of punishment and release from jail.
And every law abiding citizen who wants to carry a gun openly, concealed, with or without a permit already has the right to carry a gun if they so desire.
A much infringed right, but still the right.
Absolute bullshit. **I** really and truly believe that everybody should be allowed to carry a gun, at least so far as the government is concerned, which is precisely what 2A has said since our nation’s founding, and which no one has ever even attempted to alter, merely to IGNORE the supreme law of our land. If we no longer believe it let’s change it. Ignoring it should not be acceptable to ANYONE!
The ‘training’ envolved in a Texas CHL is centered around staying within the law. Anything else in the class becomes secondary. It is this law that gets called into question and/or changed by constitutional carry. Any hands-on ‘training’ at the range is primarily about making sure you ‘can’ fire a gun and hit the paper (somewhere). This is BASIC stuff that just barely is something called training. This is NOT military or even police training. It’s more of an introductory course for beginners. Very few will ever go any further than that.
People already carry guns and never get a CHL or take any course at all. That fact does not and will not change one way or the other. Whatever Abbott might do.
Just to be clear, *MY* military training (USAF, 5 times revolver, two times M16) was almost precisely the same as the CHL training I got in Texas, ie, see paper, shoot paper, good job, good day. The worst training I ever got was USAF, trained me to work a 6-shot S&W revolver (cylinder rotates countercockwise) to qualify me to carry on aircraft a Colt 5-shot revolver (cylinder rotates clockwise) and load it with special cartridges for the first 2 chambers, then normal JHP for the other 3. No one ever pointed out the extreme likelihood that the gun was usually carried loaded wrong.
HAVE MY LTC IN TEXAS , AND I BELIEVE IN CLASSES , AND REGISTER WEAPONS .
NO MATTER HOW LAW IS OR IS NOT .
DRIVER LICENCE AND WEAPONS GO HAND IN HAND .
KNOW WON’T STOP ROAD RAGE NOR CRAZY FROM USING CAR OR WEAPON AS MEANS TO DO HARM WITH OUT A CAUSE OTHER THAN I WANTED TO .
GOD BLESS US THAT TRY TO DO RIGHT , AND PROTECT OURSELVES AND FAMILIES .
Incoherent as usual…
“DRIVER LICENCE AND WEAPONS GO HAND IN HAND”
How do you figure that nonsense? How are they related? Legally or otherwise?
And why register?
It’s nonsense, D, there is no registry in Texas.
I was thinking along the lines of why does Mr.Allcaps “BELIEVE IN …REGISTER WEAPONS “.
And damn those who surrender other people’s rights because they themselves feel uncomfortable unless mommied through life by the government.
Umm, thank you, summed up in two lines.
My observation is just local, but I’ve seen maybe two people open carrying in this part of Texas. But, we do need the law whether or not we exercise it every day. Think most in this small town in Tx have firearms at home or in their vehicle. Not so much on their person. But, we’re 60 to 70 miles south of Houston too. I’d rather carry concealed because as more of the savages are armed anyone open carrying will surely be the first target. The savages will not telegraph their intent. If you’re the first put down you are of no use to anybody else.
Under this National Front for Organized Crime Admin, the entire Constitution is in danger.
It’s time for Texans to be able to carry a firearm without asking permission. That is our GOD given Constitutional Right.
“They’re intending to propagandize the Useful Idiots produced by today’s public school systems.”
And being rather good at it.
The irony being that shootouts and blood literally running in the streets is the reality of democratically controlled cities while the complete opposite happens in Republican states that pass constitutional carry.
If the blood in the streets argument had any merits it would have to be applied to blue cities and states to make even the smallest amount of sense.
This won’t affect criminals one way or the other – so why punish law abiding gun owners?
It was ruled decades ago that we cannot prosecute felons or other prohibited persons for lying on a 4473, since otherwise we would be requiring them to testify against themselves in violation of 5A. May come up again with Hunter Biden.
Let me know when a state let’s you carry concealed without a permit.
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