Open Carry

Texas is one of only six states that do not allow their citizens to openly carry firearms.  This despite the perceived wild and wooly lifestyle of Texas.  In that regard we are the same as nueva york (gasp).  The Texas Legislature is now in session and our rights and wallets will be under assault until the end of May.  Thankfully they only meet twice a year.  The Senate has recently passed an Open Carry bill.  It had quite a number of amendments that restrict it from being a truly open carry.  It will be restricted to current conceal carry license holders for one thing, not real sure what else there is and it has to go before the House where it will most likely get more amendments.  If it gets that far the Governor has said he will sign it. 

There are several other gun bills being proposed in either House that are much different.  One is Constitutional Carry.  However, the Lt. Governor, who wields more power than the Governor realistically, isn't even allowing that bill to come to a vote.  This is the guy that recently got voted in based on a very conservative platform.  As usual we are finding out he isn't all he made himself out to be.  I am not a bit surprised by this, my guy lost in the primaries, running a distant 3rd or 4th.  Evidently he was too conservative.

When it comes to personal rights, the Texas Legislature isn't near as conservative as others may think.  Most of their conservatism is only on the financial side, most of the time but not always.  Many don't remember that just 30-40 years ago it was near impossible to get elected in Texas unless you were a Democrat.  (Dems were more conservative then though) That had been true since the War of Northern Aggression and had been true throughout the South.  It takes longer to change your spots evidently than that.  Every session there is always some sort of law proposed that comes up that takes more of our rights away.  Some get passed, some don't.  One that has been a pleasant surprise has been the CHL laws, each session they pass another that makes it easier and cheaper to obtain and renew.  Another that comes up ever so often is motorcycle helmet laws.  It gets passed, then repealed and proposed over and over.  Why do we need to have laws like that?  How else are we to weed out the gene pool? 

Happy Trails