TexasBill
Member
I posted this the other day and it disappeared. Not sure why, it seems to meet all the requirements for this topic. Anyway, here goes....
Senate Bill 905 was passed 25-6 in the Texas Senate and sent to the House. SB905 would allow state and federal legislators, statewide elected officials, federal and state judges, district and county attorneys and non-commissioned employees of the Department of Public Safety who possess Texas Concealed Handgun Licenses to carry their weapons in churches, bars and at sporting events, places off limits to citizens with CHLs.
I can't support SB905 even though Dan Patrick, the conservative Republican senator who represents my district and for whom I voted, was one of the authors.
The claim, voiced by Sen. Patrick, is that legislators, judges, statewide elected officials and others, like non-commissioned employees of the Department of Public Safety, are high-profile targets for assassins. For some reason, the Governor, city mayors, elected municipal and county officials and non-sworn employees of the state's municipal police and county sheriff departments are not - at least, they're not included.
Let's look at the true dimension of the threat: Since 1815, exactly 19 people who would qualify under SB905 have been assassinated in the United States. One was in Texas (John Woods, a federal judge, killed by a hitman for a Mexican drug lord in 1979). Ten of those happened in the period from 1871, when the Texas Legislature stripped the citizens of Texas of the right to legally carry a handgun at all, until 1995, when George W. Bush signed a limited restoration of those rights under strict state control. That's ten in the entire country; I'll bet a lot more than ten Texan citizens were murdered in that period who would have been alive had they or another citizen been able to legally carry a handgun. Come to think of it, we lost twice that many in one day at Luby's in 1991!
To put the numbers in another perspective, whooping cough, scarlet fever and malaria are very rare in the United States. Yet more Americans died of those diseases in 2007 alone than all federal and state legislators and judges assassinated in the last century.
Here's another kicker: Not one of these assassinations took place in a location that would be authorized by SB905. Most happened either in the victim's home or at the victim's place of work. The attack on Gabrielle Giffords, in which federal judge John Roll was killed, took place in a supermarket parking lot in the middle of the morning. Had it happened in Texas, not even a CHL would have been required for armed intervention; Texans can carry a concealed handgun in their personal vehicle without a permit.
Unless the House adds an amendment extending the same expansion of permitted carry to all CHL holders, SB905 needs to end its days in the House, without passage. This is sheer, naked elitism and self-serving on the part of our elected officials: the so-called justification does not hold water, even under the most cursory examination. Some of the Senators voting against SB905 said legislators should not be giving themselves privileges they wouldn't give all citizens and they are right.
SB905 is scheduled for public hearings on Tuesday, May 17. If you are in Austin, a visit to the State Capitol might be worthwhile. In the meantime, you should contact your Texas State Representative (Click here to find out who your Representative is) and left them know you oppose SB905 as passed by the Senate. Tell them the language needs to be extended to cover all Texans with Concealed Handgun Licenses or the measure needs to be defeated.
Senate Bill 905 was passed 25-6 in the Texas Senate and sent to the House. SB905 would allow state and federal legislators, statewide elected officials, federal and state judges, district and county attorneys and non-commissioned employees of the Department of Public Safety who possess Texas Concealed Handgun Licenses to carry their weapons in churches, bars and at sporting events, places off limits to citizens with CHLs.
I can't support SB905 even though Dan Patrick, the conservative Republican senator who represents my district and for whom I voted, was one of the authors.
The claim, voiced by Sen. Patrick, is that legislators, judges, statewide elected officials and others, like non-commissioned employees of the Department of Public Safety, are high-profile targets for assassins. For some reason, the Governor, city mayors, elected municipal and county officials and non-sworn employees of the state's municipal police and county sheriff departments are not - at least, they're not included.
Let's look at the true dimension of the threat: Since 1815, exactly 19 people who would qualify under SB905 have been assassinated in the United States. One was in Texas (John Woods, a federal judge, killed by a hitman for a Mexican drug lord in 1979). Ten of those happened in the period from 1871, when the Texas Legislature stripped the citizens of Texas of the right to legally carry a handgun at all, until 1995, when George W. Bush signed a limited restoration of those rights under strict state control. That's ten in the entire country; I'll bet a lot more than ten Texan citizens were murdered in that period who would have been alive had they or another citizen been able to legally carry a handgun. Come to think of it, we lost twice that many in one day at Luby's in 1991!
To put the numbers in another perspective, whooping cough, scarlet fever and malaria are very rare in the United States. Yet more Americans died of those diseases in 2007 alone than all federal and state legislators and judges assassinated in the last century.
Here's another kicker: Not one of these assassinations took place in a location that would be authorized by SB905. Most happened either in the victim's home or at the victim's place of work. The attack on Gabrielle Giffords, in which federal judge John Roll was killed, took place in a supermarket parking lot in the middle of the morning. Had it happened in Texas, not even a CHL would have been required for armed intervention; Texans can carry a concealed handgun in their personal vehicle without a permit.
Unless the House adds an amendment extending the same expansion of permitted carry to all CHL holders, SB905 needs to end its days in the House, without passage. This is sheer, naked elitism and self-serving on the part of our elected officials: the so-called justification does not hold water, even under the most cursory examination. Some of the Senators voting against SB905 said legislators should not be giving themselves privileges they wouldn't give all citizens and they are right.
SB905 is scheduled for public hearings on Tuesday, May 17. If you are in Austin, a visit to the State Capitol might be worthwhile. In the meantime, you should contact your Texas State Representative (Click here to find out who your Representative is) and left them know you oppose SB905 as passed by the Senate. Tell them the language needs to be extended to cover all Texans with Concealed Handgun Licenses or the measure needs to be defeated.
