Brady finds Texas "Puzzling"

[Katya Mullethov]

Think the metal detectors and other ramped-up security plans for the Texas Capitol will keep out unlicensed guns?

Think again, officials said Wednesday.

Under current state law, so-called "long guns" — rifles, shotguns and the like — will remain legal in the domed landmark if they are carried openly, in a non-threatening way.And, under an exemption approved Tuesday as a part of a new security plan, Texans with a concealed-handgun license will be able to take their pistols into the statehouse as well.

But while the security plans don't appear to make everyone happy — not gun rights supporters or gun-control advocates —officials on both sides of the debate seem resigned to an uneasy peace between the new plan and Texas' patchwork of gun laws.

"This is not going to make the Capitol a gun-free zone, no way," said Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, an ardent gun-rights advocate who as a state senator authored Texas' concealed-handgun law 15 years ago."The (Department of Public Safety) cannot prohibit firearms in the Capitol if they are carried lawfully. The Legislature would have to change the law to prohibit them , and they're not going to do that."

On the other side of the spectrum, state Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, said metal detectors are needed, even though he acknowledges the plan is not a perfect one.
"Texas is pretty gun-friendly, so even though it may not make sense to be able to legally carry a rifle or shotgun into the Capitol, that's the way it is," said Whitmire, the state's longest-serving senator. "There's not a lot of wildlife in the Capitol that needs to be hunted, although occasionally there may be a couple of squirrels running around up there."

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/capitol-plan-is-a-far-piece-from-firearm-565796.html


And yet again , there was lulling .

[xchrom]

1. Through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole. Nt

[GreenStormCloud]

2. That is a great interview in the video. He makes a lot of sense. N/T

[derby378]

3. This'll further mess with the Brady's heads...

Dallas' violent crime rate, last I heard, is still declining. It's a two-year downward trend in a gun-friendly metropolitan area with licensed concealed-carry, with no state registration, and with more than our share of gun shows.

[GreenStormCloud]

10. Every weekend there is a gun show in the DFW area. N/T

[Historic NY]

4. when nut with a gun takes one of them out in their office, they will revise their thinking.

remember they want bullets before the ballot box.

[ManiacJoe]

5. Always a possibility.

It is hard to stop someone from doing bad things when they are willing to die for their cause.

[GreenStormCloud]

12. You think a nut with a gun is going to obey a "no guns" sign? N/T

[Historic NY]

13. no but whne you have security measures in place it can stop them for a bit.

[DonP]

15. Oh, like Virginia Tech and NIU?

They are both gun free campuses (Campii?) and both had campus security in place. That didn't seem to slow them down one little bit, even after Cho shot two people in a dorm earlier in the day.

Someday the folks that desire more gun control are just going to have to accept the fact that good intentions and "feel good" laws have no impact on anyone that is willing to forfeit their own life to kill others for whatever twisted reasons they have between their ears. And disarming the law abiding makes about as much sense as stopping all auto sales because of a few drunk drivers.

The only thing that stops a person willing to do that is direct force. In almost every case (Charles Whitman being a notable exception) the shooter (Cho, Harris, Klebold etc.) ends their own life as soon as they realize they are going to be confronted by an armed response. One of the bitter lessons learned by police at Columbine was that waiting for back up, establishing a perimeter, and all the other SOP they had in place needed to be revised.

But why pay any attention to the actual record of these events, it's much more important to do things that make some folks "feel good" I guess.

[SteveM]

16. The denizens of the Capitol should follow the lead of Fannie Lou Hamer...

who let it be known to the KKK, etc., that she had a shotgun in every corner of her house. No one bombed her.

[sharesunited]

6. Domed landmark? Try doomed landmark.

[ManiacJoe]

7. Doomed in what way?

Current law allows for unconcealable rifles and shotguns; no change.

Current law allowed for concealed carry by those who have passed the background checks; no change.

Current law allows everyone to open carry at the capitol; no longer allowed.

Concealed carry by those without permits is no longer allowed due to the metal detectors.

Please point out the doomed part if you can.

[mvccd1000]

8. He can't.

But the hit and run post probably felt great!

I wonder if he'll bump this topic next year when ...NOTHING... has happened to tell us he was wrong.

Wait a minute... no I don't; that would require some sort of honesty from a GCA, and I have yet to see anything that would lead me to expect that.

[friendly_iconoclast]

9. "Doomed, I say-DOOOMED!". I just keep hearing that in Professor Farnsworths' voice.

n/t

[GreenStormCloud]

11. Why doomed? We have had "shall-issue" for 15 years with no problems.

Aren't you going to get tired of making those dire predictions that don't come true?

[Katya Mullethov]

14. Well ........ it'll lead to harder stuff

You heard any of this before ?

[SteveM]

17. It's been there since the 1880s, and will probably be there when both of us are domed.