Some Plain Talk about Guns and the Texas Legislature
Today, Dan Patrick (who I regard as a lunatic) announced that he didn’t have enough votes to pass the Unqualified Carry Law that allows any idiot to openly (or concealed) carry a handgun in public without ANY licensing requirement. He did say that if he got enough votes, he would advance the bill, and was looking for advice from the NRA and other gun advocacy organizations. Swell. Thankfully, law enforcement is opposed to this bill for obvious reasons.
Gun nuts in Texas have been pushing the notion of Unqualified Carry for about 7 or 8 years now, even coining the term “Constitutional Carry” which doesn’t exist. What it really is is Unqualified Carry, that is, the ability of anyone to carry a handgun openly without a permit and with no mechanism for law enforcement to examine a carrier’s qualifications. The one successful thing the gun lobby, lead by the NRA, has done is to rewrite the Second Amendment over the last 5 decades pushing the notion that the Founders envisioned a society where guns are omnipresent; nothing could be farther from the truth, but it took decades of junk law based on manipulated and faked data to finally get this rewriting incorporated into caselaw. This rewrite culminated in the Heller decision, written by Antonin Scalia, who overturned two centuries of caselaw declaring the the Second Amendment was all about guns for everyone which it wasn’t. The Second Amendment was established to enable the new government to defend itself from 1) foreign enemies, and 2) insurrection. All this bullshit being peddled about an armed citizenry being able to overthrow the US government for “tyranny” is just that: bullshit. We saw the logical result of such bullshit on January 6th when brainwashed morons stormed the US Capitol to stop democracy from functioning and to force their own will on 300 million Americans.
Back to the present effort to undo remaining gun laws in Texas, and let’s be blunt; there is one reason, and one reason only for gun nuts and their various organizations to push Unqualified Carry, and that is to allow criminals and other unqualified individuals easy access to firearms so manufacturers can sell more firearms. That’s it, period, end of sentence. Gun nuts, lead by really crazy gun nuts, have been brainwashed by decades of bullshit published by the gun lobby that society must be the omnipresence of deadly firearms because society is evil and everyone must protect themselves and their families from scary dark people, socialist politicians, and government tyranny that they can’t define.
To make matters worse, Texas allows unregulated private sales and internet sales of ammunition and gun parts including 80% receivers which allow criminals who can’t put their hands on a firearm to just build one. To take away the permitting requirement for handgun carry opens the floodgates for criminals, many of whom who have pushed for Unqualified Carry because they can’t get a license due to their past criminal records.
When a law is being considered, the question needs to be asked: Will this law make citizens lives better or safer? Because this law puts more guns in unqualified hands, the answer is a resounding no. The Unqualified Carry law won’t improve any lives (except criminals). Because it will put more guns on the street, it will make law enforcement more difficult, risk law abiding citizens’ lives, AND enable criminals to carry guns without being challenged. It will greatly complicate police officers’ jobs while a crime is being committed, and will slow their response. In short, there is no good reason, no great need, and no problem that will be solved by allowing Unqualified Carry. It’s already proven that the presence of guns increases violence, increases crime, and increases deaths. This law will do no good, and cause a lot of grief for Texans, as if we needed that.
The nation needs a law that says, “If you are the first purchaser of the gun, you are FOREVER responsible for its use. To end the responsibility, you have only to destroy it.” This will give us millions of firearms control agents and prevent the deaths of some 11,000,000 Americans every year killed by second-hand weapons.
1@chuck – I don’t disagree. You bought it, you own it. My only caveat would be that that you could relieve that obligation by selling the firearm through a licensed FFL. I do, however, think you meant 11,000 Americans per year not 11 million.
2It has always puzzled me as to how the phrase “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of the state…” somehow gets interpreted as “all us ‘real’ ‘Murikkans need to be armed to the teeth in case we have to overthrow the evil gummint.”
If you’re not part of a “well regulated militia” you have no reason to be armed to the teeth – although there are certainly circumstances where you might need or want to own a gun – hunting for one, target practice (that’s why I own a few) is another – and if you are part of a well regulated militia, your job is to protect the state, not overthrow it.
3What bothers me is the number of people who think this is a fine idea.
4We have a well armed regulated militia- its the national guard.
“This law will do no good, and cause a lot of grief” sounds like a reason for repugnanticans to try and do it. It will appease the nra, right wing gun nuts and piss off Democrats. Sort of like voter suppression laws. And its a lot easier than addressing something that’s needed- Texas infrastructure problems such as the power grid.
5Get all the guns you want but they won’t make genitalia any larger.
6Calling Dan Patrick a lunatic is insulting lunatics.
7Dan is so far around the bend he meets himself coming along with Louie Gohmert.
Ya, Mike, goober Gohmert- the most vocal supporter of mtgreene’s pure white caucus (along with matt gaetz). Like minds for sure. The faces of the repugnantican party.
8Dan Patrick is a moron. The ‘leadership’ in the NRA are outright crooks. OK covered the easily obvious. But the gun violence news in just the past few days demands the logical solution(s).
Last polls showed 70-80% support sensible gun safety solutions. After this past week? All the often mentioned suggestions at the WMDBS for YEARS are both reasonable and attainable. Our insurance company demands proof of license and registration to renew our vehicle insurances. Insure the damn guns and “market base” the rates. Proof of safety certification, mental eval, etc. But please, no high risk pools, we’ve seen that bloodshed all too often. To repeat myself: mental evaluations especially for law enforcement to weed out those authoritarian personality disorders unsuited to bear arms, evuh.
9Bob Boland @ 3
It’s way stupider than that. The nation never had a well-regulated militia, just a bunch of undisciplined drunks whose function was to shoot workers when the bosses said to.
One of the grave deficiencies of US history is that we teach things that never happened and don’t teach what did happen.
If the public knew the genuine history of the militia, the gun nuts would be unable to make their silly argument.
10El Jefe: thank you for that phrase “Unqualified Carry”. It fills the bumper-sticker slot that ordinarily it takes several sentences to explain to dullards that think the 2nd amendment consists only of “shall not be infringed”.
chuckg@1: one unintended consequence of your proposal is that it will be fully supported by the NRA, which is now owned and run by the firearms industry. They’d love it if guns were destroyed, so they can sell more long-term.
BTW, since I worked in a steel mill for some years, I got to see just how guns are destroyed. Every year or so, about 150 ATF, FBI, and US Marshalls would come (unannounced to us worker drones) to the plant. They’d form a double cordon line to one of the 165 ton electric arc furnaces, which had been prepped with a part-load of melted steel. Then they’d back in trucks, station wagons, and other vehicles to the furnace building, and throw the weapons into the EAF one at a time, checking each one off as it went in. I got to see a Finnish anti-tanks gun, 50 cal. Browning machine guns, M60s, M16s, M14s, BARs, Thompsons, and a gazillion handguns being melted. All of them had been seized and then used as evidence in court for assorted crimes. I have no idea of how they ditch them nowadays, however.
11Wouldn’t now be a good time for hank Gilbert to make a statement about Patrick?
12Unregulated gun sales make it much easier for the cartels to purchase unlimited fire arms, with which they terrorize the citizens of their countries. Said citizens are fleeing the chaos caused by America’s unlimited flow of firepower that’s disrupting their lands. Guess where the South and Central Americans are headed?
13Why isn’t liability insurance required for every firearm with rates based on the lethal potential of each weapon? The purchaser of an AR-15 with a 100 round magazine would be required to pay higher premiums than a purchaser of a .410 single shot shotgun.
Every weapon insured!
14Gun Control in the Old West? Facts and Fiction
https://www.heartsthroughhistory.com/blog/2012/07/07/gun-control-in-the-old-west-facts-and-fiction/
15Ask them if 6 year old boys should be able to carry guns, If they say no, ask them why not?
16Dan Patrick is a complete piece of filth. We need to do all we can to deprive him of his political career. Let him go back to daily rants on AM hate radio.
17The second, third, and fourth words of the Second Amendment are “well regulated militia”. I’m pretty sure the founding fathers put them in there simply because they liked the sound of them, not because they really meant them.
As for Constitutional Carry, Texas has officially existed since 1836, i.e., 185 years. People’s lives really are much more secure and less violent now than they’ve ever been, so what makes Constitutional Carry necessary now? If anyone says it’s because the NSGOP runs this state, I’ll concede they may have a point. Otherwise…
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