Editorial: Texas GOP lawmakers trust you with a gun but not with the vote
By American-Statesman Editorial Board
Texas Republican lawmakers say we should assume a person walking down the street, gun holstered to hip, is a law-abiding citizen entitled to carry that gun. No need for a permit. No reason for a cop to stop and ask what that person is up to.
“Citizens need to be trusted,” Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, emphasized Wednesday before the Senate passed House Bill 1927, which would allow Texans to carry a handgun in public without the license, background check and firearm training currently required by state law.
Opinion | On the brink of permitless carry legislation, Texas is abandoning common sense on guns washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Permitless handgun carry in Texas nearly law, after Senate OKs bill
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A man openly carrying a handgun.
AUSTIN, Texas Texas would allow people to carry a handgun without a license, and the background check and training that go with it, under a measure approved by the state Senate on Wednesday.
The Senate approved the Republican-led effort in a 18-13 vote, less than a week after it sailed out of a committee created to specifically to tackle the legislation.
Texas already has some of the loosest gun laws in the country and has more than 1.6 million handgun license holders. Lawmakers have reduced classroom and shooting range training requirements over the last decade, but had been reluctant to eliminate the license requirement altogether.
Texas Senate approves permitless carry of handguns in party-line vote Chuck Lindell, Austin American-Statesman
Continuing down the path of loosening limits on Texas gun owners, a divided state Senate approved legislation Wednesday to allow holstered handguns to be carried in public, openly or concealed, without a state-issued permit known as a license to carry.
House Bill 1927 next returns to the Texas House to consider changes that senators made during almost seven hours of debate, including GOP amendments designed to win support from a handful of reluctant Republicans who, as of last week, were unsure about whether to support the bill.