They come in handy when one has been stolen.

Well it looks like it's gonna happen!! Final Passage in the Senate tonight and it's on to the Governor for his signature!

Not so fast. Still needs house concurrence vote.

OC is dead this session.

Do you have a link. I looked and have not seen anything saying that.

Thank you.

Saw the vote. Maybe I should rephrase; it's all but officially dead.

Yup

Once again managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Theres still a chance OC will pass. If the conference committee cannot come to agreement it will go back to the house and may pass in that vote. If the conference committee does come to agreement then its back to the Senate where it will probably die.

Lawmakers acknowledged that while it landed, the blow was glancing at best. "I have no doubt that at the end of the day there will be an open carry bill passed in the 84th session," said bill sponsor Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman.


Rep. Poncho Nevarez, the only Democrat of the House's conferees, said he thinks there's little he and other open carry opponents can do because the bill itself enjoys such universal support among Republicans. If the 10-member conference committee fails to come to an agreement, he said, the House will accept the Huffines amendment rather than kill the bill all together.

"I wish it was a death knell, but I know differently," said Nevarez, D-Eagle Pass. "I think we're past the ideal outcome

We really need to run the damn democrats out of the state. Trouble is we keep bringing in more and more from yankee land, and worse, California.

If this does not pass this session it won't be because of democrats. A lot of republicans voted against concurrence that would have sent it straight to the gov. instead of to the conference committee.

No, you don't make yourself a target.

I really wish these internet myths would die a violent death, because they are old and worn out and just flat out not true.

tolen from AR15.com, not my work just passing it along



For those of you not following the Open Carry political saga in Texas closely, let me give a short summary. Recently, the House voted to send the Open Carry bill to the Senate with the Dutton Amendment (shown below). The Senate stripped out the Dutton Amendment in Committee; but Senator Huffhines later proposed an ALMOST identical amendment from the floor that was accepted.
The two amendments are posted below for your comparison:

quote:
Dutton Amendment
Sec. 411.2049. CERTAIN INVESTIGATORY STOPS AND INQUIRIES PROHIBITED. A peace officer may not make an investigatory stop or other temporary detention to inquire as to whether a person possesses a handgun license solely because the person is carrying a partially or wholly visible handgun carried in a shoulder or belt holster.



quote:
Huffhines Amendment
Sec. 411.2049. CERTAIN INVESTIGATORY STOPS AND INQUIRIES PROHIBITED. A peace officer may not make an investigatory stop or other temporary detention to inquire as to a person's possession of a handgun license solely because the person is carrying in a shoulder or belt holster a partially or wholly visible handgun.



The following legislators voted YES for the Dutton Amendment, but when presented with damn near identical language in the Huffhines Amendment, voted NO and have put the passage of Open Carry in serious doubt. If you wish to question your legislator about this hypocrisy, I have done everything I know to do to make it easy for you. If you don't want to bother with what district you live in, I've listed the counties for a quicker reference. All you need to do is click on the email link. Please take just a moment of your time and get involved to ask these legislators why they were OK with the Dutton Amendment language but voted against the Huffhines Amendment language? And please share your responses with the rest of us.

Who is my Texas Representative and District?
Anderson, Charles Represents McLennan County District 56 Email
Ashby. Trent Angeline, Houston, Leon, Madison, San Augustine, Trinity Counties District 57 Email
Aycock, Jimmie Don Lampasas, Bell Counties District 54 Email
Bohac, Dwayne Harris County District 138 Email
Bonnen, Dennis Brazoria, Matagorda Counties District 25 Email
Bonnen, Greg Galveston County District 24 Email
Burkett, Cindy Dallas County District 113 Email
Cook, Bryan Anderson, Freestone, Hill, Navarro Counties District 8 Email
Dale, Tony Williamson County District 136 Email
Davis, Sarah Harris County District 134 Email
Farney, Marsha Burnet, Milam, Williamson Counties District 20 Email
Fletcher, Allan Harris County District 130 Email
Frank, James Archer, Baylor, Clay, Foard, Know, Wichita Counties District 69 Email
Galindo Bexar County District 117 Email
Geren Tarrant County District 99 Email If there is any Representative on this list who deserves a break, it may be Rep. Geren as he sponsored the NFA Shall Sign bill. However, if I lived in his district, I would still want to know why he voted as he did.
Goldman, Craig Tarrant County District 97 Email
Gonzales, Larry Williamson County District 52 Email
Harless, Patricia Harris County District 126 Email
Herrero, Abel Nueces County District 34 - Email
King, Ken Armstrong, Bailey, Briscoe, Castro, Cochran, Donley, Gray, Hale, Hansford, Hemphill, Hockley, Lamb, Lipscomb, Ochiltree, Roberts, Swisher, Yoakum Counties District 88 - Email
King, Phil Parker, Wise Counties District 61 - Email
Koop, Linda Dallas County District 102 - Email
Larson, Lyle Bexar County District 122 - Email
Meyer, Morgan Dallas County District 108 - Email
Miller, Doug Gillespie, Kendall, Comal Counties District 73 - Email
Miller, Rick Fort Bend County District 26 Email
Moody, Joe El Paso County District 78 - Email
Morrison, Geanie Aransas, Calhoun, DeWitt, Goliad, Refugio, Victoria Counties District 30 - Email
Murphy, Jim Harris County District 133 - Email
Pena, Gilbert Harris County District 144 - Email
Sheets, Kenneth Dallas County District 107 - Email
Sheffield, J. D. Erath, Comanche, McCulloch, Mills, Hamilton, Coryell, San Saba, Somvervell District 59 - Email
Smith, Wayne Harris County District 128 - Email
Smithee, John Dallam, Hartley, Oldham, Deaf Smith, Randall, Parmer District 86 - Email
Stephenson, Phil Fort Bend, Jackson, Wharton Counties District 85 - Email
Villaba, Jason Dallas County District 114 - Email
Zerwas, John Fort Bend County District 28 - Email

Please share this with other gunboards as well. I have a AR15.com/VBB friendly formatted document in Word I will be happy to share with anyone who wishes to repost this on other forums so you don't even have to do any work there either.

I speak from experience as well. I lived in Arizona for 6 years, which is a constitutional open carry (also concealed carry) state.

And I can tell you that carrying as a LEO is completely different than carrying as somebody choosing to open carry - you have different agendas, duties and responsibilities and it is very difficult to draw a true comparison between the two.

When I first moved from Texas to AZ, seeing somebody openly carry was strange to me - and frankly I didn't realize how restrictive Texas actually is with firearms until I moved to a place that had very few restrictions. Sure, I paid attention to the people I saw openly carrying - it was strange to me and kind of a novelty. But after a week or two, it became just another part of life really. The vast majority of open carrying was done in more rural areas, though it was common enough in downtown PHX that it wasn't massively out of place.

And of those open carrying, the vast majority of them were normal folks - in downtown, the people were wearing suits and ties and carrying briefcases. Not exactly something you freak out over. There were a couple of people that I saw that were questionable based on their looks, and sure, I kept them in the corner of my vision. But nothing happend. Open carriers were not attacked and ambushed by bad guys, they weren't sniped from across the street by bad guys, soccer moms didn't scream in panic and create mass hysteria at the sight of a firearm on somebody's hip. Basically - life went on as normal.

I didn't open carry every day - hell, I didn't conceal carry every day either. But having the option to carry how I wanted based on my dress, the temperature, where I was going, what I was doing, etc. was awful nice to have at my disposal.

If it were to pass here (I have my doubts), will there be businesses that brush up on their signage? Sure - there were when CCW passed as well. And yet we manage to continue living life every day without really much in the way of changes. And, like anything else, exposure to the unwashed masses is not a bad thing. In relatively short time frames people will become fairly desensitized to firearms and they become more accustomed to them as a part of life, and you move on.

Every single "what if" scenario spouted off by people on this thread and every other message board are the exact same "what if" scenarios that the lefites screamed as doom and gloom from the mountain tops when CCW was proposed and debated on. And we have collectively proved them to be exactly that - myth. Please don't perpetuate hypotheticals that are based in nothing more than wet panty hand wringing espoused primarily by those that have little to no experience on the actual subject at hand.

I know of several CHL holders who have done dumb things with their guns. It happens. There are plenty of documented examples of the "hypotheticals" being realized in all of the open carry states. All of you idiots who claim they never happen are as pathetic as the liberals who claim it will be anarchy and blood in the streets. I personally think it's unnecessary for me to have open carry when I can and prefer to carry concealed. But I also believe in less government restriction in all parts of my life including this area.

It passed. Gonna be signed into law.

Wrong.

It's near DDFD (Done, Done, F'n, Done)!

Link

The best part of the bill is that it reduces the penalty for not seeing a 30.06 sign from a class A misdemeanor to a class C. It will still be a class A if you are asked to leave and refuse.

It was all but dead the other day.