TexasCHLforum.com

So, to sum up what I read about today:

1. The new Democratic majority in control of the Virginia state legislature and the Governor's mansion introduced several bills that are anti-gun.
2. Many Virginians were against the proposed bills.
3. 90% of the Virginia counties passed resolutions against the proposed laws.
4. The VDCL (the Virginia equivalent of the TSRA) holds an annual meeting with the legislature day and this year's was very well attended.
5. The Governor and legislature showed their fear of the people by fencing off the area and passing an emergency measure to ban guns on the Capitol grounds. They claim this is in response to credible threats of violence.
6. The mainstream media talks about how violent the protest is expected to become, including rumors of Antifa and White Supremacists coming planning to be violent.
7. About 22,000 people show up for the protest, 16,000 of them legally and openly armed.
8. There is one person arrested for wearing a mask at a public event (that law says a lot about the government there in and of itself).
9. After a peaceful demonstration, the protestors even clean up after themselves.
10. The mainstream media claims that the 22,000 protestors do not actually speak for the majority of gun owners who favor the law, despite the fact that there were no counter-protests at all.

This leaves me with two questions in my mind:

1. Anyone want to bet that the proposed laws get passed anyway?
2. Why do we not start having a TSRA day each legislative session here in Texas? I used to go when the TMRA2 (Texas Motorcycle Rights Association) had their legislative day. We had about 3000 motorcyclists show up each time and meet individually with their representatives and senators. It worked wonders for the state of motorcycle laws in Texas, even when we were talking with people known to oppose our desires. Letting the legislators meet the actual people who supported the issue made it personal instead of a faceless "enemy". Given the current effectiveness of the TSRA, we may not need this, but I think it would be a good idea. It is hard to get a lot of people to come down during the week during the session, but I really think it is worth it and worth burning a vacation day if necessary.

So they are proposing a universal background check bill to close the "gun show loophole" and it actually exempts gun shows (HB2 and SB12 on the link)? That makes a lot of sense.