TexasCHLforum.com

Texas House Committees Announced
https://www.texasfirearmscoalition.com/ ... -announced

I was prompted to look this article up because of the e-zine I just got in my mailbox from TFC. I have been asked to not post the direct link to the e-zine, and my apologies to Charles for having done so earlier. I didn't realize that I was doing a no-no. If you are a TexasFirearmsCoalition member, you should have gotten the e-zine. Charles did give me permission to quote it.

And I quote:

While only time will tell, the appointment of a Democrat [Joe Pickett] from El Paso as Chairman does not bode well for Texas gun owners. Speaker Strauss has been viewed with suspicion by gun owners throughout the State and this move likely will not raise his stock value.

To make matters worse, the makeup of the House Calendars Committee can only be described as problematic. The last two sessions saw bills that were important to gun owners either die in the Calendars Committee, or be put on the House Calendar far too late to have a chance of passage. This was no accident. The makeup of the Calendars Committee cannot help but make one wonder if 2013 is not going to be more of the same—delays and excuses.

It raises the issue of Open Carry. Would it not be safe to say that between Strauss and Pickett, Open Carry is dead? That's what e-zine article seems to imply.

Charles, you more or less defended Joe Strauss's selection as speaker this last time around, or at least that is how I recollect it. Can you please reconcile this for me? I am having a lot of trouble understanding how and why a cheezeball like Strauss could continue to keep his stranglehold on the office if he is so widely distrusted; and I am having trouble reconciling my recollections of your previous statements about him with this email which I have just received. I of course apologize in advance if I am not remembering correctly.

Thank you.

After reading the article, I am more than worried that Campus Carry may not even make it out of that House committee... That would be a setback from last session.

Seems like we need to ramp up the pressure on our representatives and push for all the issues we want and hope we get something. Similar to what the progressives are doing at the federal level. Otherwise, we may be out of luck if we only push for one such as campus carry.

The Annoyed Man wrote:Charles, you more or less defended Joe Strauss's selection as speaker this last time around, or at least that is how I recollect it. Can you please reconcile this for me? I am having a lot of trouble understanding how and why a cheezeball like Strauss could continue to keep his stranglehold on the office if he is so widely distrusted; and I am having trouble reconciling my recollections of your previous statements about him with this email which I have just received. I of course apologize in advance if I am not remembering correctly.

Thank you.

Last session, the Speaker helped get a critical bill passed when time was running out. SB766, the range protection bill, would have died were it not for Joe Straus.

Campus-carry died because of the back-stabbing by certain Senators and not because of anything in the House. As everyone knows, the opposition to campus-carry was strong and House Members didn't want to vote on a bill that had no chance of passing the Senate, so then Chairman Miller delayed the committee hearing until it was too late to hit the House floor for debate. Speaker Straus was blamed for killing campus-carry and that wasn't the case; it died because of what happened in the Senate.

This session is a new day and I'm not at all happy about the makeup of the House Calendars Committee or the appointment of an El Paso Democrat as Chairman of the most important committee for gun owners. I won't blame Straus for a bad result he didn't cause (last session), nor will I pull punches for problems he created this session.

As I noted in the article, only time will tell if the House Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee or the Calendars Committee are going to cause Texas gun owners to be denied passage of a number of important bills and whether innocent Texans are going to die because those in power in the House blocked critical bills.

I cannot go into detail now, but we need a much larger response to the membership drive for the Texas Firearms Coalition to support an effort to prevent this problem in 2015. We can't wait until the next legislative session, the next election, or even the end of this session. Join TFC now!

Chas.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:Join TFC now!

Chas.

Done!

Dad24GreatKids wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote:Join TFC now!

Chas.

Done!

I also just joined

Charles L. Cotton wrote:<SNIP>
I cannot go into detail now, but we need a much larger response to the membership drive for the Texas Firearms Coalition to support an effort to prevent this problem in 2015. We can't wait until the next legislative session, the next election, or even the end of this session. Join TFC now!

Chas.

Done. I apologize that the donation couldn't be larger.

Dragonfighter wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote:<SNIP>
I cannot go into detail now, but we need a much larger response to the membership drive for the Texas Firearms Coalition to support an effort to prevent this problem in 2015. We can't wait until the next legislative session, the next election, or even the end of this session. Join TFC now!

Chas.

Done. I apologize that the donation couldn't be larger.

Any donations are appreciated, but please don't let this be a barrier to joining TFC. Seriously folks, membership is free for a reason; we need to be huge to have the impact we need in Austin and perhaps even on the federal level in terms of Texans sent to Washington. So don't let anyone decide not to join because they can't make a donation.

I'll be very candid; with over 12,000 Members here on the Forum alone, we've only had 185 people join TFC. I truly appreciate those who have joined and who are willing to answer calls-to-action, but if this is indicative of the level of complacency among gun owners in Texas, then I am not optimistic we will become the political power base I had hoped. We will have 700,000 Texas CHL's soon, we sell over 1 million hunting licenses in Texas, and we have many thousands of competitive shooters in addition to countless millions of casual shooters or "plinkers." Every single one of these people need to get involved! If we lose the battle to save the Second Amendment and to further gun rights here in Texas, it won't be because of our opposition; it will be because gun owners simply didn't get involved. They will have waited for the other guy to grab the fire bucket and put out the fire. The house is burning folks and we need everyone's help!

In spite of all of this, TSRA has, and has traditionally had, around 40,000 members and over half of them have been life members for decades. In spite of what we face, TSRA isn't growing. That may be in part because TSRA does much more than the political work that Alice Tripp does. This must be done in order to be the state affiliate of the NRA. State affiliates must sponsor matches and state championships, promote hunting and youth programs. All of those activities are necessary to encourage people to become active gun owners. In fact, the legislative work is a small part of TSRA's overall operation. (That's the primary reason I started the Texas Firearms Coalition.)

The NRA is growing dramatically, more than ever before in our history, but in spite of the threats we face, we're still only around 5 million strong. The NRA should already be at 10 million to 20 million and growing.

Some may ask "why is it so important to have membership numbers so much larger when we've been so successful in the past?" Sadly, the answer to that question began with the slaughter of 20 precious, innocent 6 year old children at Sandy Hook Elementary School. This was a watershed moment for anti-freedom, anti-gunners who were already poised to launch the attack on the Second Amendment we are currently seeing. As I noted in my article The Great Cultural War Against American Freedom, this was already planned for many months prior to the massacre, but Sandy Hook gave them not one but 20 poster children. This was a sea-change moment folks and too many people think "this too will pass." This threat won't pass, it must be defeated and only huge membership in our organizations will make victory possible. We can never match the unlimited funding of the Obama-Bloomberg Coalition that currently exceeds $1 billion. Every day we see more anti-gun propaganda. Ch. 11 News (Houston) showed a new anti-gun clip filmed by a collection of former Dallas Cowboys clambering for gun control. This TV spot was paid for my Bloomber's MAIG liars. This anti-gun movement is larger, stronger, more well-funded than anything we've ever faced and it isn't going to die on it's own. Unless we kill it with membership numbers that terrify those in Washington and, at some point in the no-so-distant future, Austin, we will lose this battle.

Wringing our hands and proclaiming "they'll never take my guns" isn't going to win this battle folks. Everyone needs to get involved and that means gather under two banners -- the NRA (for federal and Texas issues) and TFC (for Texas).

Chas.

Someone please repost the link and/or the thread that Charles sent for sign up.

Well said Charles. One thing I see is that no matter how many organizations I join or how active I become in politics (State Delegate in Dallas), Tea Party member, NRA, PTA, etc, there seems to be very little progress, the progressives control most everything and the leaders of these fine conservative organizations are confused at best. Very few times do they actually listen to their members or constituents.

Wodathunkit wrote:Someone please repost the link and/or the thread that Charles sent for sign up.

https://www.texasfirearmscoalition.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks,
Chas.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:I'll be very candid; with over 12,000 Members here on the Forum alone, we've only had 185 people join TFC.

Joined. Will put link on FB to encourage others to join.

I re-joined and donated.

Thanks, Charles, for all you do for us.

Rather than just posting on my Facebook timeline or sending private messages, I am posting messages encouraging friends to join directly on their timelines so they and their friends will see it. Hope this is fruitful.