Urgent Action Items: Parking lots & campus-carry

[Charles L. Cotton]

It's time for us to get to work! I get a lot of PMs and emails every session asking how people can help get our bills passed. The power of the NRA and TSRA lies in our ability to get our members to respond to calls for action with phone calls and faxes at the right time. This will happen periodically throughout the session.

Well, we need your help now. The House and Senate bill authors for both the employer parking lots and campus-carry bills are working hard to get co-authors. Below are links to each bill's authors/ co-authors. Please check to see if your Senator and Representative has "sign-on" to the bill and call to thank them if they have and ask them to do so if they have not. The Senate parking lot bill SB730 needs a lot of help, we have only one co-author. I will include my standard request to be nice and respectful, that's the Texas way. (Hint to foreigners.)

You can identify your Senator and Representative and get their phone numbers from this link. Just fill in the information on the "Who Represents Me?" section. If you already know your Senator and Representative, you can get their phone numbers by clicking here for House Members and here for Senators and clicking on the appropriate name.

Please get your friends and family members to do likewise. For those of you who frequent other forums, it would be helpful if you would post something referring those folks to this post, or copy it in total with a link to this thread. I'll be updating it periodically. I don't have time to go to a lot of other boards now and I need your help so we can get the biggest response possible.

Thanks,
Chas.

Employer Parking Lots

• SB730 (Hegar, R, A+)
  HB1301 (Frost, D, A+)

Campus Security (a/k/a campus-carry)

• SB1164 (Wentworth, A+)
  HB1893 (Driver, A+)

Here are the authors and co-authors signed-on to each bill as of 3/2/09 @ 14:43 This information is provided as a quick reference, but it is strongly suggested that you check the link above to verify your Senator or Representative hasn't signed-on before you contact their offices. I will update this list as often as possible, but I cannot guarantee it is not outdated.

Employer Parking Lot Bills

SB730 Authors/Co-authors

• Primary Author Hegar
  
  Coauthors (1)
  Eltife 02/17/2009

HB1301 Authors/Co-authors

• Primary Author - Frost
  
  Joint Authors
  • Farabee
    Lucio III
    McReynolds
    Driver
  Coauthors (27)
  • Anderson
    Berman
    Bonnen
    Brown, Betty
    Christian
    Crabb
    Davis, John
    Eiland
    Eissler
    Elkins
    England
    Fletcher
    Flynn
    Gattis
    Hardcastle
    Harper-Brown
    Howard, Charlie
    Hughes
    Jackson, Jim
    Kleinschmidt
    Kuempel
    Laubenberg
    Orr
    Riddle
    Sheffield
    Smith, Wayne
    Swinford

Campus-Security Bills (a/k/a campus-carry)

SB1164

• Primary Authors
  • Wentworth
    Deuell
    Eltife
    Estes
    Fraser
    Harris
    Hegar
    Hinojosa
    Lucio
    Patrick, Dan
    Williams

HB1893

• Primary Author - Driver
  
  Joint Authors
  • McReynolds
    Kolkhorst
    Ortiz, Jr.
    Merritt
  
  Coauthors (51)
  • Anderson - 03/02/2009
    Berman - 03/02/2009
    Bohac - 03/03/2009
    Brown, Betty - 03/02/2009
    Button - 03/04/2009
    Callegari - 03/03/2009
    Chisum - 03/02/2009
    Corte - 03/03/2009
    Crabb - 03/03/2009
    Darby - 03/04/2009
    Davis, John - 03/03/2009
    Eissler - 03/04/2009
    England - 03/03/2009
    Fletcher - 03/04/2009
    Flores - 03/03/2009
    Flynn - 03/02/2009
    Frost - 03/04/2009
    Geren - 03/03/2009
    Guillen - 03/04/2009
    Hamilton - 03/04/2009
    Herrero - 03/04/2009
    Hopson - 03/02/2009
    Howard, Charlie - 03/03/2009
    Hunter - 03/05/2009
    Isett - 03/04/2009
    Jackson, Jim - 03/03/2009
    Keffer - 03/05/2009
    King, Phil - 03/02/2009
    King, Tracy O. - 03/02/2009
    Kleinschmidt - 03/03/2009
    Kuempel - 03/03/2009
    Laubenberg - 03/04/2009
    Legler - 03/05/2009
    Lucio III - 03/04/2009
    Madden - 03/02/2009
    Martinez, "Mando" - 03/03/2009
    Miller, Doug - 03/03/2009
    Miller, Sid - 03/05/2009
    Orr - 03/05/2009
    Otto - 03/03/2009
    Paxton - 03/04/2009
    Pena - 03/02/2009
    Phillips - 03/05/2009
    Quintanilla - 03/02/2009
    Riddle - 03/05/2009
    Sheffield - 03/02/2009
    Smith, Wayne - 03/03/2009
    Swinford - 03/05/2009
    Taylor - 03/02/2009
    Truitt - 03/02/2009
    Weber - 03/03/2009

[KC5AV]

I see where my Senator (Eltife) has signed on to both bills, and my Representative (Hughes) has signed on to HB1301. I'll send out a note of thanks for Senator Eltife, and see if I can find out why Hughes hasn't signed on to HB1893.

[Purplehood]

How do you tell which Senators and Representatives have signed onto a particular piece of legislation?

[Charles L. Cotton]

How do you tell which Senators and Representatives have signed onto a particular piece of legislation?

The most accurate way is to click on the bill number, as I have made them links to the bill on the legislative website. I've also added a list of people who have signed-on to each bill, but I can only update it once or twice a day. So it's possible additional people have signed-on that are not on my list. For this reason, I strongly suggest that check the official list before contacting your Senator or Representative.

Chas.

[jrosto]

If your Rep is a Republican, it may help if you remind them that supporting this legislation is part of the party platform:

...We believe the Legislature should enact legislation: allowing: Concealed Handgun License holders to carry concealed weapons on publicly owned institutions of learning; and, preventing employers from prohibiting Concealed Handgun License holders from storing their concealed handgun in their vehicle while on a company parking area, and removing civil liability from property owners who do not prevent Concealed Handgun License holders from carrying on their premises.

A lot of work went into getting this added to the Texas Republican Party Platform, this should lend some weight to our requests.

[cowboymd]

I just called Senator Estes' office in Austin and requested that he sign on as a coauthor for SB730. I also called my Rep for HB1301 and HB1893. I text messaged all the CHL'ers that I know of, where I work, and requested that they make the same calls. This will have a major effect on us since we are forced to travel back and forth to work unarmed at this time due to company policy and the parking lot being posted 30.06. Some of us had already emailed them for support, but a phone call is a little more personable.

[Charles L. Cotton]

We picked up one more House co-author on HB1301 (parking lots) and twelve more co-authors on HB1893 (campus-carry). Great job Rep. Joe Driver!!!

I'm going to include the dates each Senator and Representative signed-on to the bill, but I'll add this only as changes are made.

Chas.

[TrueFlog]

I just got off the phone with Rep. McCall's office. He was in committee meetings, so I left a message with his staff. I tried to hit the talking points on both bills and requested that he consider signing on as a co-author.

As an aside, which do you guys recommend - calling or faxing? I prefer to call because I don't have a fax at home, and I'm not comfortable using the office fax to send long-distance, personal, political faxes. However, I wonder if the rep's staff is really taking notes on my talking points (and how accurate those notes are) or if he's just taking my name and noting my support for the bill.

[TheArmedFarmer]

I talked to Chuck Hopson's secretary and left a message through her for Mr. Hopson. I thanked him for supporting HB1893 and asked him to coauthor HB1301 as well. We actually ended up talking for quite a bit about the parking lot bill and she understood the problem of employees being disarmed between home and work (thus she saw the ultimate value in this bill).

Anyway, she said she'll pass along all the information to Chuck Hopson.

[Greybeard]

In my location, it looks like Senator Harris is a "Sponsor" of the "Campus Security" bill (SB1164). I just spoke with his a rep. in his office who told me that Senator Harris is also a license holder and will be supportive of the Senate's present version of the Employer Parking Lot bill (SB730).

A rep. from Tan Parker's office just returned my phone call, indicating she will mail me something regarding (his position on?) HB1301 and HB1893.

Also e-mailed link to this thread to lots of former students ...

[Luggo1]

I spoke with Robert Duncan's office (Sen. Lubbock) this morning. The staffer read me (it sounded verbatim) a response from Duncan on both 1164 and 730. Duncan has apparently not taken a position, the response included the normal "I respect the 2A" verbage, but that he and the senate as well as the house needed to "examine all the data on both sides" and come together as a legislature to make decisions.

I was very disappointed with the response, though for now I will take him at his word that he hasn't made a decision.

I guess I'm writing another letter today.

[4copas]

I spoke with reps from Senate District 12--Senator Jane Nelson and House District 64--Representative Myra Crownover today by phone call on these 4 bills. Both said they would get the message to them and let me know about support. Hope to see their names on the list.

[oilman]

Just phoned my reps.

I will follow up with letters.

[TrueFlog]

I called Sen. Shapiro today and spoke with a staff member. The young lady said that the senator has not yet taken a position on either bill and is open to input from her constituents. I expressed my support for both bills and followed up with the reasons why. The staff member agreed to pass those along to Sen. Shapiro. (She also noted that "Those are good reasons", but I suspect she was just being friendly, and I don't put too much stock in that.)

If you live in Sen. Shaprio's district and haven't called or written recently, please do so. From what I've heard, she's on the fence, and I'd really like to see her on our side. As Charles noted, we need all the help we can get, especially in the Senate. For the parking lot bill, I know many of our reps are trying to balance the employee's 2A rights against the employer's property rights. I think it's important to remind them that in Texas, we regard a person's vehicle as his private property and an extension of his home. With that mindset, this bill has nothing to do with employer's property rights since the gun never leaves the car (the employee's private property). Moreover, this bill affirms the property rights of the employee, and protects his vehicle (home) from intrusion by his employer.

[Charles L. Cotton]

Rep. Joe Driver, author of campus-security (a/k/a campus-carry) is really working that bill. He now has 51 co-authors!! That's up 8 from Wednesday. That doesn't include the 4 joint authors (that's the limit).

Chas.