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Charles L. Cotton wrote:I started to respond to specific posts, but it's better to do so in a general post. I understand people's frustration about the number of gun bills that will be passed this session. I share that frustration, especially concerning HB560 that I have promoted for 10 years. I don't have a problem with people expressing their frustrations, as I plan to do after the session is over. However, if you care about passing as many bills as possible in the closing days of the session, then hold your complaints until after the session closes. There is a critical bill that still has a chance and that will help gun owners dramatically. The last thing we need is for pro-gun legislators to get the opinion that the 2A community is going to blast them regardless of what happens in the next few days. (I'm talking about SB349 that doesn't change Texas law but clarifies it so dishonest local officials can't abuse and avoid current Texas law.)

Some argue that we should get anything and everything we want when we want it, because we have a super majority. While that's true, not every Republican puts gun issues at the top of their agendas. Not all of their constituents place 2A issues at the top of their lists. The people they elect must/should address the issues their constituents want by filing and working bills on many different topics. Many conservative groups are making the same argument, "why didn't we get everything we wanted?"

Last session saw the expenditure of many years worth of political capital and good will passing campus-carry and open-carry in one session. It wasn't easy for us or for legislators since it put friend against friend, especially with campus-carry. We knew before the 2017 Texas legislative session began that this was not going to be a "gun session." We have passed a bill that will make it possible for many millions of Texans to be able to afford to get and renew an LTC. SB16 wasn't front-page news and it didn't have the sex appeal of open-carry or campus-carry, but it will impact far more people. If we can pass SB349 discussed above, then those two bills alone would make 2017 a successful session, albeit without the number of bills we've passed in prior sessions. (This is especially true in light of the number of anti-gun bills filed that we were able to kill.)

I have to admit that my responses to some posts were less than statesmanlike and for that I apologize. While I share your frustration at seeing good bills die without even a hearing, I am also frustrated at some of our Members who make it clear that they believe that the session would have been more successful, if we had taken a firebrand approach. (That has worked so well for people and organizations that have relied upon that approach this session and in past sessions.) In some ways, people get spoiled to success and expect even better things in each successive session. That's not the way it works. At the end of the day, it's still politics. Whether you feel that is a dirty word or not, that's the reality we face.

To those I offended, I again apologize. I also ask you to consider how your comments are interpreted not just by me, but others who have fought for gun owners for years. Attacking your champions, either directly or by implication, doesn't motivate us. It makes us want to say "to heck with it, let's go fishing."

Chas.