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Birdwell: No for lawmakers’ special gun privilege

By Mike Ward | Monday, May 9, 2011, 01:55 PM

Updated at 1:55 p.m.: Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, just released the following statement on why he voted against allowing lawmakers to carry their concealed weapons in additional places:

“Today, I voted against the Committee Substitute to Senate Bill 905. As a strong proponent of Second Amendment rights, I could not in good conscience grant myself a privilege that I had failed to first grant law-abiding citizens. Concealed handgun license holders are allowed to carry almost everywhere they go. In my judgment, if we are going to expand when and where Texans can legally carry a concealed firearm, we should start with our citizens — not our lawmakers.”

Earlier: Without debate, the Texas Senate today approved a bill to allow lawmakers to carry concealed handguns anywhere, even in places where average Texans cannot.

At a time when legislation allowing concealed-handgun license holders to carry their pistols inside buildings on university and college campuses is stalled, and may not pass, Senate Bill 905 was approved 25-6 in just a matter of minutes.

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said the measure that would allow legislators, statewide elected officials, some former legislators and some state employees to carry their concealed weapons in bars, churches and hospitals and at sporting events and other places they are currently prohibited — including businesses that post signs outside saying concealed handguns are prohibited.

“This bill is really about logistics,” Patrick said earlier, when the bill was approved by a Senate committee. “We go from one place to another — maybe five or six places in one evening for functions and events — and we may be faced with either leaving (guns) in the car or taking them inside and violating the law.

“This bill is just to solve that problem.”

Under current law, the more than 461,000 Texans with concealed handgun licenses can carry their weapons in most places, but not at sporting events, in church, at hospitals or in “drinking establishments,” among other locations, including private property where signs prohibit handguns.

Federal and state judges, district attorneys and assistant district attorneys, and county attorneys and assistant county attorneys are exempted from that rule. And Patrick said statewide elected officials and legislators should be exempted, too.

The bill would include former legislators, from the time they leave office until they renew their concealed handgun license, perhaps for nearly four years, and select Department of Public Safety officials who have a handgun license but are not certified peace officers who can carry a pistol everywhere.

The six who voted against the bill were an eclectic mix: Sens. Brian BIrdwell, R-Granbury; Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth; Rodney Ellis, D-Houston; Steve Ogden, R-Bryan; Jose Rodriuguez, D-El Paso, and Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio.

Wentworth, by the way, is the author of the campus-carry bill.

“I guess we were the only ones paying attention,” Ellis said.

The elite always take care of themselves.

They award themselves another perk, or 'entitlement', while railing against entitlements.

I guess their reasoning is that their safety is important. Gee, as strange as it may seem, that's kind of how I feel about myself and my family also........