TexasCHLforum.com

http://www.kvue.com/news/local/183938391.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is an article about comments Monday by Gov. Perry on the arming of teachers, the ability of CHL holders to carry their guns legally anywhere, etc.

A couple of thoughts:

School districts in Texas currently have legal authority to allow employees to carry concealed handguns, if I'm not mistaken. Should we interpret the governor's comments as an effort to "jawbone" districts into exercising that authority, or as evidence of new legislation in that area, or something else?

The governor also said that CHL holders should be able to take their handguns wherever they want, subject to the wishes of private property owners. Are we to interpret that to mean that we are likely to see legislation reducing the number of places, particularly public property, where CHL holders are prohibited from carrying?

We are likely to see legislation reducing the number places where CHL holders are prohibited from carrying.

Gov Perry has said this before. I don't think this means anything new, but I do expect this to be a very dynamic legislative session.

FWIW, I attended the Tea Party event referred to in the article. There were several reps (Klick, Capriglione, Stickland, Krauss, Zedler and I think one other) and one Senator who lives in this town (Hancock) and they all spoke about their plans for the 83rd session. Most of their comments were generalities although there were a few specific topics covered and even a few bills mentioned (Klick said she has already pre-filed a campus carry bill but I was unable to speak with her and haven't found any info about it yet).

I think most, if not all of them, commented on gun control and the ridiculous notion that a chunk of metal is somehow responsible for evil. Perry had great things to say about gun rights and in the Q&A session towards the end (I think the question was about gun control in response to the CT shooting), he mentioned that he would like to see gun owners be able to carry anywhere in the state. He added the bit about property rights a few seconds later as an afterthought and said that of course, property owners have the right to prohibit anyone from their property. What I took away from his answer was that a number of public places (college!) are currently off limits and he wants to reduce them. IIRC, this is also where he made the comment that if a teacher or other school official has a CHL (or permission from the school board/officials) they should certainly be able to carry.

We had a chance to write down questions on a card beforehand, my question:

As a CHL holder and a 24 year old student, I must disarm myself before entering a building on campus. It's ridiculous that one moment I'm a law-abiding citizen, and the next moment, due to a slight geographic change, I'm suddenly a felon. In the 82nd legislature, we made good progress to return 2nd amendment rights to students but unfortunately, it was not good enough. Do you plan to propose, or support such legislation in this coming session?

Unfortunately the opposite of what should happen is what usually happens.
Gun free zones are where these mass shootings always happen and the result of this most recent tragedy will be more no gun zones.

For what little its worth, I sent a message to the Office of the Governor of Texas asking him to publicly pledge to not waste any Texas resources in the infringement of the rights of otherwise law-abiding Texans if new gun control legislation is passed by Congress and, of course, signed into law. I pointed out that the proposed legislation has the potential to create untold thousands of felons merely by designating the currently legal physical property of otherwise law-abiding citizens as being illegal to possess. The whole thing stinks of ex post facto...

oldtexan wrote:School districts in Texas currently have legal authority to allow employees to carry concealed handguns, if I'm not mistaken. Should we interpret the governor's comments as an effort to "jawbone" districts into exercising that authority, or as evidence of new legislation in that area, or something else?

I think they mean as much as his similar comments before but I wouldn't mind him proving me wrong now that he's not running for POTUS.

KC5AV wrote:We are likely to see legislation reducing the number places where CHL holders are prohibited from carrying.

Any idea if this would apply to carry at work?

I, too, was at the meeting where Gov. Perry spoke. His words mirrored the blog that Charles posted.
viewtopic.php?f=125&t=60485

I suspect that we are now in the hands of the Speaker of the Texas House, whoever that might be.
Personally, I'm not as comfortable if that is Strauss, based on the last session but if there is enough
grass roots support for the change, he may have to allow the bill on the calendar.

It would be ironic to see the Feds try to impose stricter gun control while Texas further relaxes the prohibited places.