By Dean Weingarten
Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- The campus carry bill passed the last hurdles in the Texas House and Texas Senate today, 31 May, 2015.
The bill was significantly altered during the debates in the House and in the conference committee, primarily because it was held up in the House calendars committee until near the end of the legislative session.
This gave the minority of House Democrats leverage to insert restrictive amendments as a trade off to running out the clock.
House Speaker Joe Straus is widely given responsibility for control of the Calendars committee; he appointed the members, who are seen as Straus loyalists. In 2013, Straus gathered 11 Republicans and at least 65 Democrats to seize the Speaker’s position. In 2015 Straus was elected to the Speakership with only 19 opposing votes, though Wikipedia states that it was the first recorded vote for speaker since 1976. Speaker Straus has great control over what bills pass, and what bills die in committee. In his first term as speaker, it is reported that more Democrat bills become law than Republican bills.
The campus carry bill, SB11 is expected to be signed by Governor Abbot in a few days, but the provisions of the law will not go into effect until August 1, 2016 for four year colleges, and August 1, 2017 for Junior colleges.
SB 11 allows officers in colleges to create rules and regulations for the concealed carry of handguns by license holders. Those have to be presented to the governing body, such as a Board of Reagents. This language was added in the conference committee, and seems to dilute the effect of SB 11 even more than the House amendments, which did not give administrative officers in colleges this power, but required a 2/3 vote by governing bodies.
It is hard to be sure exactly how the law will come out, as I have yet to see a final version of the text that will be sent to Governor Abbott.
It is a win for second amendment supporters. A Texasguntalk forum member said that it was a “toe in the door“.
Open carry is still prohibited on college campuses.
30.06 signs will be required where concealed carry by license holders is forbidden.
The passage of campus carry seems almost a by-product of the social movement to restore second amendment rights know as “open carry”.
The movement became the strongest social movement in Texas since the Civil Rights era, as over 2,500 open carry marches were organized and conducted all around Texas. The movement created activists that defeated many Republicans and some Democrats, leading to the supermajorities of Republicans in the House and the Senate, and to the landslide victory of conservative Republicans around the state.
Activists eagerly watched the play by play of State politics on live feed over the internet, and were outraged at each motion and vote that they saw as vindication of their mistrust of politicians and the legislative process. With each vote and procedure, the phone lines and email servers lit up with activists applying pressure to their representatives and senators.
I am convinced that it was grass roots activism that pushed this bill through, as flawed as it finally was. The education that those activists received during this legislative session will not go away. It is all recorded for posterity, and it will have effects on the next election cycle and the next legislative session.
A powerful pro-gun political force has been created, and will have effects on Texas politics for decades.
c2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch
About Dean Weingarten;
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
The TSRA couldn’t find their ass without begging funds first. For years we’ve waited for the TSRA to get us open carry, you failed like the NRA. you’ve become a bunch of elitist snobs looking down you noses at the average gun owners who don’t fit your profile. No money till you get with the program. Open Carry Texas and Texas Carry only!
Dean, I am a native Texan. I watched the gun rights issues from the inside. Without the leadership, expertise, and hard work of the National Rifle Association and the Texas State Rifle Association, these bills would not have based. The “grass roots” movements – Open Carry Texas, Open Carry Tarrant County, and others – did more harm than good. I watched the legislative process, listened to what the legislators said about the OCT and OCTC crowd, and read the transcripts. What eventually won the day was the long term (starting in 2013), effective statesmanship of representatives of the NRA and… Read more »