Constitutional Carry In Texas Dies On The Grounds of Alleged Intimidation

Opinion

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)-Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen declared Constitutional Carry legislation dead after he claimed that members of the gun activist group “Texas Gun Rights” showed up at his house when only his wife and children were home.

Chris McNutt, executive director of Texas Gun Rights vehemently denied Bonnen’s charges claiming that the group was just putting flyers on doors that were encouraging the citizens of Texas to contact their representatives to ask why Constitutional Carry legislation has stalled in the House.

Texas Gun Rights is an affiliate of the National Association For Gun Rights and evidenced by their link to NAGR on their website (see image). The National Association For Gun Rights is false-flag money-collecting organization run by Dudley Brown and has been involved in derailing other pro-gun bills in states like Colorado over the years. AmmoLand News has warned our readers about this group and its many state affiliates over the years.

“The fear and intimidation used to push this agenda have made it clear this is bad public policy,” Bonnen said in a Facebook post. “These gutless intimidation tactics only embolden me to continue strengthening the rights of law abiding gun owners and keep firearms out of the hands of criminals.”

McNutt responded to Bonnen in his own Facebook post stating: “He is trying to paint the simple act of leaving a flyer on the doors of hundreds of his constituents and donors – asking them to contact their legislators to support a bill– is somehow an act of intimidation.”

Bonnen, a Republican, also accused the gun rights group of going to the house of Rep. Dustin Burrows and posting the street address on Social Media of Rep. Four Price. AmmoLand could not locate a post by Texas Gun Rights nor McNutt that showed anyone’s address. It is possible that these posts were deleted.

AmmoLand inquired to whether the families called the police on the activist, but none of the Representatives answered our questions at the time press. Local police were unable to verify any police calls for the alleged actions of Texas Gun Rights.

The Texas State Rifle Association released a statement condemning the alleged actions of the activist group on their website: “We condemn the inexcusable actions of a fringe gun group who recently resorted to harassment of lawmakers, their staff and their families to such an extent that the Texas Department of Public Safety became involved.”

Bonnen said lawmakers “have been incessantly harassed by fanatical gun rights activists who want to eradicate sensible gun policies.” He noted that Texas Gun Rights wants to put guns in the hands of criminals.

 

“I have always been at the forefront of strengthening Texans’ 2nd Amendment rights, as exhibited by my 100% voting record with the NRA,” Bonnen stated in a Facebook post. “I supported legislation giving every citizen the ability to receive their license to openly carry, and believe that repealing these laws – as fringe activists want –would make it impossible for law enforcement to distinguish between law abiding gun owners and criminals.”

Four months ago, The Texas House referred to the Constitutional Carry bill to the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee where it has stalled. Bonnen appointed Democrat Poncho Nevárez to chair the committee.

The bill was supposed to get a hearing last Wednesday, but Nevárez canceled it at the last minute. According to Democrats, the proposed law change will no longer get a hearing in the committee leading many to believe he is using the situation to kill the bill.

“I wasn’t canceling the hearing. I was postponing it,” Nevárez said. “But … once they started harassing, one, the speaker, and then these other representatives for no good reason, then I think it’s incumbent upon me not to reward bad behavior or make them believe that somehow this harassment led to me giving them a hearing.”

As of now Constitutional Carry in the Lone Star state is dead thanks to Republicans and the interference of TGR/NAGR.

None of the parties involved responded to AmmoLand’s request for comments by the time of publishing.

About John Crump

John is an NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot-News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.