HOUSTON, TEXAS –-(Ammoland.com)- Did Texas Gun Sense submit a letter to the Texas legislature with forged signatures to oppose Constitutional Carry?
That is what some of the instructors listed on the letter sent by license to carry (LTC) instructor and Texas Gun Sense board member Raul Camacho are claiming.
The letter which AmmoLand News obtained allegedly showed a group of 54 LTC instructors that opposed the current Texas Constitutional Carry bill that just passed the House and is on the way to the Senate. The letter claimed that the Constitutional Carry (permitless carry) bill would make the state less safe and hurt the instructors financially by removing the requirements that residents take classes to conceal carry a firearm.
Fabricated The Signatures?
Although most instructors listed on the letter did admit to signing it, there is still a good number that claims they didn’t sign the letter or were hoodwinked into signing onto the letter. It could be these instructors are seeing the damaging blowback to their businesses and are going into damage control mode, or it could be that the Texas Gun Sense or Raul Camacho of Safety Measures, LLC fabricated the signatures?
One person listed in the letter is Chris Reitsma of Texas Carry Academy. I spoke to Mr. Reitsma, who was adamant he supports Constitutional Carry and is currently looking into how his name got onto the letter. Looking into Reitsma’s background, it is clear that he does support Constitutional Carry. Reitsma also states he believes in “no compromise” and wants a more substantial Constitutional Carry bill.
We were able to verify that Reitsma has spoken in favor of Constitutional Carry on at least four different occasions. It also seems that Mr. Reitsma worked for Constitutional Carry in other states such as Oklahoma. It would be very odd if Reitsma would suddenly be against Constitutional Carry in Texas after supporting it in the past.
According to Julian Lozano of Brazos Tactical, LLC, he did not sign the letter either. He says all he did was reply to the email was “thank you” with his information. Mr. Lozano states he does not oppose the bill. It is feasible Camacho could have misunderstood the reply.
Michael Gamber of Revolver Mom, Inc. said although he did receive an email from Mr. Camacho, he never responded and never authorized his name to be used for anything. He is not sure why Camacho emailed him to sign the letter. Mr. Gamber assured me that he supports Constitutional Carry and would like to see it pass. After a long conversation with Gamber, we were not able to detect any insincerity.
It appears that Camacho contacted most of the LTC instructors in Texas. The Lone Star State publishes a spreadsheet on the web of every LTC instructor’s contact information. It is feasible that Texas Gun Sense or Camacho got the info from the spreadsheet, but AmmoLand News could not confirm the source used to contact the instructors.
Although many instructors listed on the letter distanced themselves from the effort to defeat Constitutional Carry, a few admitted to opposing the bill and stood by their decision. Clifton Paul of Ultimate Response Cons., LLC, Marc Foster, and Allan Garonzik all said they signed the letter.
AmmoLand reached out to Raul Camacho several times. Mr. Camacho did not comment on the accusations of the LTC instructors above but did ask if we were “for or against it” in our state/s.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. 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 can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
If you don’t truly support shall not be infringed then . You are more dangerous than anti gun tyrants.
Excellent work, John.
“It could be these instructors are seeing the damaging blowback to their businesses and are going into damage control mode.”
^This
Deny, deny, deny, the Pincus walk-back is alive and well in the Lone Star State.
The communists are at work.
Hum. Some of those sound like the old, “Pincus” response.
Anyone who opposes Constitutional Carry based on their own economic interest is a scumbag who should be ostracized from the firearms community. Same with FFL holders who want more background checks and prohibitions to private sales, because they stand to make a buck. Government licensing is all about creating an uneven playing field.
Someone needs to file a lawsuit for defamation and Libel.
WTF is wrong with these people. Teach proper gun handling and cleaning. You don’t need to just teach CCW classes.
Get a life. You can make money doing anything in this country just ask the rioters and looters. Don’t whine and complain about something that should not even need to be put through the house and senate. Your Second Amendment rights should allow this already in all 50 states.
Progressive opponents to our liberty will stoop to any level of malfeasance to subvert our liberty. This may be one such case. Excellent REPORTING. So sad you would never get a job at NYT, CNN or MSDNC. You are a real journalist.
Arkansas had it’s list of whiners when it came to “constitutional carry” too. The Arkansas State Police and many instructors who were going to loose that extra “money” for their instruction classes. ASP had the money going into a slush fund for retired officers from what I understand.
I’m wondering if Camacho would be on the hook for impersonating another individual.