With the ballots counted in the Republican run-off elections at the end of May, the race is on to become Texas’s new junior U.S. Senator.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ended John Cornyn’s quarter-century incumbency, taking 63.8% of the run-off votes.
In reality, Cornyn ended his time in office all by himself when he sold out to Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy and helped send the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to Joe Biden in 2022.
Paxton comes with a bit of baggage, so gunners and 2A advocates are paying close attention to Texas State Representative James Talarico, the Democratic Party nominee.
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On Monday, June 8, Talarico had a conversation with Houston attorney Dan Cogdell. Among the topics was Talarico’s position on gun control:
“So, um, and then you mentioned guns. I am a believer in the Second Amendment. I don’t pick and choose between the Bill of Rights.
“I believe in the Second Amendment just as much as I believe in the first. We have a right to bear arms, to protect ourselves, our families. We have a right to own weapons for sport or for hunting.
“But like any freedom in the Bill of Rights, it’s not absolute. Um, you have a freedom of speech, but you can’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded building.¹ Um, you have a freedom to assemble, to protest, but you you need a permit uh before you go, you know, start a rally on a street corner somewhere.²
“The same is true for our Second Amendment. We’ve got to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals. We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got safe storage laws and and background checks so that we’re keeping everybody safe.
“My my granddad, my grandpa Talarico, taught me how to shoot in Harper, Texas on his ranch. And the thing he emphasized the most was safety. How to how to operate a firearm safely.
“And so I think that’s a common value that we all share in this conversation is how do we how do we defend and protect the Second Amendment while also keeping everyone safe. And it’s going to be a balance.
“Uh, but right now, we have we have extremes on this issue. We have people on the left who are trying to take away people’s guns and we have people on the right uh like the NRA, that don’t want to see any regulations. And so what I’m looking for is kind of a middle path, a common sense path to defend our constitutional rights and also protect our safety.”
When he was campaigning for the nomination, Talarico had a “town hall” meeting on YouTube channels Twobilee and Jubilee. He added in the obligatory mention of Uvalde but, like most Democrats, neglected to mention the scandalous law enforcement response.
So Talarico talks the talk. In fact, he tries to hit every Democrat talking point. But does he really walk the walk?
In the 2018 midterm elections, Talarico was elected to the first of four terms as a member of the Texas House of Representatives. That was the 86th session of the Texas Legislature and gun rights and gun control were hot topics. The session included the first big push for constitutional carry (I wrote a white paper supporting James Stickland’s HB 357).
Talarico authored three gun-related bills in that first session. All three died in committee.
The 87th Session was the one in which both constitutional carry and Second Amendment Sanctuary bills became law. The 88th Session was the first after Uvalde. Both sessions had lots of gun control bills introduced, but Talarico didn’t author any of them.
His final gun-related bill was HB 5025, which would have prohibited the carrying of guns and other weapons in public libraries. Like his earlier bills, HB 5025 died in committee.
Based on everything we’ve seen, James Talarico will be a faithful gun-grabber if Texas voters send him to the Senate in November.
The silver lining in Talarico’s victory is the fact he knocked outspoken loose cannon Jasmine Crockett out of the running.
One thing Ken Paxton will need to counter Democrat claims is Texas’s outcomes after constitutional carry went into effect in September 2021.
According to data from the FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety, the state’s violent crime rate is down 13 percent, the aggravated assault rate dropped about nine percent, and the murder rate plunged 26 percent. These are all better than the national improvements.
1. Nonsense! There is nothing to prevent you from yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater, especially if there is actually a fire. There are unpleasant consequences only if your alarm is a joke or intended to create a panic and then only after you’ve done it.
2. Once again, this is a false equivalency. If you own a piece of property large enough to hold a demonstration, you don’t need a a government permit. It’s only when your group wants to use public property, like a park or street, that a permit might be required, and that’s so the permitting authority can allocate resources, such as cordoning off the area or providing police services. The right to keep and bear arms is the only Enumerated Right a citizen has to get government permission before it can be exercised. With all the other rights, the assumption is that you won’t misuse or abuse the right (innocent until proven guilty). When it comes to Second Amendment rights, the assumption is that you will .
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About Bill Cawthon
Bill Cawthon first became a gun owner 55 years ago. He has been an active advocate for Americans’ civil liberties for more than a decade. He is the information director for the Second Amendment Society of Texas.
Meanwhile, in sunny South Carolina, Lindseypoo Graham, endorsed by his golfing buddy, DJT, is set to be our Senator for another six LONG years. Any one of his primary opponents would have been better for our state and our nation, but Lindseypoo isn’t even facing a run-off. Thanky President Trump!