TSRA

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I sent the following email to Alice Tripp, Mrs. Tripp is the head of the Legislative PAC for the TSRA. I actually did receive a response, and needless to say, I will be withdrawing my membership from the TSRA.

I then received this reply at 8:20 a.m. today 12/26/2008:

Dear Eric Thank you for your email and thank you for your thoughts. First of all let me tell you that TSRA already has a full legislative agenda and most of it carried over from the last legislative session. The #1 issue is to allow gun owners to have their legally owned possessions (their firearms) in their personal locked vehicles on their employer's parking lot without fear of being fired. This will be the third session this issue will be taken on and nothing comes before it. Why should a CHL with training and a background check be left without protection for the biggest part of the day? The #2 issues is a commitment we made to college and university students (Students for Concealed Carry on Campus) in the spring of 2007 after Virginia Tech to work to allow adult students and faculty with a CHL to carry on campus in places currently off limits. As an example let me tell you there were 12 violent on-campus rapes reportedat the University of Texas in 2007.God knows how manywent un-reported. Opencarry went away in Texas post-Civil Warwhen the prohibition was put into statute and has stayed that way since the late 1870s.It took nearly 10 years for Texans to pass concealed carry, 5 sessions, and during that time the Legislature debated whether to include open carry in the license. After debate and after public testimony, they chose to limit the license to concealed. Last sessionTSRA passed legislation finally clarifyingthatany eligible adult can have a loaded handgun in theirpersonal vehicle for protection. Your car became an extension of your home and this is without a license.You may remember that as the "travelers" law.Session after session the legislature tried to define "traveling" and finally we just gave up and went to a different section of the law, PC 46.02 instead of PC 46.15.The courts had urged theLegislature to make this clarification since the 1880 also, when there were no cars andno roads. We found people who had been arrested just trying to get home with a recently purchased handgun. So let me be clear.No state has ever passed stand-alone open carry legislation, ever.Asmall number of states have permissive open carry.This was historically in their law or in theirstates' constitution. This"movement" isn't like concealed carry where NRA worked with state associations and one by one passed legislation. NRA is not working on open carry and at present neither is TSRA for all the reasons and commitments stated above. Last session, TSRA managed to pass 8 or the 9 bills we worked on. The one "that got away" was the parking lot issue.It pits pro-gun Texans againstthe entire business community. Again, thanks for your email. Sincerely Alice Tripp Legislative Director & Lobbyist Texas State Rifle Association


At least she could have spelled my name correctly.

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***Follow up***

I sent the following response just now to the email from TSRA:

Mrs. Tripp, Thank you for your quick response to my email. I would like to address a couple of items in the response you sent me however. "No state has ever passed stand-alone open carry legislation, ever.Asmall number of states have permissive open carry." With all due respect ma'am that is incorrect, in fact 42 states have either, licensed, unlicensed, anomalous, or at the very least rural carry. Texas is one of only 8 states that prohibit by statue the legal open carry of handguns. I will assume from your response that the official position of the TSRA is to not support OC legislation. I thank you for your time, and will be contacting TSRA membership and be withdrawing my membership, my Son's, as well as my Father-in-law's. I have also published these emails on the http://www.opencarry.org website. No information has been omitted or edited. Have a nice day.

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First let me say I in no way am trying to tell you what you should do. I would just like to throw something out to consider.



Analogy: I would like for you to put the Open Carry activities you have been so diligently supporting on the back burner so that you can support my (and several thousand others) cause to eliminate restrictions on automatic weapons. Now, I’m sure you can agree this is a noble cause, but is it really fair for me to ask you to put aside your also noble cause to focus on my priorities?



TSRA has done a lot of good things for Texas firearm owners, and continues to do so. They have plainly stated OC is not on their priority list right now; given the reason why, and also explained what their priorities are – which by the way are also noble causes. My belief is they are responding to the wishes of their members, which thus far have not made OC a priority. TSRA has also stated they would not oppose OC if we got it to the floor. And I hope nothing happens to change their mind on this.



So, instead of dropping memberships, an alternative approach might be to get more like-mind folks to be TSRA members so that we can make OC a priority. I have little doubt but they would be aggressively supporting OC if the majority of TSRA members requested it.



By the way, I am not currently nor have I ever been a member of TSRA. But it seems like I need to correct that soon. I would much rather join forces for a common goal than count them as an adversary.



As always, your mileage may vary.



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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A few comments...

First, I pretty much agree with Conagher on this one...

Secondly, I believe that only 6 states are completely illegal to carry in. (not the 8 you mention)

Thirdly, "No state has ever passed stand-alone open carry legislation, ever." What about Virginia? Isn't this EXACTLY what they did? Since you have already established a conversation with TSRA, you might want to put together a well informed, but short and sweet, letter to them pointing out the fallacy of that statement.

Last but not least, you might want to re-ask your question reworded slightly to determine if their 'lack of support' is simply based on the fact that they do not have the time or the resources to actively pursue OCTX, yet would, on principal, support the issue if it hits the table. In other words, is their position:
1) We are opposed to Open Carry in Texas. OR
2) We agree that OC would be a good thing for Texas and will publicly voice support for it if such legislation were introduced, however, we simply do not have the time or resources to put this on OUR priority agenda list at the moment.

If '1', then withdraw of support from TSRA may be the appropriate action, however,
If '2', then the 'High Road' may be for more of us to join the ranks of TSRA and push gently to get OCTX on the priority agenda as it gains momentum.

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I wonder why they won't simply say that they support it? That's all we are asking. We, or rather I, don't expect them to lobby or spend any other political capital on this issue. Could it be that they are ready to torpedo us and then jump on board for the next session to be able to say "Look what we did"? I mean, how hard could it beand what damage could it do to simply give it averbal thumbs up. I think they'vegot a snake up their sleeve.

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What I see in general from a variety of "gun organizations" is a lot of jostling for position on who's "gun thing" will get the attention of the legislature. Seems like everyone is afraid that only one new piece of gun legislation will be passed or "put up with". Is there any legitimate reason for this or is this just the kind of thing we as educated gun owners have to deal with from our elected officials? Why do we have to be scared of them?

For some reason it reminds me of an abused spouse or child tip-toeing on egg shells hoping to ask the Ogre of the house for lunch money without receiving a beating :? That's not how things should work. Isn't this our state?


Ok, sorry, I've had coffee and I'm all riled up. If I seem a bit off key and my post is out of place, apologies.

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Alice was a little more rude in her response to my question. I had intended to cancel my membership as well, but I suppose that getting more like minded people to join would be a better idea. :banghead:

This is what I got:



You quote distorted facts. Not one single state haspassed "stand alone" open carry legislation, either licensed or unlicensed. A recent "demonstration" by GeorgiaCarry.org in the Atlanta airport while the Georgia Legislature was in session netted a backlash. Georgia is on that list of states where open carry is not against the law therefore it must be legal.

The Georgia Legislature was not impressed withnon-law enforcement folks withholstered firearms in their airportand passed legislation prohibiting all firearmson airport property, including those with a concealed handgun license.

The elections of last week did not move us toward more liberal gun laws and political capital will have to be used carefully and thoughtfully.



I could not find any thing about Georgia legislation, only that Atlanta had posted no gun signs at the airport, and that a judge had decided against GeorgiaCarry.org, but nothing about open carry.

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David817 wrote:

A recent "demonstration" by GeorgiaCarry.org in the Atlanta airport while the Georgia Legislature was in session netted a backlash. Georgia is on that list of states where open carry is not against the law therefore it must be legal.

The Georgia Legislature was not impressed withnon-law enforcement folks withholstered firearms in their airportand passed legislation prohibiting all firearmson airport property, including those with a concealed handgun license.

Click to expand...

Huh? Alice Tripp is completely wrong - the Georgia legislature legalized open cand concealed carry in restaurants serving alcohol and airports and other venues in 2008. A lawsuit asking for an injunction against Atlanta's threat to violate the news state law and arrest gun owners was denied by a district court and is on appeal.

Can somebody email Alice on this? Thanks.

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This kind of protectionist, insider politics, "we won't say 'boo' unless the NRA tells us to" is why I kept holding off on a TSRA membership. I had just about decided to join this year, then got fed up with being lied to by one of the big "insiders".

I even left a major Texas concealed carry forum over it. I didn't throw a fit, I just left and haven't been back.

Mike & John know who I'm talking about, and some of his claims giving NRA credit for things done by other groups, and led by other people.

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Thanks, Mike. I couldn't remember the details, but I did remember that it had nothing to do with OC. I also e-mailed Jim Dark (TSRA Director), but I didn't even get a response. I wonder why I gave these people money. I originally contacted Alice Tripp prior to making a contribution to the TSRAPAC, but after her reply, I made another to OCDO. On a different topic, instead of the expensive window banners, why don't we offer bumper stickers on the website? That would be an inexpensive way to help get the word out.