Final Pre-bill Push for Texas Open Carry Petition Needs YOU!

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Over 35,000 signatures since I signed on at the end of July, I truly hope Rep. Riddle doesn't let this sit on her desk too long, We need a strong voice, and how much more effective could that possibly be than to have it introduced by one of the fairer sex.
My wife has carried now for the last two years, and she gets a much greater response to her carrying a concealed weapon than I ever have. Now we just have to get those guns out in the open to prevent the crimes that would happen if they were concealed.
A sincere thank you to all involved, Ian, Mike, you two especially have made a HUGE difference, may God smile down on our cause, and grant his favor on our efforts.

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Even though Rep. Riddle isn't my district, I've called her office and got a kind of wishy-washy response. Apparently she "isn't ready to take a stance" on this issue, and when I asked for them to call/mail/email/fax me any information when she *does* decide to take a stance on it, they "have no idea how long it will take until she *does* take a stance."

I've also called the local and capitol offices of Rep. Coleman (D) and Sen. Ellis (D) for my district and asked for a response to the letters I'd already sent them but not received a reply. The staffers didn't seem to know what OC was, so I take it they haven't received any calls about the issue. I believe I managed to impress them *somewhat*, as I was told they'd set up a meeting to discuss the issue. Maybe some folks from the 2A Dems / TX Democrat Gun Owner's Caucus can help out?
http://a2dems.net/

-t

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tico wrote:

Even though Rep. Riddle isn't my district, I've called her office and got a kind of wishy-washy response. Apparently she "isn't ready to take a stance" on this issue, and when I asked for them to call/mail/email/fax me any information when she *does* decide to take a stance on it, they "have no idea how long it will take until she *does* take a stance."

I've also called the local and capitol offices of Rep. Coleman (D) and Sen. Ellis (D) for my district and asked for a response to the letters I'd already sent them but not received a reply. The staffers didn't seem to know what OC was, so I take it they haven't received any calls about the issue. I believe I managed to impress them *somewhat*, as I was told they'd set up a meeting to discuss the issue. Maybe some folks from the 2A Dems / TX Democrat Gun Owner's Caucus can help out?
http://a2dems.net/

-t

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Did you not contact your rep and sen earlier? If so, they should know the deal.

It is extremely important that every person supporting OC in Texas contact THERI rep and sen. Repeatedly. Ask them to take a stand and intro the bill.

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Mike wrote:

Did you not contact your rep and sen earlier? If so, they should know the deal.

It is extremely important that every person supporting OC in Texas contact THERI rep and sen. Repeatedly. Ask them to take a stand and intro the bill.

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Yes, I already sent emails and signed letters (mailed confirmation receipt requested) but had received no replies (except a boilerplate response from Gov. Perry), so I got on the phone today and called everyone.

Minutes ago an aid to Rep Coleman called me back and said that he'd spoken with him, and that his position was that while he *was* in favor of concealed carry rights, he would *not* support a bill for open carry. When I asked for his reasons, the aid told me that it was just his personal opinion, but that he would listen if enough of his constituents raised the issue.

(Not that this is related to OC, but I *separately* asked him to support Guzman's concealed carry on campus bill, and got the same response.)

Still no final response from Sen. Ellis.

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Emailed everyone I know in the state and also made lots of phone calls. I also suggest calling gun shops, gunsmiths, pawn shops etc and see who is supporting it in your area. You can shop accordingly, remember you are spending YOUR money and support like-minded companies. Bonus would be if you can get a new supporter and it will spread from there.

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I am against making this a VOTING issue, but the REPS. and SENATOR seem to want this to be a voting issue. I have been a LIFETIME member of the NRA since I was 21 and am now 58. The NRA always did this and it cost the membership plenty. It got to where I was making some type of donation practically every week. But guess that the MONEY is all they understand! Hope I am wrong.

USA TODAY is running a story about "OPEN CARRY"!! Check it out!! Leave a comment!

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Alright! Ian is delivering three, 3" binders of all the signators to Rep Riddle's office and he's planning to drum up support with other reps today! He's posted pictures of the binders at the other forum (http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/view_topic.php?id=15883&forum_id=51&jump_to=363999#p363999). You guys need to take a look! If anyone can be at the capitol dome by 10:00 today, I'm sure he can use some help carrying them!

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ALRIGHT!!we are now at 55937 and counting!!

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I'm going to see if I can get a sit down with Riddle sometime this week and discuss the reasons for the bill's delay. I'll let you know if that happens and how it goes if it does.

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ProOCers!
Looks like Gun Owners of America is getting involved. I'd emailed them a couple weeks ago, and got this on the distribution list... hopefully it will motivate those who have('nt) signed the petition to putting a call into their representative!

********* From GOA *********

Texas Open Carry Bill Stalled!

Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org

Monday, February 16, 2009


Most states require no permit to carry a holstered handgun openly. Yet
incredibly, Texas is one of only 6 states to outright ban open carry!
Yes, that's right, law abiding Americans can "open carry"
without any
permit in Pittsburgh and Seattle, but not Dallas, Houston or West Texas.

Even the U.S. Supreme Court seemed to endorse open carry in the DC v.
Heller decision when it said that the right to "bear" arms means to
"carry" them. It doesn't take a law degree to figure out that open
carry is constitutionally protected and that Americans don't need no
stinkin' permit to carry openly.

Over 54,000 Texans have signed an online petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/texasoc/petition.html to decriminalize
open carry and, for some weeks now, Texas legislators meeting in Austin
have been waiting to receive a final draft of a bill from legislative
services to effect this change.

But now that the bill is drafted, some legislators seem to have gone
wobbly on introducing the bill. Some are concerned that open carry is
too controversial and may harm the chance of passage for other pro-gun
bills. If anything, the reverse is true. The more the merrier. Many
pro-Second Amendment bills help to show legislators that their voters
want to see freedom expanded in this area.

Self-imposed bill rationing makes no more sense than gun sale rationing.
The anti-gun forces don't play this way, so why should we?

The Texas legislature only meets once every two years, and there's no
reason to put off this open carry reform in Texas any longer.

ACTION: Please urge your state representative and senator to introduce
the Texas open carry bill.

You can use the pre-written letter below to help direct your comments to
your state representative and senator. To quickly identify your
*state* representative and senator -- and click on their websites to
send each a webform email message -- go to:

http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us


----- Pre-written letter -----

SUBJECT: Please introduce an open carry bill this session!

Dear Representative/Senator: [remember to use correct title for each]

Why does Texas still criminalize the open carry of holstered handguns?
There is no reason why Texans cannot carry openly when folks in
Pittsburgh and Seattle open carry at will, no permit required.

Representative Riddle already has one version of an open carry bill
drafted, and there may be other drafts on file with legislative
services.

I urge you to reject efforts to keep open gun carry in the closet in
Texas. Just as more freedom is good, more pro-gun bills are good too.
Its nonsense to think that open carry is so controversial that it will
KILL other less controversial bills like some sort of high tech smart
bomb.

Representative Riddle's bill draft is reportedly applicable only to
Concealed Handgun License holders. While I agree that Concealed Handgun
License holders should be able to open carry, I believe that all gun
owners should have the right to freely bear arms, no permit required, as
implied by the US Supreme Court in the recent DC v. Heller decision.

Besides, millions of Texans own handguns, yet only a few have Concealed
Handgun Licenses. And when a hurricane or other trouble comes, all
Texans deserve the right to open carry.

Over 54,000 Texans have signed an online petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/texasoc/petition.html to decriminalize
open carry. There is no reason to put off this "open carry"
reform for
two more years. Please INTRODUCE a bill to decriminalize open carry for
all Texans this session.

Please act quickly and tell me what you are going to do.

Sincerely,


****************************

Please do not reply directly to this message, as your reply will
bounce back as undeliverable.

To subscribe to free, low-volume GOA alerts, go to
http://www.gunowners.org/ean.htm on the web. Change of e-mail
address may also be made at that location.

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AustinTacticalFirearms wrote:

ProOCers!
Looks like Gun Owners of America is getting involved. I'd emailed them a couple weeks ago, and got this on the distribution list... hopefully it will motivate those who have('nt) signed the petition to putting a call into their representative!

********* From GOA *********

Texas Open Carry Bill Stalled!

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hey - can you post the bottom part of this email? The suggested text of the alert item is missing.

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Sorry all... here's the suggested text (as an aside, it's better to call. I doubt they actually read the email)...

----- Pre-written letter -----

SUBJECT: Please introduce an open carry bill this session!

Dear Representative/Senator: [remember to use correct title for each]

Why does Texas still criminalize the open carry of holstered handguns?
There is no reason why Texans cannot carry openly when folks in
Pittsburgh and Seattle open carry at will, no permit required.

Representative Riddle already has one version of an open carry bill
drafted, and there may be other drafts on file with legislative
services.

I urge you to reject efforts to keep open gun carry in the closet in
Texas. Just as more freedom is good, more pro-gun bills are good too.
Its nonsense to think that open carry is so controversial that it will
KILL other less controversial bills like some sort of high tech smart
bomb.

Representative Riddle's bill draft is reportedly applicable only to
Concealed Handgun License holders. While I agree that Concealed Handgun
License holders should be able to open carry, I believe that all gun
owners should have the right to freely bear arms, no permit required, as
implied by the US Supreme Court in the recent DC v. Heller decision.

Besides, millions of Texans own handguns, yet only a few have Concealed
Handgun Licenses. And when a hurricane or other trouble comes, all
Texans deserve the right to open carry.

Over 54,000 Texans have signed an online petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/texasoc/petition.html to decriminalize
open carry. There is no reason to put off this "open carry"
reform for
two more years. Please INTRODUCE a bill to decriminalize open carry for
all Texans this session.

Please act quickly and tell me what you are going to do.

Sincerely,


****************************

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Reply from Rep. Riddle (staffer), follows:

Mr. xxxx,

Thank you for the response. The open carry thing, to be honest, has fallen to the back of her priorities. It was always an issue she supported in theory, and she did draft a bill that would allow for licensed, holstered open carry. But she always thought of it as a "want", not a "need" compared to other problems we still have with our concealed carry laws. The bill has become a massive headache, with no side of the debate agreeing on what the bill should look like (we receive daily calls telling us how wrong we are for drafting a licensed open-carry bill; other daily calls telling us how wrong a holster law is; still more daily calls telling us that the only good version is the version we drafted). Besides that, the new, more liberal legislature is not likely to be open to such a controversial law and it has already started to awake a pro-gun control movement in Texas, now that more democrats are in office.

In the meantime, there are at least four very important Second Amendment bills that are being ignored and buried by this controversy, and that is really what scares Representative Riddle, because these bills NEED to be passed this session. One of them is HB 410 by Carl Isett, which removes the penalty you currently face as a CHL holder if you travel with a weapon but forget your license. CHL holders are facing stiff penalties for what amounts to an administrative oversight, and it is discouraging people from carrying their weapon in their car. The same thing can be said for employers who tell you your gun can't be in your car in their parking lot, making it impossible for you to have your gun with you anywhere during the work week.

A campus carry bill is a top priority this session as well, because adult students are not allowed to have their weapons with them on campus. This means that students like the ones who work in our office cannot protect themselves as they walk to and from class at night, not to mention defend themselves in the event of massacre shootings such as what happened at Virginia Tech. And even more ridiculous, if you live in Texas, you can't travel to a state that is not contiguous and purchase a gun or a rifle. This is an outdated law that is really causing a lot of unnecessary complications. All these laws are immediate problems, and if the open carry movement were supporting these issues instead of open carry, those would be fights probably worth spilling some blood over, so to speak,

But if someone takes on open carry, it will be an almost pointless fight to the death, all at the expense of other important bills, and all just on the principle that we believe that we should have additional carrying rights. Of course, Rep. Riddle believes you should have those rights, but if it doesn't pass, at least right now you can carry concealed and protect yourself. Her open carry bill wouldn't change licensing procedures or make it any easier to carry. So her concern is it'd be a big fight where victory is unlikely and in the meantime the real important Second Amendment business wouldn't be handled. For all of those reasons, she does not currently plan to file the bill.

She was the author of the Castle Doctrine, and she is not at all soft on Second Amendment rights. She really feels that the open carry bill could sink other more important bills, and more to the point, set the table for steps backwards on concealed licenses just by putting it out there in the midst of this new, liberal legislature.

Thank you again for letting us know your opinion on this, and please keep in touch with us on this and any other issue that is important to you this session! Our door is always open to you!

Sincerely,

Jon English
Chief of Staff
State Representative Debbie Riddle
phone: (512)-463-0572
fax: (512-463-1908
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768-2910
jon.english@house.state.tx.us

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I think what is killing this is the lack of unity on the supporters part. As you can read above, they get calls daily voicing support for her bill, some demanding no licensing, and others against it all together. Folks, licensed open carry is better than no open carry. Let's not get tunnel vision here, and if we have to take incremental steps, lets take what we can get. Call her and voice support for her bill. Again, licensed open carry is better than none at all.

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Rob_B wrote:

I think what is killing this is the lack of unity on the supporters part. As you can read above, they get calls daily voicing support for her bill, some demanding no licensing, and others against it all together. Folks, licensed open carry is better than no open carry. Let's not get tunnel vision here, and if we have to take incremental steps, lets take what we can get. Call her and voice support for her bill. Again, licensed open carry is better than none at all.

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Hopefully things will smooth out a bit as the session goes on. When the other bills prove not to be controversial and appear on their way to passage, we can revisit open carry.

Let this serve as a warning to those who think we can apply enough leverage to members to get what we want. We can't. Without the help of our brothers-in-arms at Students for Concealed Carry, TSRA, etc., we are frozen out. They have the ear of key members and they have shrewdly worked with them to get their bills to be high priorities. We were late to the game. Worse, we made it a competition and everyone is going to protect their own. :banghead:

Like her chief of staff said, with more liberal democrats being elected, all pro-2A legislation is getting more scrutiny. With open carry being the most controversial, it underscores the fact that we can't do it alone. We need to work with the other groups later this session or certainly between now and the next one to get their support for some form of open carry so that we can present a united front. Assuming campus carry and parking lot carry pass, they should have fewer reasons to resist.

SA-TX

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Do we have any idea when the campus/parking lot/and "travel" bills are supposed to be argued? I wonder if this is a timing issue. If these other three pass without too much blood being spilled (sorry for the pun), I wonder if there will be time for Rep. Riddle to put OC through committee and up for a vote.

I think Ian was going to try and get some face time with Riddle. Perhaps this could be a point of discussion?

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AustinTacticalFirearms wrote:

Do we have any idea when the campus/parking lot/and "travel" bills are supposed to be argued? I wonder if this is a timing issue. If these other three pass without too much blood being spilled (sorry for the pun), I wonder if there will be time for Rep. Riddle to put OC through committee and up for a vote.

I think Ian was going to try and get some face time with Riddle. Perhaps this could be a point of discussion?

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This is basically what Mr. English told me. They are not going to file the OC bill until they see how the other bills do.

They aren't going to budge on this issue. We pretty much only have two options at this point.

1. Get another rep/sen to file Riddle's already made bill.

2. Wait for the outcome of the other bills and hope Riddle will file it.


It sucks but it's the truth.

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Just like my simmin' coach used to say, push hard till the wall - there is still time for legislators to act - look at what's happenning in Oklahoma, South Carolina and Arkansas. If every gun owners called and emails their sens and reps, they would respond - more pressure on every rep from their constitutents is needed.

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Darn about Riddle... pretty gutless.

Okay, on to the other legislators.

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We're now at 57,049 signatures, someone needs to listen!