Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was quoted by both the Austin American Statesman and the Dallas Morning News as saying that there is not sufficient legislative support to pass open-carry during the 2015 Texas Legislative Session. This is consistent with a Twitter post quoting Patrick as saying "I don’t think votes are there for #opencarry in #txlege, it’s not a high priority next to #txed, other issues.”
The 2015 Texas Legislative Session has barely begun and several very good gun bills have already been filed. Still more pro-gun bills are going to be filed shortly, so 2015 has the potential to be a banner year for law-abiding Texas gun owners. One of these pro-gun bills stands head and shoulders above all others in terms of its importance to and impact on Texas gun owners and that is HB308 by Rep. Drew Springer.
The 2015 Texas Legislative Session saw the first contested race for Speaker of the House in forty years. The outcome was a foregone conclusion as Joe Straus was unbeatable and Rep. Turner was able to pull only nineteen votes. However, the number of Turner votes is not important; his willingness to run resulted in a record vote and for this, all Texans should be grateful to Rep. Turner.