Democrat State Senator Royce West has filed a bill that can only be described as both unnecessary and a trap for law-abiding Texans. SB206 would create new offenses for conduct that is already unlawful under Texas law, but in so doing, it sets a trap by deferring to ambiguous and ever-changing federal case law. In order to fully understand just how bad SB206 is, one must consider it in light of current Texas and federal law, as well as a shocking 2014 U.S. Supreme Court case dealing with firearms.
When Texas adopted the so-called “Concealed Handgun Law” in 1995, several restricted areas were created where it would be unlawful for a person with a Concealed Handgun License, now known as a License to Carry a Handgun, (“Licensee”) to carry their self-defense handgun. Over the following twenty-one years, Licensees have proven themselves to be the most law-abiding of Texans. Their track record is amazing and it is discussed in detail below.
I suspect not one person in fifty, perhaps one person in a thousand, has read the entire American Declaration of Independence. We quote a few lines from the first two paragraphs, and perhaps from the closing paragraph as well. Yet we never read the single document that gives a broad and ominous view of what forced Americans to take such a drastic, deadly, brave and heroic step. The vast majority of Americans, if they know anything about the American Revolution, would say that our gripe was "taxation without representation," but King George's tyranny was much broader than just taxes. I'm not busting anyone chops for that, it's just not something we think about much.