By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
It’s been three weeks since constitutional carry became law in Texas, and the changes in the Lone Star State have been, well, almost boring.
The initial warnings about HB 1927 from leftist politicians, the anti-gun industry and their supporters in the legacy media were dire, but of course none proved true.
Now, they’re all eating their words.
“As Mayor of Houston, I am very concerned that the State of Texas loosened gun laws, especially during a time of increased gun violence,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement. “Many Texans prize their Second Amendment rights, but the Second Amendment does not provide for the right of reckless endangerment.”
“Under this bill, even a law-abiding citizen can become a danger. Someone who has literally no firearms training and has never even fired a gun could legally carry a gun,” Mayor Turner claimed. “They could become a danger to themselves and others due to mishandling a deadly weapon.”
The good mayor is not the first anti-gunner to look foolish because the murder and mayhem he predicted never occurred.
Rolling Stone called the new law the “firearms equivalent of abandoning drivers licenses,” – a frequently used but specious argument, since driving a vehicle is not a constitutional right. Bearing arms is.
Ari Frielich, Giffords Texas policy director, predicted constitutional carry would endanger both residents and cops, which also proved untrue.
“These lawmakers may simply prefer a society that includes zero safeguards to ensure people meet basic eligibility standards and receive basic training before they can carry weapons designed to take human life into public crowds,” Freilich said in numerous media statements. “The research is clear that flooding public spaces with more hidden loaded guns in more hands makes them less safe. It turns more arguments, road rage incidents, and fistfights into shootings, more injuries into burials, and it can create a civilian arms race in communities most impacted by violence.”
In another statement that was widely circulated, Frielich said, “This is about creating a profitable culture of fear and do-it-yourself armed security, and there is no evidence that these laws promote public safety.”
Everytown’s policy advisor, Andrew Karwoski, claimed he knew “what most people would feel” about Constitutional Carry. (Most Texans support the new law.)
“Just allowing almost anyone to carry a handgun in public, no questions asked, no background check or safety training, is really dangerous,” Karwoski said.
The Texas Municipal Police Association opposed the legislation from the start. Their executive director, Kevin Lawrence, said it will place a “tremendous burden” on police.
“We were opposed to this bill from the very get-go,” Lawrence said in a statement. “We’ve shifted the burden to the cops on the street, and made it a lot more difficult for them.”
Head demanding mom, Shannon Watts, blamed “extremist Republicans” for the growing national trend.
“There are some extremist Republican legislatures that are polarized, and they have been more successful and determined really to ignore the will of their constituents,” Watts claimed in a statement to CNN.
As usual, all of them were wrong.
Reality check
Houston Mayor Turner is right about one aspect of the new law. Texas constitutional carry includes no government training mandates, but most people who carry a handgun seek training. Other states have shown us that. As to Texans shooting each other “due to mishandling a deadly weapon” – that’s almost laughable. It hasn’t happened and never will. There has been zero data indicating negligent discharges increase in states that have passed constitutional carry laws – it’s fearmongering from anti-gun groups and their flawed data.
The allegations that constitutional carry will make policing more difficult are also bunk. First, the leftists have proven they don’t care about policing difficulties – why else would they seek to defund police – and most cops support making it easier for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves. Their chiefs of police usually don’t, because they’re appointed by anti-gun politicians like Turner, so the chiefs parrot their boss’ anti-gun beliefs.
What the gun-banners get right is that constitutional carry cannot stop bad guys from carrying weapons illegally, but neither did the permitting system or any of the other 20,000 gun-control laws on the books in this country. No piece of paper – even one with a governor’s signature – can prevent criminals from breaking the law. After all, that’s why they’re called criminals.
The bottom line is this, all constitutional carry does is make it easier for law abiding folks to protect themselves, without having to bend a knee, pay a tax and beg the government to sell them back their constitutional rights.
Nowadays, with all of that’s going on in this country, more good people with guns is a very good thing.
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