By Paul Lathrop
Contributing editor
On Thursday evening a committee in the Texas Senate passed permitless carry 5-2 and sent the bill to the floor of the Senate.
If the bill is approved on the Senate floor, it will go to Governor Greg Abbot’s desk for his promised signature.
House Bill 1927 passed the Texas House a few weeks ago and was languishing in the Senate waiting for Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who controls what bills are assigned to committees in the Senate to assign the bill to a committee so that it could continue the process to become law.
The Texas Tribune reported on April 19 that Lt Gov. Patrick said he did not think there were enough votes for the bill to pass the Senate.
“If we have the votes to pass a permitless carry bill off the Senate floor, I will move it,” Patrick said in a statement. “At this point we don’t have the votes on the floor to pass it. I plan to meet with law enforcement who oppose permitless carry and with the [National Rifle Association] and [Gun Owners of America] who support it to see if we can find a path that a majority of senators will vote to pass.”
But the Austin American Statesman reported Patrick “announced that the Senate will vote next week,” setting the stage for a possible showdown on gun rights within the Republican caucus.
“When the legislation came over from the House last week,” the newspaper reported, quoting Patrick, who said, ‘I had maybe six in favor, about six against and six unsure. We’re now up to 12 votes, maybe 13. I’m still a few short, but I’m going to bring it to the floor. It’s rare I do this. Usually when you don’t have the votes, you don’t bring a bill up that’s going to lose, but this is an important issue.’”
Things apparently changed this week as on Monday the bill was scheduled to go to a committee on Thursday. By the start of the hearing 173 witnesses were registered to testify on the bill.
The committee hearing went late into the evening Thursday before the vote was held.
(Editor Dave Workman contributed to this report.)
