TexasCHLforum.com

joelamosobadiah wrote:I have friends and acquaintances that seem to think that open carry and HB308 are both crazy extreme! Most of my "gun friends" agree with campus carry, however, to say all CHLs are on board with this legislation is definitely not accurate.

When you are posting content suggesting that these bills might not have as much support as it appears, please keep in mind that legislators read this forum. Thank you. Thank you very much.

It does indeed boggle the mind. I remember when it opened, they were giving out all those recognitions. You had school kids who traveled all the way across Texas to be there and be recognized - for them, the experience of a lifetime. But then you saw the presenter talking into empty space, with legislators standing right in front of him, ignoring him (and ignoring the kids) and having running conversations. It was embarrassing. If I had been one of those kids' dads and was there, I would have jumped up and yelled at them to shut the **** up and show a little respect. Probably would have been thrown out, but....

And you see the same thing now, when somebody's talking about a bill - people standing inches from them, blocking the view, jabbering, completely ignoring them like they were fenceposts, and NOBODY is listening. What kind of government is that?

TXBO wrote:

GEM-Texas wrote: It's a core issue to many, but how many? I've heard Mr. Cotton say that he prioritizes bills by the number of people they effect. There are almost 30 Million people in Texas. How many people will benefit from HB 910, 308 or campus carry?

There are over 800,000 CHL holders in Texas. There were 240,000 new CHL applicants in 2014 alone. By the end of 2015, there will be way over 1,000,000 CHL holders. So you have them, plus non-CHL holders who are sensitive to the issues, TSRA/NRA people are are sensitive in general to gun rights issues, and so on.

Keep in mind also that about 10 million of that 30 million is under 21. So if you're looking at CHL-eligible adults, 1 in 20 already has a CHL, and the count is steadily increasing.

That's a pretty big chunk of voters to have rooting for you.... or against you.

ralewis wrote: My working hypothesis when it comes to politicians is the most risk to them is being perceived as 'do nothings' but they also want to be perceived as 'fighting' for their constituents.

I dunno. As somebody posted, the deadline for getting things onto the House calendar has passed. SB910 hasn't gone to the Senate floor yet, but I'm not sure how their calendar process works. But for sure, unless there's a sea change very, very quickly, come next election, heads are going to roll.

AF-Odin wrote:I have emailed both Lt Gov Patrick and Speaker Straus.

Probably a waste of time. At this point in the session, both of them are probably being tsunami'ed with messages about every conceivable issue.