You Can Help Campus Carry With Your Phone

[Kory Zipperer]

We desperately need EVERY TEXAN who supports campus carry to call the following 19 legislators and voice support for both HB 750 and SB 354. This is one of the simplest and most effective things you can do to ensure the passage of these bills, and without your support in this matter, these bills may die in committee!

Each phone call should take no more than a minute. It’s like taking a phone survey—you simply call, tell the receptionist why you’re calling, and provide your contact information. You’re not going to have to debate the issue or defend your position.

If you’re a student, faculty member, college employee, or parent of a college student, be sure to include that information when you call (i.e., “I’m a student at Texas A&M University, and I’m calling to ask that Representative Hunter and the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote as soon as possible,” or, “I’m a professor at Texas Tech University, and I’m calling to ask that Senator Whitmire and the Senate Criminal Justice Committee send SB 354 to the floor WITHOUT any gutting amendments”).

Even if you’re not affiliated with a college or university, we still need you to call!


REPRESENTATIVES:

Rep. Todd Hunter – (512) 463-0672 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)

Rep. Dennis Bonnen – (512) 463-0564 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)

Rep. Dan Branch – (512) 463-0367 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)

Rep. Byron Cook – (512) 463-0730 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)

Rep. Charlie Geren – (512) 463-0610 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)

Rep. Jim Keffer – (512) 463-0656 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)

Rep. Tracy O. King – (512) 463-0194 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)

Rep. Lois W. Kolkhorst – (512) 463-0600 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)

Rep. Eddie Lucio III – (512) 463-0606 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)

Rep. Allan Ritter – (512) 463-0706 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)

Rep. Burt R. Solomons – (512) 463-0478 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)

Rep. Vicki Truitt – (512) 463-0690 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)

Rep. John Zerwas – (512) 463-0657 (Ask that the House Calendars Committee schedule HB 750 for a floor vote ASAP.)


SENATORS:

Sen. John Whitmire – (512) 463-0115 (Ask that the Senate Criminal Justice Committee send SB 354 to the floor WITHOUT any gutting amendments*.)

Sen. Joan Huffman – (512) 463-0117 (Ask that the Senate Criminal Justice Committee send SB 354 to the floor WITHOUT any gutting amendments*.)

Sen. John J. Carona – (512) 463-0116 (Ask that the Senate Criminal Justice Committee send SB 354 to the floor WITHOUT any gutting amendments*.)

Sen. Glenn Hegar – (512) 463-0118 (Ask that the Senate Criminal Justice Committee send SB 354 to the floor WITHOUT any gutting amendments*.)

Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa – (512) 463-0120 (Ask that the Senate Criminal Justice Committee send SB 354 to the floor WITHOUT any gutting amendments*.)

Sen. Dan Patrick – (512) 463-0107 (Ask that the Senate Criminal Justice Committee send SB 354 to the floor WITHOUT any gutting amendments*.)


*The only amendments SCCC will not oppose are amendments that seek to clarify the language/intent of these bills (i.e., an amendment clarifying that these bills would not legalize concealed carry at on-campus bars) and amendments that would allow a college or university to secure an area with metal detectors and armed guards (making the area gun free in more than name only).

Some people have suggested that a reasonable compromise would be to amend HB 750 and SB 354 to allow colleges to “opt out” of allowing concealed carry on campus. However, the state law (TX PC §46.03[a][1]) prohibiting licensed concealed carry at Texas colleges already includes a provision allowing any institution of higher education to create a “written regulation or written authorization” allowing concealed carry on campus. Texas colleges currently have the option to allow concealed carry on campus, yet none have chosen to do so.

Rewording the law so that colleges have the choice to prohibit concealed carry, rather than the choice to allow it, isn’t an improvement at all; it’s just an underhanded attempt to maintain the status quo.

Even if some colleges and universities were to independently decide to allow licensed concealed carry on campus, this would simply create an unmanageable patchwork of laws across the state. License holders would never be entirely sure on which campuses they were allowed to carry handguns and on which campuses they weren’t. Even worse, this patchwork of laws would be ever-changing, based on who happened to be the university president or the system chancellor or on the board of regents at any given time.

Opponents of campus carry misleadingly suggest that campus carry legislation seeks to unfairly limit the ability of universities to self-govern. In reality, the Texas Education Code and the Texas Government Code already contain hundreds of pages of restrictions on public colleges, regulating everything from why universities can and can’t deny admission to what universities must include on their websites. Therefore, there is nothing unfair or unprecedented about insisting that state-funded colleges honor state-issued licenses.

State colleges and universities have no more right to self-govern than do cities and state agencies. If cities can’t prohibit concealed carry and state agencies can’t prohibit concealed carry, why do public institutions of higher education deserve special consideration?

Thank you all very much for your help. It is GREATLY appreciated!

Students for Concealed Carry on Campus
http://www.StudentsForCampusCarry.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.CampusCarry.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RPB]

Calling

[RPB]

John Woods is concentrating on the chair and Huffmann
SB 354
I make it a point to call Ellis (against us) often and point out that INDIVIDUALS should have the right to chooooose whether to be able to defend themSELVES or not.
"Pro-choice" when it comes to SELF-defense.

Joan Huffman (R) - Vice Chair - (512) 463-0117 (currently undecided)

Rodney Ellis (D) - (512) 463-0113 (currently against) (You didn't list him, but I'm a squeeky wheel)

Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa (D) - (512) 463-0120 (currently undecided)
--------------------------------
Side note:
Rep. Dan Branch office said 750 isn't passed to calendars yet?

[The Annoyed Man]

I'm in the middle of making the calls right now, but I just had an interesting conversation with the young woman who answered the phone for Burt R. Solomon's office. I explained why I was calling, and she said she would make a note of it, and then she asked if there was anything else she could do for me, and I kind of chuckled and said, "uuuhhh, pray?"

She laughed and said, "for HB750?" and I laughed and said, "sure, for HB750." She answered, "mmmmmmm... I'm not sure about that."

EDIT: OK, all calls made.

[The Annoyed Man]

BTW, I also sent off a bunch of emails today to House Calendar Committee in response the the message I received from the TSRA this morning regarding HB 750 and HB 681.

Messages to two the representatives on that TSRA list were rejected by the server:

This report relates to a message you sent with the following header fields:

Message-id: <14D9DDC5-3037-45F4-90A8-9C75BB10F660@whamproductions.com>
Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:06:59 -0500
From: My Name <me@whamproductions.com>
To: eddie.lucio@house.state.tx.us
Subject: HB 681 and HB 750...

Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:

Recipient address: eddie.lucio@house.state.tx.us
Reason: Remote SMTP server has rejected address
Diagnostic code: smtp;550 Rule imposed mailbox access for eddie.lucio@house.state.tx.us refused
Remote system: dns;email3.tlc.state.tx.us (TCP|206.46.173.17|36183|204.65.64.30|25) (email3.tlc.state.tx.us ESMTP MailMarshal [v6.8.2.9371] Ready)

Reporting-MTA: dns;vms173017.mailsrvcs.net (tcp-daemon)
Arrival-date: Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:07:00 -0500 (CDT)

Original-recipient: rfc822;eddie.lucio@house.state.tx.us
Final-recipient: rfc822;eddie.lucio@house.state.tx.us
Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0 (Remote SMTP server has rejected address)
Remote-MTA: dns;email3.tlc.state.tx.us
(TCP|206.46.173.17|36183|204.65.64.30|25)
(email3.tlc.state.tx.us ESMTP MailMarshal [v6.8.2.9371] Ready)
Diagnostic-code: smtp;550 Rule imposed mailbox access for
eddie.lucio@house.state.tx.us refused

AND...

This report relates to a message you sent with the following header fields:

Message-id: <56946D0D-5750-4BE7-A49A-589265C0F619@whamproductions.com>
Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:03:30 -0500
From: My Name <me@whamproductions.com>
To: jim.keffer@house.state.tx.us
Subject: HB 681 and HB 750...

Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:

Recipient address: jim.keffer@house.state.tx.us
Reason: Remote SMTP server has rejected address
Diagnostic code: smtp;550 Rule imposed mailbox access for jim.keffer@house.state.tx.us refused
Remote system: dns;email3.tlc.state.tx.us (TCP|206.46.173.11|50465|204.65.64.30|25) (email3.tlc.state.tx.us ESMTP MailMarshal [v6.8.2.9371] Ready)

Reporting-MTA: dns;vms173011.mailsrvcs.net (tcp-daemon)
Arrival-date: Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:03:30 -0500 (CDT)

Original-recipient: rfc822;jim.keffer@house.state.tx.us
Final-recipient: rfc822;jim.keffer@house.state.tx.us
Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0 (Remote SMTP server has rejected address)
Remote-MTA: dns;email3.tlc.state.tx.us
(TCP|206.46.173.11|50465|204.65.64.30|25)
(email3.tlc.state.tx.us ESMTP MailMarshal [v6.8.2.9371] Ready)
Diagnostic-code: smtp;550 Rule imposed mailbox access for
jim.keffer@house.state.tx.us refused

Is it me, or is it that these two reps in particular have set filters to reject emails with subject lines containing those two bill numbers?

I have received several automated responses from other reps acknowledging receipt of my messages.

Here is what I sent to each of the members:

Dear Mr. [committee member's name],

My name is My Name, and I am a resident of Grapevine, Texas. I am contacting all of the members of the House Calendars Committee to urge them to set HB 681, the TSRA-backed employee parking lot bill, and HB 750, the TSRA-supported campus carry measure, on the House Calendar as soon as possible.

I realize that you have other business in the committee, but previous versions of these two very important bills languished in committee in the 2009 session, and never made it to the floor for a house vote — tactics that were purely the result of cynical maneuvering on the part of anti-2nd Amendment legislators and out-of-state big businesses who are motivated by other interests than those of Texas voters. Texas voters have been patient, but their patience is not indefinite.

I would be very appreciative if you would make it your personal mission to get HB 681 and HB 750 on the House Calendar for a straight up or down vote before the end of this session. Please give the voters of the great state of Texas a chance to see where their representatives stand on these issues, in deed and not just in word.


Respectfully yours,

Me
My Address
Grapevine, TX 76051
My Phone

[hirundo82]

BTW, I also sent off a bunch of emails today to House Calendar Committee in response the the message I received from the TSRA this morning regarding HB 750 and HB 681.

Messages to two the representatives on that TSRA list were rejected by the server:

Is it me, or is it that these two reps in particular have set filters to reject emails with subject lines containing those two bill numbers?

I have received several automated responses from other reps acknowledging receipt of my messages.

I don't know about Lucio, but Keffer is a coauthor on both HB681 and HB750 so I doubt he would be blocking messages about them.

[RPB]

Please do not call Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinajosa!! I can't say more, but contacting his office now would be very harmful. It may be necessary later, but not now!

If you read something on other boards about calling, please ignore it! There are well-meaning people who don't know what's going on.

Chas.

Noted, thanks

-------------------------------

http://www.americanindependent.com/1769 ... y-champion" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Heat from universities reverses position of former campus-carry champion

Hinojosa votes against bill despite authoring similar legislation in 2009

Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (D-McAllen) voted with his constituents, rather than his personal beliefs, by opposing a “campus-carry” bill that passed the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice on Thursday, staffers said.

I won't call him nor write or fax him/his office at the moment until you advise to.

Now I understand why he said "no" so quietly .... he must not have wanted to say "no"