TexasCHLforum.com

When I lived in PA I walked into the Sheriff's office with $22 and filled out an application for concealed carry. They sat me down with the Chief Deputy for a quick interveiw, which consisted on hi, why do you want it and will we find anything in your background. They had a deputy talk to my employer and my neighbors to see if I was an upstanding citizen. Called me a week later to come in to get my picture taken. They printed the picture out right there, affixed it to my permit and said have a nice day.

I didn't have to take a class, I didn't have to shoot and qualify. It was easy. US citizen, resident of that county, clean background check = gun carrying citizen.

Moved to Texas and was shell shocked at what you had to do down here...crazy.

Keith B wrote:Getting anyone (legislature) to reduce the requirements for CHL in Texas to those in Virginia will not happen (at least not within the next decade I'll bet.) So, the only option the anti-gun legislators will try to do in their typical knee-jerk style is to invalidate out of state non-resident licenses.

While I agree with those that posted we should not have to get a CHL to practice our RKBA, the reality is, this is what we have to do.

Keith expresses the same concerns I have with it all. The anti gun legislators will do exactly what Keith posted here... IMHO.

When renewal time rolls around for me, I might just be looking at a VA lisence.

If it walks like a duck...

Griz44 wrote:http://www.onlinegunclass.com/index.php ... s&catid=34

Does anyone have any experience with this online course? My wife has been looking to get her CHL but due to her work schedule (health care) she hasn't had time. I might look into getting her to do the VA license if this is legit

rmr1923 wrote:

Griz44 wrote:http://www.onlinegunclass.com/index.php ... s&catid=34

Does anyone have any experience with this online course? My wife has been looking to get her CHL but due to her work schedule (health care) she hasn't had time. I might look into getting her to do the VA license if this is legit

I guess I will find out shortly how legit it is but it was certainly less time consuming than driving to a 10 hour class.

Popgun wrote:When renewal time rolls around for me, I might just be looking at a VA lisence.

If it walks like a duck...

Thing is... it doesn't walk like a duck. It walks more like a turkey. The benefits to getting a Texas CHL are more than just the "legal" ability to conceal carry.

1) No NICS check when buying a gun. This one is a big reason I got my Texas CHL. Darned NICS checks would give me grief at just the wrong time... about 50% of the time. I buy a lot of guns.

2) Law enforcement officers always recognize the Texas CHL as a legitimate concealed carry permit in Texas. The out of state permits will get you the "fish eye" at times and I have no desire to debate the finer points of the law with a police officer. Especially if I have just been involved in a self defense shooting while away from my home. It could mean the difference in my going home that night and going to jail while the officers verify I am legally carrying concealed. Don't think it can't happen. Vacation weekends or late night hours can result in a lack of proper knowledge or authority in making an arrest decision. I speak from personal experience on this... not just conjecture!

3) When we acquire our Texas CHL we are counted as another vote in Texas supporting concealed carry in a responsible manner. Politicians like numbers and when they are looking at how to get votes, statistics showing 2% of the population having a CHL mean a lot more than if they showed 1% having a CHL. Especially when deciding which way to lean when casting a vote. I wish the statistics would show 5%. We might have enough pull at that point to get some fee reductions.

There may be more. These are just three that came to mind immediately. My daughter and son in law are carrying under the Utah because they could not afford to get the Texas. I gave my son in law a Texas CHL coarse for Christmas. He still has to cover the license fee... but I want him and my daughter to go ahead and get their Texas CHL's for the above reasons. I will probably end up paying for hers in the end. They just flat out can't afford the costs. I wish the Texas CHL costs were not so high. I believe it causes a sort of wealth descrimination. That is a whole nother topic...LOL.

03Lightningrocks wrote:I wish the Texas CHL costs were not so high. I believe it causes a sort of wealth descrimination. That is a whole nother topic...LOL.

It is also a form of racism, as the entire history of gun control has proven to be.

Jumping Frog wrote:

03Lightningrocks wrote:I wish the Texas CHL costs were not so high. I believe it causes a sort of wealth descrimination. That is a whole nother topic...LOL.

It is also a form of racism, as the entire history of gun control has proven to be.

How does "High Cost" = "Racism"?

RoyGBiv wrote:

Jumping Frog wrote:

03Lightningrocks wrote:I wish the Texas CHL costs were not so high. I believe it causes a sort of wealth descrimination. That is a whole nother topic...LOL.

It is also a form of racism, as the entire history of gun control has proven to be.

How does "High Cost" = "Racism"?

Maybe because minorities are making less money than whites? For example... my neighborhood has far more whites than non-whites. I go to my daughters neighborhood of lower income homes and the population is more non-whites than white. Makes sense to me. I don't know that it is intentional but I can see how it can happen.

I know that's the argument, but, it doesn't float with me.
High cost = high cost. Money is all green (pretty much).
I'll skip taking this off topic..... The notion that high cost = racism just rankles me a bit.
Peace.

RoyGBiv wrote:I know that's the argument, but, it doesn't float with me.
High cost = high cost. Money is all green (pretty much).
I'll skip taking this off topic..... The notion that high cost = racism just rankles me a bit.
Peace.

Just to be clear. I was not saying I believe the price for a CHL was designed to be racist...LOL. I was just offering up how the high cost could be UNINTENTINALLY discriminatory. I probably should have allowed Jumping Frog to answer the question himself.

RoyGBiv wrote:

Jumping Frog wrote:

03Lightningrocks wrote:I wish the Texas CHL costs were not so high. I believe it causes a sort of wealth descrimination. That is a whole nother topic...LOL.

It is also a form of racism, as the entire history of gun control has proven to be.

How does "High Cost" = "Racism"?

The same way that "Saturday Night Specials" were outlawed as explicit measures to get low cost firearms out of the black community. The facts are that minorities are less wealthy than that majority -- indisputable census facts. Anything that increases the costs such of an activity will disproportionally reduce the demand in the lower economic strata, which has the direct impact of becoming an impediment to minority licensees.

Google the term ""racism gun control" or "racism gun control saturday night specials" if you want to read about the topic.

Here is simply one example of thousands:

1870 Tennessee
First "Saturday Night Special" economic handgun ban passed.
In the first legislative session in which they gained control, white supremacists passed "An Act to Preserve the Peace and Prevent Homicide," which banned the sale of all handguns except the expensive "Army and Navy model handgun" which whites already owned or could afford to buy, and blacks could not.
("Gun Control: White Man's Law," William R. Tonso, Reason, December 1985) Upheld in Andrews v. State, 50 Tenn. (3 Heisk.) 165, 172 (1871) (GMU CR LJ, p. 74)

"The cheap revolvers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were referred to as `Suicide Specials,' the `Saturday Night Special' label not becoming widespread until reformers and politicians took up the gun control cause during the 1960s. The source of this recent concern about cheap revolvers, as their new label suggest, has much in common with the concerns of the gun-law initiators of the post-Civil War South. As B. Bruce-Briggs has written in the Public Interest, `It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the `Saturday Night Special' is emphasized because it is cheap and being sold to a particular class of people. The name is sufficient evidence -- the reference is to `n*****rtown Saturday night.'"
("Gun Control: White Man's Law," William R. Tonso, Reason, December 1985)

I have the impression that there is a higher percentage of middle-aged white males in this forum than would be in the general population. But the truth is, that poor Hispanic or Black woman cleaning the office buildings in downtown Houston at night and getting on a bus at midnight to go home in the poor part of town has a much greater daily need for concealed carry than most of the participants in these forums. That is why I support constitutional carry (no license required) and oppose the convoluted firearm regulations, as well as import restrictions, that prevent $30 revolvers being available on the market.

If the right to self defense is a God-given right, then I think that applies to all children of God (at least until they perform a criminal act that causes them to lose those rights).

I completely understand the argument, as well as the historical facts behind it.
I just don't buy that there's any racial MOTIVATION, today, behind the cost for a TX CHL. Maybe I'm just naive.
In fact, the TX CHL is available at a reduced feel to "indigent" persons.
http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/administra ... tefees.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'll agree with you that higher cost impacts poor people more than wealthy.
And I'll agree that a higher percentage of minorities are poor vs. whites.
But to call a high cost "racist", per-se, I don't agree.

If you spend your time looking for racist motivations for things, it's very easy to find, even when racism really isn't the cause/motivation. If I own a restaurant and my prices are high, am I a racist? Silliness. But I can call it racism by the same logic applied here to CHL's.

Sorry.. too far OT. I'll stop..

...the race card in 2012 is a lame excuse...no matter who pulls it...

For those of you not paying attention to the posts, none of them pertaining to Texas CHL costs asserted intentional discrimination vs. minorities. The comments referred to an unintentional consequence. No need to get riled.