Hours after shooting rampage Texas gun laws loosened".
New Texas laws loosening gun control draw outrage from advocates after Odessa shooting".
Texas Allows Guns in Churches Schools After Firearm Access Laws Expanded".
These are
headlines recently published by major outlets. CBS Newsweek The Wall Street Journal mainstream media publications and journalists are crying foul of the Texas state legislatures decision to loosen gun laws in the wake two shootings in Odessa on August 31 and in El Paso on August 4. Many of these publications question why in the face of mass gun violence any politician or agency would reduce the restrictions placed on guns.
Yet this very question illustrates why the mainstream media is ignorant to the concepts of public gun safety and Second Amendment rights. To illustrate lets dive into
some of the new gun laws Texas just passed:
HB 1387 removes limitations on the number of faculty and staff that can be designated as armed school marshals per campus. Previously just one marshal was allowed for every 200 students or one per school.
SB 535 clarifies that religious places of worship and other private properties must give notice to gun owners that firearms are banned on their premises.
HB 1177 allows citizens to carry firearms without a license for one full week after a declared state of emergency. The law also instructs disaster shelters to accommodate gun owners.
HB 302 prohibits landlords from banning tenants firearms in rental properties.
SB 741 carries the prohibitions against home owners associations.
HB 121 allows concealed-carry permit holders to leave a property that prohibits guns on the premises without legal action if they promptly leave when asked.
The mainstream media like to claim that new pro-2A laws like these only further increase the chances of gun violence. Journalists argue these laws show gun owners Republican-controlled states and Second Amendment advocates are desensitized to gun violence that they dont care about mass shootings. Yet these laws seek to bolster the publics ability to respond to acts of gun violence. HB 1387 provides more protection for schools via trained and armed security a natural deterrent to any threat. SB 535 and HB 121 provide greater regulation and written notice to concealed-carry permit holders reducing the chances of altercations and armed trespassing incidents. HB 302 and SB 741 guarantee basic Second Amendment rights are protected for renting gun owners and homeowners who dont wish to be homeless.
Anti-Gunners Dont Get Why Restrictive Laws Arent Passed
Anti-gun advocates dont seem to understand why more restrictive gun laws arent being passed in the wake of public shootings. A monstrously anti-Second Amendment bill
H. R. 7115 was introduced in Congress in November 2018. It was quickly shelved. The bill explicitly calls for:
prohibiting
the sale acquisition distribution in commerce or import into the United States of certain firearm receiver castings or blanks assault weapon parts kits and machinegun parts kits and the marketing or advertising of such castings or blanks and kits on any medium of electronic communications to require homemade firearms to have serial numbers and for other purposes."
This bill would effectively ban most AR-15 kits and gun-making parts including the black rifles recently popularized
80 lower receiver. Why wasnt it passed? The data show Americans dont want more gun bans. A Gallup poll conducted in fall 2018 showed that
just 40 of Americans favor a ban on assault weapons.
Americans See Gun Control as Ineffective (Theyre Right)
Anecdotal evidence and surveys both show many Americans dont support new gun control like the assault weapons ban. The reason is quite simple but its a tired statement that must be reiterated: Criminal really do not follow gun laws. The Department of Justice reported that of 290000 criminals who were in illegal possession of a firearm 6 stole the gun. Seven percent found the firearm at the scene of another crime and a whopping 43 bought their firearms on the black market. Just 0.8 of criminals purchased their weapons at a gun show.
Another study led by Dr. Philip J. Cook of Duke University looked at the duration of the last link the elapsed time from the transaction that actually provided the offender with the gun in question". The survey interviewed 221 felons in Chicago convicted of firearm-related offenses. The results are quite clear:
More than two-thirds of the men obtained their primary gun within the last six months of their arrest (68) while 19.3 possessed their gun for five or fewer days. Almost a quarter of respondents (22.6) had never owned a gun six months before their current arrest. Of those who had a majority acquired their primary gunthe one they possessed during their arrestthrough a purchase or trade (54.3) and from a friend or acquaintance (56.9)."
More importantly: Respondents were almost all barred from purchasing a gun from a gun store because of their prior criminal recordas a result their guns were obtained by illegal transactions with friends relatives and the underground market."
Indeed extensive data does show that the gun control many politicians and anti-gunners advocate for would do little to quell gun violence. It is not an opinion that mass shootings shouldnt be normalized. They arent normal. But what those opposed to gun rights fail to see is that restricting Americans access to guns wont reduce violence. Those who carry out such acts will do so outside the law. The latest Texas shooter was
legally barred from buying guns. He was judged to be mentally unfit for firearm ownership. Yet he carried out his shooting by illegally buying a gun off the books. At this time no anti-gun advocate has come forth describing a single gun law which would have prevented this shooting.
Maybe Texas is right to give more law-abiding Americans greater access to the Second Amendment.