The Truth About Guns by Dan Zimmerman Aug 25, 2019
Last week, members of the Texas gun rights community held a rally outside the capitol here in Austin ahead of the first meeting of Greg Abbott’s new Texas Safety Commission. See our report and video of the event here.
As we noted, the initial makeup of the commission excluded any representatives from what the AP, below, calls Texas’s muscular gun rights lobby. After pressure was applied, Abbott agreed to include someone from the Texas State Rifle Association.
Here’s the AP’s report of the day’s doings.
By Jim Vertuno
Texas’ muscular gun-rights lobby swiftly pushed back after Gov. Greg Abbott raised the possibility of tighter firearms laws in response to a gunman killing 22 people at an El Paso Walmart.
The resistance could test the relationship between gun-rights groups, Abbott and the state’s Republican leadership, which eased gun restrictions after previous mass shootings in 2017 and 2018.
Before Abbott could even convene a closed-door meeting Thursday at the Capitol with lawmakers and law enforcement in response to the El Paso shooting, gun-rights advocates rallied outside. Several demonstrators openly carried assault-style rifles, and demanded Texas not infringe on their liberty.
After the meeting, the governor raised alarms about the inability to track private gun sales, which are largely unregulated and don’t require a background check. Hours later, the Texas State Rifle Association emailed its members with a response to calls for new gun restrictions.
“NO, NO and NO,†wrote Alice Tripp, the NRA-affiliated group’s legislative director and lobbyist, a powerful figure around Texas politics for the last two decades. “This country, this state, has mountains of existing gun law being ignored or under prosecuted.â€
More:
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/texas-gun-rights-supporters-push-back-as-gov-abbott-hints-at-expanding-background-checks/
