The state of Texas has more registered guns than any other state in the country. Texas is the Holy Grail to gun control advocates—they believe if they can change laws in Texas, they can change the nation’s gun laws.
The problem is that Texas has long been populated by a majority of voters who are staunch supporters of the Second Amendment, making it difficult for gun control activists to make any headway in the state. However, that hasn’t stopped them from trying – and, to some degree, they are succeeding.
Leading up to the midterm elections this past Tuesday, gun control activists took to the streets and town halls in Texas in an attempt to convince voters to put anti-gun politicians into power. Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who was injured in a 2011 mass shooting, was one of these activists trying to turn to the tide in Texas.
“The answer is not more guns, and this is coming from a gun owner,” Gifford’s husband said, who does much of the speaking for his wife due to her injury which impedes her ability to speak clearly. Gifford’s husband later told ABC News, “If the answer was more guns, we would already live in the safest country on the planet, because of the number of firearms that are here and the number of people that already carry them. It does not pass the logic test.”
The part that should be frightening to supporters of the Second Amendment is that their efforts in Texas were almost successful. Beto O’Rourke, a Congressman running for a Senate seat in the state of Texas voiced his support of gun control and supported banning semi-automatic weapons in the state of Texas. These stances earned O’Rourke an F rating from the NRA. Yet in spite of these stances and in spite of the fact that O’Rourke was running in a state with more gun owners than any other state, he still only lost to the incumbent, pro-Second Amendment Ted Cruz by a razor slim margin of 2.6 percentage points.
Granted, it likely wasn’t O’Rourke’s stance on guns that allowed him to challenge Cruz so effectively. If anything, O’Rourke’s views on guns most likely held him back in the highly pro-gun state of Texas. However, that doesn’t change the fact that Texas very nearly decided to send a representative to Washington who favors some very extreme gun control measures.
Gun control advocates realize that if they can win in Texas, they can win anywhere. Gun control is still far from being a popular policy in the state of Texas, but changing demographics in the state have still made it possible for politicians who support gun control to be elected.
Texas isn’t quite at that point yet, as witnessed by the fact that Cruz was able to defeat O’Rourke in spite of his own popularity issues. However, Texas is certainly much closer to being a favorable battleground for gun control activists than it used to be.
Having Texas – which sends two representatives to the Senate, thirty-six representatives to the House, and counts for thirty-six votes in the electoral college – warm up to the idea of gun control would come as a major blow to supporters of the Second Amendment.
Already, gun rights activists must contend with the fact that the first and third largest states by population -New York and California – are states that support gun control more heavily than any other states in the country. Texas has long served as an important counterbalance against these states when it comes to the issue of gun control. Now, though, voters in Texas may not be as reliable in their support for gun rights and pro-gun politicians as they once were.
The good news is that gun rights remained enshrined in the Constitution and protected by the courts no matter who the states decide to elect. The bad news is that this certainly hasn’t stopped places such as California, New York, and Chicago from adopting very restrictive gun control measures. If the day comes where gun rights activists are no longer able to rely on the state of Texas as a major voice for gun rights in Washington, the consequences might be dire.
Gifford is just spouting his two cents because some nut attacked his wife. It has nothing to do wit law abiding citizens and hunters owning guns. As far as Beto is concerned he would have said anything to fire up liberal blinded lunatics to try and get votes in the last election. He has done nothing to earn any respect in government and everything to demonstrate he is not a good choice to lead anybody. Texas is what it is and outsiders better be forewarned not to trample on our rights.
I live in texas. want my guns. come and get them, if you have the guts.
This is happening right now, not only in Texas, but elsewhere too! Problem, the left and their anti-gun policies are only solidifying the individuals who believe in the 2nd Amendment and the right to self preservation an d the right to bear arms! At what point will the left realize that they are confirming and supporting a call for a second civil war! If that is what they really seek, then they are not far from the straw that broke the camels back… this country will never accept the left socialist agenda… never! Real Americans, the working class of this nation, and I mean those not relying on the handouts the liberal left endorse’s, will reject all efforts to control of take away our rights to own, carry and use our arms to defend ourselves, when required, to defend our country and our way of life! And if the blood runs in the streets, it will be a river, and the left will supply the source!
Why do we keep hearing “registered guns”? The supreme court ruled years ago that the government can not data on gun ownership.
The supreme court has made many rulings against things the government does the government simply changes a few words in their “REGULATION” the court ruled on and continues to enforce it ignoring the rulings.
The abolishing of many of those unconstitutional regulations is one of the things that has liberals so upset about Trump getting elected.
MOLON LABE!!!
I still find it amazing that they want to punish 100,000,000 owners for the acts of less than .000001% of the population. That smacks of rule by mob.
the challenge is not the number of gun, problem, it is a challenge of increasing the effectiveness of background checks. All parts of our constitution should be protected, we are who we are as a country due to our Constitution. I see guns as hunting items, they are not toys and we do not need AR 15’s or any other automatic type gun for public sale, do police need them? Heavy machine guns are not needed for hunting or protection and thus shouldn’t be available to the public. However the military needs such thing but not the public.
The AR 15 is not an AUTOMATIC WEAPON it is a SEMI automatic weapon Learn the difference. It is NOT a HEAVY MACHINE GUN either. Please learn what you are talking about before you post or your post means NOTHING to anyone.
I suggest you read the NATIONAL FIREARMS ACT the weapons you describe have not been available for public sale for decades. Furthermore NO GUN IS A TOY.
The recent shooting was a failure to follow the existing gun laws allowing an individual to declare the criminal a non threat without the 72 hour evaluation the law required based on a personal opinion achieved with one interview that apparently ignored his past interactions with the police and neighbors.
Just like the one a while back who posted such graphic details of the criminal acts of murder he wanted to commit against a certain group of women they allowed to do so by refusing to even look at the social media evidence that was so horrific even his own family called in to report them.
If they had enforced the EXISTING laws and restrictions instead of ignoring them because of the AGE, POLITICS, or RELIGIOUS beliefs of the criminals being PC a lot of the shootings over the past 100 years would never have happened.
When looking to the statistics a few common things stand out in the cases of such attacks.
1) A known mental problem existed (usually treated with drugs that list violent behavior as a possible side effect)
2) A long list of violations they committed were ignored usually due to their age and the bogus policy of thinking “Children” should be immune to prosecution.
3) Many of them happened in OTHER nations and not all of them used GUNS to kill dozens of people.
4) The number of attacks INCREASED with each new restriction that serves only to disarm the potential victims.
We do not need to abolish DUE PROCESS OF LAW by using unconstitutional and easily abused “Red Flag” laws we need prosecutors that will stop playing politics and worrying about LAWSUITS that will do their job regardless of the AGE, RACE, or social status of the criminals and enforce the existing laws.
Every law/restriction passed was done on the promise that “IT IS ALL WE NEED” to prevent any future such attack after all the politicians seem to believe that CRIMINALS will suddenly start obeying the law depite proof they will ignore all laws past present and future that get in their way.
Just a few weeks ago someone ATTACKED people on the streets in LONDON using an actual MACHINE-GUN that is not even legal to purchase in the US if we had the hard to get paperwork that allows purchasing a made before the 1980’s ish amendment to the act I already mentioned that ended any made after that date from being sold to civilians.
As for your comment about the police not needing such weapons remember SWAT came into existence because of the number of criminals, smugglers etc. who use BANNED weapons they easily make or just bring across the unprotected sections of the US border with them it is the height of ignorance to expect our officers to use a 6 shot pistol to fend of a group of such criminals and yes the anti gun groups have tried to make it illegal to have a gun hold more than that for years.
Continuing to show their only knowledge about guns and criminals comes from Hollywood fiction rather than reality.
Ron Venckus you tow the gullible, liberal, Demwit line don’t you? First of all the standard rifle of law enforcement is the SEMI AUTO AR-15. Since the Firearms Act of 1934 no civilian can own a full auto military weapon. Definitely no heavy machine guns. There are presently 17 million ARs in civilian hands which have killed less people than Ted Kennedy’s car.
I have the right, read the Second Amendment! If you can’t understand that, all I can say is Come And Take It!!!
Better still, get the hell out!
The left is out of their minds and don’t know what they are doing about ANYTHING let alone guns or gun rights. Anything that happens in this country is automatically a reason to call for banning firearms. LEGALLY ARMED AMERICANS are the ONLY thing stopping the left from taking over. The ONLY thing that has been proven to stop a crazy person with a gun is a GOOD PERSON WITH A GUN. NO LAW HAS EVER BEEN ABLE TO STOP ANYTHING.
They chose TX b/c it’s big and that’s where the money is
and that’s their schtick, to raise money.
It’s their job. They don’t care about guns.
“Don’t mess with Texas.”
’nuff said?
The Constitution is the best document ever written for allowing maximum individual freedom within a structured government setting designed to insure that freedom,. However, it is NOT the Constitution itself, nor legislators. nor lawyers, nor judges that preserve the rights “secured” by that document against the powers of the government which it created but we the people ourselves. The 2nd amendment secures our right to the tools with which we may ultimately enforce and physically secure the rights which are legally secured by that document.
When is ‘open-season’ on gun-control nuts? And why doesn’t our government, SOOO fond of laws, make one making it a CRIME to attempt to infringe on our rights for self-defense, to possess arms, that this right shall NOT be infringed by the government?
Bait-0’s war chest was double the amount of Cruz’s. $70 MILLION! I thanked God that he didn’t win! I just kept praying and praying that Cruz would be re-elected. God must have heard my prayers. 😉 I’m very concerned, though, that there are so many more lefties who’ve moved to Texas and are trying to turn this state blue. I don’t know how we can combat this issue, but if we don’t do something soon, the next election may just end up with us having Bait-0 or someone like him going to Washington.
I saw a snippet of video from a mom whose son was killed in the Thousand Oaks shootings a few days ago. She said something like “I don’t want any more prayers! I want no more guns!” While I feel and understand her pain, would she feel the same way if her son had died in a car wreck? Would she be spouting “No more cars!”? Or what if he’d died in a plane crash? “No more planes!”? I look at it this way: When a person’s time is up, it’s up – no matter the circumstances of their demise. It wasn’t the fault of the gun. The system failed her (and the other families who lost loved ones). The system failed the shooter, too. And it’s failing all the other vets who have PTSD and aren’t getting the help they need. THAT’s what needs to be fixed! Taking guns away from responsible owners (or attempting to) is like telling us that we can’t be trusted to handle our firearms in a reasonable, responsible, and safe manner.
And if there had been someone in that bar who had been carrying concealed, it’s highly likely that the shooter wouldn’t have killed so many people. To rely on LEOs to protect us is ludicrous!
A gun free zone is a shooting gallery for every armed crazy in the US. Lanza of the Sandy Hook School shooting was an anti Christian, Satan worshipping, far left nutjob.
Face it folks, who and why does anyone want to give criminals more power than honest law abiding citizens? Simple logic dictates criminals do not obey laws and will be the victors when guns are outlawed. Who stands to gain from this scenario? Logic once again dictates that only criminals would promote such a scenario. Does this make clear why emotional liberals would want to infringe upon citizens right to keep and bear arms? They unwittingly or intentionally want to diminish patriotic American authority for a globalist promise of security. History has taught them nothing apparently, we have seen it play out time and time again, take their guns and control them. Life is not better under globalist “dictator” control. Freedom comes at a cost and maintaining it will cost us as well. We will prevail or die trying.