Gun bill will test senators’ loyalties
Top cops rally against permitless carry push
They have “backed the blue” with legislation to protect police funding.
They have also defended gun rights.
But now members of the Texas Senate must decide which one prevails as those top Republican priorities collide in what has become one of the biggest hot-button issues the Legislature will take up this year.
While a bill to allow most people to carry a handgun without a license sailed through the Texas House, it now faces a Texas Senate where the leader, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, has made his support for law enforcement a critical part of his
political identity. And a large contingent of Texas law enforcement officials have adamantly opposed legislation that would allow unlicensed carrying of weapons, despite some gun rights groups pushing Republicans to make the bill law.
“This bill does not make officers more safe,” Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said at a rally in front of the state Capitol that included Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and dozens of other law enforcement officials. “It makes us less safe.”
‘We don’t have the votes’
Patrick, who has the authority in the Senate to quell most any bill he wants, said Monday that the votes are not there in the Senate right now to move the legislation.
“If we have the votes to pass a permitless carry bill off the Senate floor, I will move it,” Patrick said Monday. “At this point, we don’t have the votes on the floor to pass it. I plan to meet with law enforcement who oppose permitless carry and with the NRA and GOA (Gun Owners of America) who support it to see if we can find a path that a
majority of senators will vote to pass.”
It’s not dissimilar to what Patrick has said about the issue in the past. During a 2017 radio interview in San Antonio, Patrick told host Trey Ware that “law enforcement does not like the idea of anyone being able to walk down the street with a gun and they don’t know if they have a permit or not.”
For Patrick, backing the police has become a major political point over the last year as protests nationwide have drawn attention to police shootings. Patrick was part of a statewide tour to “back the
blue” last year by pushing back against some Democrats and their call to “defund the police.”
“Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, protecting police is an American thing and a Texan thing,” Patrick said.
Letting the so-called constitutional carry legislation go to a vote would appease some of the most vocal gun rights advocacy groups, over the safety objections of police.
The Gun Owners of America’s Texas chapter is already pushing its supporters to up the pressure on Patrick and senators to hear the legislation.
“It would be unthinkable for the Senate to let constitutional carry die after it has passed the House by such a large margin,” that group said in a statement to its supporters. “We need you to take action. Call Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.”
Still in committee
Under House Bill 1927, which passed the House on Thursday, people 21 and older would not be required to pass a training class and hold a permit to carry a handgun in public. The bill does not apply to anyone with a criminal record.
A similar bill has been filed in the Senate by Sens. Drew Springer and Dawn Buckingham, both Republicans. But that legislation hasn’t received a hearing yet in a committee, typically the first stop for a bill.
Patrick, meanwhile, has made other gun-related issues a priority. Last week, the Senate passed Senate Bill 20, which would allow legal gun owners to carry firearms into their hotel rooms, rather than leave them in their cars overnight.
Patrick on Friday talked about that bill as having “strengthened the Second Amendment rights of all Texans.”
Patrick has long been a staunch defender of gun rights. But he has also been willing to take on the National Rifle Association at times. In 2019, after a shooting in which a 21year-old man is accused of killing 23 shoppers at a Walmart in El Paso, Patrick called for expanded background checks to keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people — in direct opposition to the NRA.
“I’m a strong NRA supporter, and they’re a strong supporter of mine,” Patrick said in an interview on Fox News Channel after that shooting. “But I believe they are wrong in not expanding background checks to stopping strangers from selling guns to strangers.”
Patrick said he still supported allowing family and friends to sell guns to one another without background checks.
Despite those comments, Patrick has not pushed that issue further and hasn’t advocated any legislation this year that would limit gun purchases.
HB 1927 now heads to the Senate for consideration. The House and Senate must agree to identical bills in order for it to go to Gov. Greg Abbott for his approval. The Legislature is in session for six more weeks.