About 100 gun rights activists gathered at the Texas Capitol on Feb. 27 and urged lawmakers to block new restrictions on gun laws in the upcoming 2021 legislative session.
Many carrying holstered firearms and wore buttons distributed by Gun Owners of America, a group that considers the National Rifle Association to be too soft on some gun issues.
The occasion was a hearing of the Senate State Affairs Committee, which was taking public testimony on implementation of laws that allow open carry and campus carry.
Dennis Rocha, a biology professor at Austin Community College, said that campus carry law that went into effect in 2016 has made him feel safer. “I am very grateful for that provision, because now I can finally feel confident that I have the ability to protect myself and my fellow students if the need arise.”
“I am not a lone ranger, I am not there to save everybody at the college. I just simply want to go home when I’m through with my duty at the college,” he said. “I’m a citizen who carries his responsibility with great seriousness,” Rocha said.
Ron Parker, a Brazoria County resident, said he thought the Legislature should go further than it did with its 2015 campus carry law, by rolling back the rights of universities to mandate certain gun-free zones on campus: “Campuses have created a hodgepodge of gun-free zones… that makes it very difficult for some people on campus to carry.”
Parker’s also believes the state should eliminate gun-free zones even at K-12 schools. He said, “I’d like a complete end to all government-mandated gun-free zones… Let’s remove more and more restrictions so that law-abiding citizens can protect themselves.”
Many of those who testified opposed measures that state leaders have been discussing after a series of mass shootings, such as extending background check requirements to include private gun sales.
Kenny Wolthom, a Houston resident carrying weapons and a “Come and Take It” flag, said in an interview that he drove up from Houston to help “advocate for the further restoration of gun rights.” Wolthom thinks the 2016 changes that allowed open carry and campus carry were “definitely a step in the right direction,” but did not go far enough.
He wants the Legislature to enact ‘constitutional carry,’ which would eliminate gun licensing requirements altogether. Wolthom estimated that about 150 supporters of gun rights turned out for the day’s event. “As typical, the NRA is nowhere to be found,” he said.
Asked about how the changes he suggested would improve school safety, Wolthom said that there should be more armed guards at schools and metal detectors. He said that making schools into “gun-free zones” actually makes them less safe.
On the other hand, a few supporters of Moms Demand Action showed up in their signature red t-shirts to oppose the further relaxation of gun laws and to demand reforms. John Sights, a 21-year veteran wearing a blazer over his Moms Demand Action t-shirt, testified that he was a proud gun owner but criticized certain Texas gun laws.
He said Texas laws make it “extremely easy” for prohibited individuals to purchase weapons. He also said that the Legislature has made it too easy for untrained individuals to “openly carry military style rifles in public places in this state, at a time when Texas leads the nation in mass shootings – El Paso, Odessa, Santa Fe, Sutherland Springs.”
Sights said, “Texans are being traumatized by the sight of these weapons in environments in which there is no possible justification to open carry rifles.” He urged lawmakers, “Stop pandering to extremists and a gun lobby that incites fear that guns will be taken away.”
He recommended that the state enact background checks on private gun sales. This is a measure that won the support of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick in the aftermath of the El Paso and Odessa shootings, but it is vehemently opposed by many of Patrick’s own supporters.
