This week, the House of Representatives of Texas passed a bill called “Constitutional Carry,” which allows citizens over the age of 21 to carry a gun without a license, provoking outrage from many state Democrats and advocates for arms reform.
Texas law currently requires citizens to obtain a license to carry a firearm openly or concealed. If enacted into law, the restriction would be lifted, allowing Texans to carry guns without passing a background study or going through training. Texas would become the 14th state to implement such a law.
The bill comes on the heels of several recent mass shooting incidents that have taken place across the country. On Thursday night, a gunman killed eight people, including four members of the Sikh community at an Indianapolis FedEx warehouse. Earlier this month in Bryan, Texas, a man opened fire on a cabinet business where he had previously worked. One man was killed and five others were injured, including a state trooper.
Former Congressman Beto O’Rourke has expressed his support on Twitter for those who are protesting the bill at state capital in Austin. He reflected their demands for common sense laws.
“Thank you to @joecascinotx and those who do their best to stop HB 1927 and ensure that our laws in Texas are in common sense,” O’Rourke tweeted. “Thank you for coming and going to Texas!”
After a mass shooting in his native El Paso in August 2019 in which 23 people were killed and another mass shooting the same month in which 7 people were killed in a Cinergy movie theater complex in Odessa, O’Rourke gave a passionate speech on gun reform and his proposal for a mandatory repurchase program for assault weapons.
‘Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. “We will no longer allow it to be used against our fellow Americans,” he said.
Becca DeFelice, a Moms Demand Action Texas volunteer, argued against the bill, saying: ‘It’s not complicated, and it’s not controversial: gun owners like me know that responsible gun ownership means a background check and safety training. before wearing loaded handguns in public. ”
State Democrat representatives Rafael Anchía and Diego Bernal have proposed an amendment to the bill that would prevent “insurgents … or violent white supremacist extremists”[s]”Possessing firearms, but it could not make it in the bill because it did not get enough votes.
In addition to 84 state Republicans, seven Democrats voted in favor of the Constitutional Carry Bill. Representative Morgan Meyer of Dallas was the only Republican to vote against the bill. The bill will now be passed to a Republican Senate, where the fate of the bill will be determined.