nightmare69 wrote:I don't understand why only volunteers are are allowed to carry and not address the massive majority of full-time firefighters and EMTs who should be allowed to carry anywhere a LEO can while on-duty.
I don't know the bill author's rationale, but I can point out a couple things;
1. "massive majority of full-time firefighters": I took this to mean you think there are a lot more paid firefighters than volunteer firefighters. Per National Fire Administration stats almost 72% of Texas fire departments are volunteer, another 13% are "mostly volunteer" hybrid departments, and 15% are mostly or completely staffed with "career" (paid) firefighters. Nationwide there are only a handful of states where there are more paid fire departments than volunteer.
In terms of individual firefighters, the estimated percentage of volunteer versus career firefighters (in Texas) range from 55% vol/45% career to nearly 80% vol/20% career. Nationally the NFPA reports that in 2015 70% of firefighters were volunteers and 30% were career/paid firefighters; I would not expect the Texas numbers to be much different.
2. Paid firefighters mostly work in big departments for big cities and big cities are run by "blue" (democrat) administrations and unions. I agree that paid firefighters should be able to carry anywhere a LEO can -- just like I think it should be that way for volunteer firefighters
and everyone else in Texas. But the reality is that even if it were legal the blue city governments as employers would not allow it, (and hence would have made fighting the bill a priority) and even then, if it were somehow crammed down their throats, would worry about liability and want special controls, and storage for the guns, and qualification, etc etc. (Note: If cities had any desire to let their firefighters be armed via LTC or otherwise, they could make it happen. Ain't gonna happen). The unions, if they could be persuaded by their members to support it, would want extra pay, and would want the city to pay for training, qualification etc etc, It would become part of the bargaining agreement. Again don't know Rinaldi's rationale, but I think it made political sense not to address paid firefighters in the same bill.