Texas Constitution

Relevant bills filed and their status

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anygunanywhere
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Texas Constitution

#1

Post by anygunanywhere »

The Texas Constitution Article 1 Section 23 states:
Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms in the lawful defense of himself or the State; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime.
We debate open carry.

We debate 30.06. Signs, signs, everywhere signs. BTW, thanks for the explanation on the signs back in the 90's, Chas. I was in Kalifornia back then hiding my 15 shot normal capacity magazines in the attic. I refused to register any of my guns too and risked spending time at Lompoc or San Quentin as a felon for believing I actually had a right to keep and bear my legally purchased arms. Disgusting.

We discuss vehicle carry, marvel at how many times the legiscritters must pass laws supposedly fixing the old sometimes mythical traveling exemption and then are aghast at the comments by crazed activist DAs who flagrantly espouse contempt at the thought of the common Texian packing heat.

Travel to anywhere else in the world and they will tell you all Texians carry guns.

We debate a myriad of topics on carry.

Printing. Heaven forbid that someone see your gun.

Watch out for your shirt tail in the brisk southerly winds blowing off the Gulf on the coast. Wouldn't want your gun cover to blow up and scare a sheeple. They might call the cops. Note-to-self: avoid failure to conceal. There are sheeple grazing nearby.

There is even the post asking if you would turn your brother packer in for flashing.

We have always cherished our castle doctrine but were finally blessed with our stand-yer-ground law. Sweet.

We will have our priorities next year, and even though I stomp my feet and hold my breath 'til I turn blue on a few things, I trust that those who work behind the scenes have a plan, will work the plan, and we will once again triumph in 2009. We have the governor and the congresscritters to do the job.

We, as the rank and file have our own job to do.

Now for my question.

Why can't we change the constitution to fall in line with the federal? Why don't we push to eliminate the carpetbagger wording that for all practical purposes does nothing but saddle us with the possibility of more reasonable restrictions and common sense gun laws?

Anygunanywhere
"When democracy turns to tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote." Mike Vanderboegh

"The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." – Ayn Rand

HerbM
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Re: Texas Constitution

#2

Post by HerbM »

:iagree: :iagree: :iagree: :iagree:

And "with a view to prevent crime" would require some evidence that any such regulation actually did so, or the law would be unconstitutional.

I doubt there is any such proof for any Texas gun control law.

And the inclusion of the phrase, noting that regulations are allowed ONLY on bearing (wearing) arms indicates all other gun control laws are unconstitutional on their face -- useful for crime prevention or not.

Seems like the 51% and 30.06 signs fail these tests for instance.
Last edited by HerbM on Thu Jun 26, 2008 12:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Texas Constitution

#3

Post by anygunanywhere »

The Heller decision leads me to insist in even stronger terms that the Texas constitution must be changed.

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"The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." – Ayn Rand

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Re: Texas Constitution

#4

Post by HerbM »

anygunanywhere wrote:The Heller decision leads me to insist in even stronger terms that the Texas constitution must be changed.

Anygunanywhere
What would you suggest? (Either your wording or your intent of such changes?)
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Re: Texas Constitution

#5

Post by anygunanywhere »

HerbM wrote:
anygunanywhere wrote:The Heller decision leads me to insist in even stronger terms that the Texas constitution must be changed.

Anygunanywhere
What would you suggest? (Either your wording or your intent of such changes?)
Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms in the lawful defense of himself or the State; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime.
Eliminate the red text. With the red text eliminated it would be more in line with the federal just like I said in the original post.
anygunanywhere wrote:Why can't we change the constitution to fall in line with the federal? Why don't we push to eliminate the carpetbagger wording that for all practical purposes does nothing but saddle us with the possibility of more reasonable restrictions and common sense gun laws?
Maybe add the words

.....SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED


IIRC several state's constitutions statement on arms is exactly like the federal. The comma and clauses seems to confuse some and leads some to misinterpret, as if the amendment needs interpretation.

Anygunanywhere
"When democracy turns to tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote." Mike Vanderboegh

"The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." – Ayn Rand

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Re: Texas Constitution

#6

Post by aardwolf »

How does the locking folder ban in San Antonio not violate that? It's like Dallas banning rifles and shotguns if you're not on your own premises or engaged in lawful hunting activity. And good luck convincing them you're hunting legally inside Dallas city limits.
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Re: Texas Constitution

#7

Post by barres »

aardwolf wrote:How does the locking folder ban in San Antonio not violate that? It's like Dallas banning rifles and shotguns if you're not on your own premises or engaged in lawful hunting activity. And good luck convincing them you're hunting legally inside Dallas city limits.
Texas has this thing called pre-emption that says no government entity below the state level can regulate firearms and related materials outside of certain limited circumstances. The law says nothing about knives, fruit trees, baseball bats, or anything else; just firearms, ammo, and related equipment.
LGC §229.001. wrote: FIREARMS; EXPLOSIVES. (a) A municipality may not adopt regulations relating to the transfer, private ownership, keeping, transportation, licensing, or registration of firearms, ammunition, or firearm supplies.
...etc.
Remember, in a life-or-death situation, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

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Re: Texas Constitution

#8

Post by anygunanywhere »

barres wrote:
aardwolf wrote:How does the locking folder ban in San Antonio not violate that? It's like Dallas banning rifles and shotguns if you're not on your own premises or engaged in lawful hunting activity. And good luck convincing them you're hunting legally inside Dallas city limits.
Texas has this thing called pre-emption that says no government entity below the state level can regulate firearms and related materials outside of certain limited circumstances. The law says nothing about knives, fruit trees, baseball bats, or anything else; just firearms, ammo, and related equipment.
LGC §229.001. wrote: FIREARMS; EXPLOSIVES. (a) A municipality may not adopt regulations relating to the transfer, private ownership, keeping, transportation, licensing, or registration of firearms, ammunition, or firearm supplies.
...etc.
There have been discussions on this board to push to include clubs, assisted open knives etc as legal weapons and place them under the umbrella of our CHL.

I believe FL does this.

Anygunanywhere
"When democracy turns to tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote." Mike Vanderboegh

"The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." – Ayn Rand
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Re: Texas Constitution

#9

Post by barres »

I would welcome being able to carry other concealed weapons under the umbrella of my CHL, but he was asking how San Antonio's lock-blade knife ban was legal when the state constitution guarantees every citizen the right to keep and bear arms. As I pointed out, the government codes apparently do not at this time consider knives to be arms, no matter what he, I, or anyone else may think to the contrary, since municipalities are not prohibited from restricting them.
Remember, in a life-or-death situation, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

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Re: Texas Constitution

#10

Post by anygunanywhere »

I am not certain if the knife ban is legal or not. The pre-emption is for firearms.

I would expect it would have to be challenged in court.

I am spending some time in SA next month. I will be carrying my lock blade knife.

Anygunanywhere
"When democracy turns to tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote." Mike Vanderboegh

"The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." – Ayn Rand
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