aggie70 wrote:I have repeatedly read that Harris, Bexar, Travis and Tarrant (?) counties choose to "let the judge decide" if the suspect was violating this law. Is this still true? Or was it ever true?
There were two sets of laws written. In 2005 the legislators wrote the Presumption Rules that claimed that a man was presummed to be traveling if they met a certain set of conditions (not breaking the law, Not a gang member not illegal to own). the "presumption" was not air tight, and a few attorney decided to get together and resist this blatant attempt for citizens to claim a right to keep and bear arms. There were actually very few cases where they actually took anyone to court over this. Presumably because the local LE departments didn't want to be a party to these particular DAs political games.
Now this didn't go unnoticed. These actions got the attention of the ACLU, the TSRA, and the State Reps and Senators. They were pretty cranked that these few DAs had the nerve to enforce the law as the DAs thought it should be rather than the obvoious intention of the state house and governor. In the 2007 sesion they passed a more bullet proof law and in June Governor Rick Perry signed it. The DAs pretty much resigned their persecution of car driving gun tooters after the law took effect Sept 1st 2007.
Now this would normally would be the end of this happy little story, but there is more. Chuckie Rosenthal the Republican Harris County DA ran into a little trouble and found that the Republican party completely bailed out on him just when he needed them most. Harris County got themselves a barnd new shiny DA. and Chuckie is taken off the public dole. Then the old Joe Horn case comes up. He gets no billed. Now some might say that the grand Jury let him off because they understood the law and were sympathetic to the situation. Those who have an understanding of the Harris County Grand Jury system though claim the grand jury let him off because the DA didn't want to push this one. Typically a Grand jury will go right along with what the DA wants. There is no defense in a grand jury setting it is the DAs forum. I would say that new DA hasn't shown any inclination to go on Gun owners witch hunt. That today a CHL or other gun owner isn't any more likely to be harrassed in Harris County than any other county.
HTH
Liberty''s Blog
"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." John F. Kennedy
