Texas legislators are doing more than any other U.S. lawmakers to reduce gun regulations.
There are more new Texas gun laws that ease gun restrictions passed in the last two years than in any other state,
according to The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. New Texas laws include the removal of requirements for concealed carry license holders to have training on the specific handgun he or she plans to carry, the removal of a requirement to provide a social security number as a part of the application for a concealed weapons permit, and the elimination of some misdemeanors that would have disqualified an applicant from receiving a concealed handgun license.
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Overall, there has been an increase in gun-related laws in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in December 2012. The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence says for all states, “About the same number of laws (64) have strengthened state gun regulations as those that have weakened them (70), not including 38 newly-enacted gun laws that have a minimal impact.”
The Texas Legislature passed 13 new gun laws in the 83rd legislative session.
The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which advocates tighter restrictions on guns, disapproves of the Texas trend to loosen gun restrictions. However, the group does celebrate some of the new laws in the Lone Star State. A
Mother Jones analysis of Law Center tracking of nationwide gun laws shows Texas is one of 15 states that has strengthened mental health restrictions, passing a law allowing police to seize the firearm of a person who is deemed to be mentally ill or who may pose a serious risk of harm to themselves or others.
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Other groups celebrate the Texas deregulation of gun usage as protection of the rights of gun owners. The group Texas Firearms Freedom notes the current laws do not go far enough to protect Second Amendment rights. While the new 2013 laws do bring new freedoms,
Texas Firearms Freedom believes bills “the truly significant bills” to protect the rights of gun owners did not get passed or died in committee.
Among the bills that did not get passed into law were a measure to prevent the federal government from enforcing firearms laws contradictory to Texas statutes and a bill that would have allowed concealed handgun license holders to carry on college campuses. Both died in the Senate. Two bills died in the House, including a bill that would have allowed firearm manufacture in Texas, which is banned by federal regulations.
Texas Firearms Freedom also points out that five other bills never made it to the floor because they did not make it past the House’s Homeland Security Committee.
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