Texas Campus Carry and Parking Lot Bills Update

The deadline for getting a bill to the Texas House floor is midnight tonight. SB 730, a bill "Relating to an employee's transportation and storage of certain firearms or ammunition while on certain property owned or controlled by the employee's employer" (AKA the Employer Parking Lots Bill) is on page 34 of the 38 page Supplemental House Calendar scheduled for today. Seeing as how on routine legislative days, the House can get through 3 or 4 pages of the Calendar in a day, we can pretty much consider SB 730 to be dead in the water. This bill is going to be left pending on the Calendar, just as last sessions Parking Lot Bill was.

If you are looking for SB1164, a "Bill relating to the carrying of concealed handguns on the campuses of institutions of higher education", it is not there. SB1164 never even made it to a calendar.

The Democrats have done a fine job of putting a strangle hold on House business in an attempt to keep SB362, a bill "Relating to requiring a voter to present proof of identification" off the house floor. This bit of political chicanery has hammered the final nail into the coffin built for our gun bills, but the coffin itself was built around these bills by a couple high ranking Republicans.

If these bills had not been held up in committee, they could have been a done deal weeks ago.

I think it would be a great move if Governor Perry called back to back Special Legislative Sessions for each and every bill left on any House Calendar. There are major bills from both sides of the isle that will not make it to the House floor by midnight tonight. Making sure that all bills left on the Calendar are allowed their time for debate would not be seen as a partisan maneuver, but as a life lesson for our legislators. Maybe a lesson that will keep tactics like this from happening in future legislative sessions.