Laws become effective 09/01/2007
Don't leave your handgun in your unattended
vehicle. The National Insurance Crime Bureau says
that once every 20 seconds in the United States a vehicle is stolen, and that
theft from vehicles occurs far more often than that.
Either get a license and take it with you
or leave it home. I know it's somewhat wordy, but please read the following very carefully.
A newly rewritten law, PC §46.02 (Unlawfully Carrying A Weapon), passed by the
current legislative idiots, backed by the NRA (sometimes I have to question their
wisdom) and the Texas State Rifle Association (TSRA) (already know their wisdom,
or lack thereof - SEE SIDE NOTE BELOW**), allows any individual, without any type of
vetting, to have a handgun in their vehicle at
any time as long as: 1) the individual is not a member of a street gang, 2) the weapon is concealed, 3) the
individual is not committing a crime (excluding traffic violations) and 4) is able to legally
own a handgun. The law also alludes to being able to carry while en-route to your
vehicle, but does not define what "en-route to" means (rest assured, test cases are in the future).
The vehicle has to be owned, or under the control of the individual with the
handgun.
At first glance, this may seem great, but read on. In addition to passing this law, our
legislative loonies also passed a law, initiated and sponsored by the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC -
similar type organization), which prohibits any juvenile criminal from being sent to
the Texas Youth Commission (TYC - prison for juvenile criminals) for
committing any,
or any number of, misdemeanor crimes, as well as either releasing, placing on
parole or sending to TDC (prison for adults), all juvenile prisoners,
whoops, I'm sorry, juvenile residents, regardless of crime,
when they turn 19 years old. Considering that the core belief of
the ACLU, and TCJC, is one that is intent on
protecting the rights of criminals, not victims, and that almost all criminals
can be rehabilitated (maybe we shouldn't have prisons anyway and can
instead all get together and sing Kumbaya), I doubt that many of
these juvenile criminals, because of outrage and cry from both these groups, and
politicians being the way they are, will find their way to adult prison until
they commit another crime, and are maybe then sentenced to prison.
THE REASON THIS IS IMPORTANT TO GUN OWNERS: one of the most often committed misdemeanor crimes
in San Antonio is Burglary of a Vehicle
followed closely by Auto Theft. As
it will not be long before every criminal, both juvenile and adult become aware
of this new carry law, do you really want to leave your handgun in your
unattended vehicle in a parking lot or on the street for easy pickings? Handguns
cost a lot of money and they are a valuable commodity to thieves. There
will be many vehicle burglaries committed for the purpose of looking for
handguns. You think you are protected by an alarm? You may want to rethink your
position on that as these criminals can be in and out of your vehicle before
anyone figures out where the alarm is coming from. I found out the hard way in a crowded parking lot with
a roaming security officer. You think you know a good hiding place in your vehicle, they know them all
and then some. Look for a radical increase of car burglaries.
Additionally, these
legislative loonies rewrote a perfectly good self defense statute and made it so
stupid, it is virtually impossible for anyone to understand.
Thank you everybody who had a hand in passing these laws.
Your astute (ignorant) foresight is overwhelming.
Although I am a firm advocate of the 2nd Amendment, I also believe there need to be
checks and balances in place to safeguard our law abiding citizens and law enforcement officers
from the "bad guys".
These laws do neither.
Ok, they did pass at least one good law. For our active duty military,
members of the reserves,
guard and recent honorably discharged veterans (less than 365 days), the fee to
the state for the license is $0.00. For veterans honorably discharged over
365 days ago, the fee is 1/2 price.
**Just a side note:
The state legislature rewrote and passed this new UCW statute
to replace the worthless "traveling" law passed in 2005. The TSRA still believes
the old law is a good law, even though they helped sponsor the replacement law.
The TSRA aligned themselves with the ACLU (yes, that's correct, the ACLU
-
check out their take on the 2nd Amendment) and
the TCJC in order to help defeat the prosecution of any previous arrests
generated by the prior, poorly written, "traveling" law. Strange bedfellows. The TSRA has also
published on their website, contained in the article by, and about, the ACLU, a
"how to handle" (my words)
the police if stopped while carrying without a license. Decent law abiding
citizens really don't need to worry about "handling" the police, BUT
CRIMINALS, GANG MEMBERS AND GANG BANGERS DO. Don't think for a second they don't know how to surf the
internet and get this advice courtesy of the Texas State Rifle Association. Whose
side are these people on anyway? Oh, yes, of course, the same side as
irresponsibility and the ACLU. Pretty amazing
stuff.
Take a
look at this. The Executive Director of the TSRA, when asked
by e mail for an explanation, declined to comment.
The morons in the
state legislature, as well as the present governor who signed off on the laws,
need to be voted out before our state becomes much like the ACLU controlled
state on the far west coast, and which will cause our laws to continue to weaken law enforcement
and victims rights, while
strengthening the criminal element. Witness the increasing crime rate. The criminals are on their way to winning the
ballgame. These are
not just the ramblings of a lunatic right wing old man, but one who has dealt with the law for 48
years and who personally observes the gradual degradation of it five days a week.
Folks, at the risk of sounding dramatic, we are well on our way to being in trouble.