A key section of H.B. No. 553, the proposed Texas Second Amendment Preservation Act:
SECTION 2. Chapter 46, Penal Code, is amended by adding Section 46.16 to read as follows: Sec. 46.16. Second Amendment Shall Remain Inviolate; Offences; Penalties. (a) A person who is a Peace Officer, State Officer, or State Employee commits an offense if the person, while acting under color of the person's office or employment, intentionally enforces or attempts to enforce any acts, laws, executive orders, agency orders, rules or regulations of any kind whatsoever of the United States government relating to confiscating any firearm, banning any firearm, limiting the size of a magazine for any firearm, imposing any limit on the ammunition that may be purchased for any firearm, taxing any firearm or ammunition therefore, or requiring the registration of any firearm or ammunition therefore. (b) A person who is a public servant commits an offense if the person, while acting under color of the person's office or employment, intentionally enforces or attempts to enforce any acts, laws, executive orders, agency orders, rules or regulations of any kind whatsoever of the United States government relating to confiscating any firearm, banning any firearm, limiting the size of a magazine for any firearm, imposing any limit on the ammunition that may be purchased for any firearm, taxing any firearm or ammunition therefore, or requiring the registration of any firearm or ammunition therefore... One may click here to read a list of the 23 Executive Orders proposed by President Obama regarding registration and reclassification of firearms in contravention and abrogation of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution:
Austin – The truth is, the only stocks and securities with guaranteed potential for growth in this miserable economy are those issued by arms manufacturers.
Look it up. It's the truth. In fact, the industry's biggest customer, the government, is buying all they can make, as quick as they can make it. Arms merchants at gun shows, in gun shops, sporting goods stores, and at pawn brokers, are hard pressed to keep merchandise on hand.
But the hard reality, the dirty little shame no one is talking about is simple enough.
At the root of the problem is the fear and loathing generated when people come into conflict over their ethnic heritage and their spiritual beliefs.
Ralph Patterson, GOP Chairman in Waco
You could hear it in the words of Ralph Patterson, the County Republican Chairman from the site of some of the worst gun violence perpetrated in the past decade.
Near the gritty industrial suburb of Bellmead, there occurred a massacre of women and little kids at a religious cult
It was a compound populated by multi-ethnic occupants, many of them negro, with very unpopular religious beliefs and a preacher with ongoing conflict with white men whose wives had abandoned them, and who wanted to take their kids back to the land down under in Australia and New Zealand.
They petitioned the government for help, offering information that Vernon Howell, the leader of the Branch Davidian faithful, was allegedly in violation of gun laws at his mail order business, The Mag Bag.
The government's gun regulators stepped in to serve a warrant of arrest and search, and when the killing was done, it left a nation sickened by the violent display, a small percentage of them vowing to exercise their freedom of self defense with firearms - by any means necessary.
It didn't happen in a political vacuum. That weekend in February of 1993, the state Legislature had voted out a concealed carry handgun license law, a measure Governor Ann Richards, a native of Lacy-Lakeview near Waco, had vowed to veto the moment it hit her desk.
She did veto the new law, and got the socks beat off her by challenger George W. Bush, who vowed he would make it his first act if elected to sign the new law.
President Obama's election set off a run on gun and ammo that lasted for months. His re-election has set off the same chain of events.
You can't find certain types of ammo, and reloading supplies are hard to come by.
Said brother Patterson to the Gun Appreciation Day rally put on by the Tea Party and an organization called Guns Across America.
“There were 30 million evangelical Christians who didn't go to the polls and vote in November. The President was elected by 10 million votes.”
Do the math. Mr. Patterson is the GOP official charged with getting out the vote in that quintessentially Baptist city on the Brazos, home of Baylor University.
The President is a man of mixed racial background whose mother was a white woman from Kansas, his father a black man from Kenya. His opponent in the election – Mitt Romney – is a Mormon whose religion's unconventional approach to Christianity rendered him speechless in any debate over the issue.
He declined to even discuss the matter. Evangelical Christians who previously swept Tea Party Republicans and fair-haired candidates such as Reagan and Bush into office by huge margins stayed away from the polls in droves.
Romney lost the election - big time.
Mark E. Gurgevitch, first generation son of a Serbian nationalist
At that same rally, Air Force veteran Mark E. Gurgevich spoke at length on mike about his family's struggle with their Christian roots in a republic dominated by the progeny of an Islamic conqueror, the Ottoman Turks.
His grandfather came to America seeking freedom – and found it, he emphasizes, in abundance.
He's a strong law and order man, a major friend of the cops in Corpus Christi, he says, speaking in a booming voice with plenty of macho preening and aggressive gestures to spare.
One recalls the ethnic cleansing that plagued that troubled country when the Soviets pulled out of Yugoslavia.
Serbian nationalist militiamen reportedly roamed the country, killing Islamic countrymen with anything handy, including golf clubs and large sticks the size of baseball bats. They didn't need guns to kill the men. They starved them to death.
In a particularly ugly scene, a self-described militiaman waded into a crowd of Hispanic kids waiting to tour the capitol building prior to a scheduled anti-gun rights rally scheduled Saturday on the opposite side of the building. He had an M-4 carbine slung across his back, it magazine absent.
The Hispanic kids took up combat stances all around him, eyes roving, standing in a barrio phalanx impossible to misinterpret. Sgt. Tommy Lyons stepped in and reasoned with the man, persuading him to go back to the other side of the buiding, where pro-gun rights activists gave him a much friendlier reception.
The Legislature has a chance to defuse the situation by passing the nullification bill introduced by Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands.
Called the Firearms Protection Act, it would make it a state felony crime for any federal official to attempt to enforce executive orders promulgated by Mr. Obama against assault weapons.
One thing for sure, such a measure would guarantee any qualified citizen the right to own and bear such a weapon, regardless of what he thinks of God, who his mama was, or how he votes.
That's why the Tenth Amendment was inserted into the Bill of Rights. It guarantees that any power not specifically granted by the U.S. Constitution is reserved to the states. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison knew they would get the Constitution ratified if they would make such a provision, and it aided in the approval of that mighty document among statesmen who feared an all-powerful central government, an organization top heavy with authority to lay and levy taxes, mint coin and make war.
Hey, when things get this ugly, what could it could possibly hurt? After all, no one is going to just walk in and take all those guns away from this bunch of hard-headed Texans. Not in this lifetime. Not without a hell of a gun fight.
Austin - Like most Texans or their ancestors, Rep. Steve Toth got here as quickly as he could.
Rep. Steve Toth, R-Woodlands
Leaving
Mansfield, and one wonders if that's in Ohio, he and his family had
their choice of either California - “Duh” - or Massachusetts -
“Duh.”
“Texas
is where it's at.” Cheers erupted from the 300 or so gun rights
supporters who gathered on the north steps of the Capitol at high
noon Saturday for Guns Across America's rally in support of Mr.
Toth's Firearms Protection Act.
Said
Mr. Toth, who is a man of the cloth, “Ask any minister, and he will
tell you the...worst thing you can ever have to do is a funeral for a
couple whose child has died. Your children aren't supposed to go
before you do.” The prevailing mood among these people is angry, defensive, and fearful, no doubt. You can feel it, radiating out at you, as if from a hot stove - or a cold block of ice.
Rep. "Doc" Anderson, R-Waco
Guns
Across America appears to be an astroturf offshoot of the Tea Party,
since the rally's organizing structure is top heavy with Waco Tea
Party functionaries, including McLennan County Republican Chairman
Ralph Patterson. State Representative “Doc” Anderson stood by in
stoic observation, listening and watching very carefully.
The
proposed law would make it a felony crime for anyone – including
federal officials – to attempt to enforce gun control laws, such as
the maximum number of rounds allowed in a rifle's magazine.
Wyoming
has a similar bill in the hopper, both of them clones of the Tenth
Amendment Center's model legislation that would nullify gun control
laws under the terms of the Tenth Amendment.
So
far, eight southern states have seen bills proposing secession from
the United States filed in their current legislative sessions. They
are, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee,
Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana.
In
symmetrical fashion, the south steps of the building were reserved
for gun control proponents who support President Obama's 23 executive
orders and proposed federal legislation that would criminalize
possession and sales of carbines with high capacity magazines,
telescoping stocks, pistol grips, laser sights, and the rest of the
high-tech folderol of modern infantry weapons.
“We've
got to keep the two separated,” said a matronly State Trooper with
a wry smile dressed in Spandex. Wearing a bike helmet, a black
baclava against the cold, and bullet proof armor, she sat astride a
mountain bike with a radio repeater on the luggage rack.
The
Legendary obtained her permission to pass between enemy lines as a
sort of war correspondent, camera in hand.
The
anti-gun rights, pro gun control league had about half the number of
the pro-gun advocates.
On
the south side, the first sight we beheld was a grandfatherly
silver-haired daddy'o in a black cavalry Stetson, a black shirt and
crisply laundered tan jeans, an M-4 carbine slung across his back,
carrying a “Come and Take It” Gonzales flag, as he confronted
Sgt. Tommy Lyons of the DPS.
“I
just don't want to have to face a bunch of baby killers with the
jawbone of an ass,” the old timer told the Sergeant.
With
the exaggerated patience and pursed lips of a long-suffering adult
confronting an obstinate child, Tommy Lyons politely told him he
would have to stay out of the building with his weapon, and
admonished him to keep himself on the side of the building where the
pro-gun advocates were rallying.
“I
think I ought to be able to go where I want to go,” the man said.
Presented with a copy of The Legendary business card, he said, “I
object to your line of questioning,” when asked his name – in a
perfectly friendly way.
A
group of Hispanic school kids stood by, waiting in line to tour the
building. They were looking pretty scared.
Complimented
on his aplomb in handling the man with the assault rifle, Sgt. Lyons
said, “I can't remember his name, but he's here just about any time
we have something up here concerning gun rights.” He is an 8-year
veteran of duty at the Capitol; his female counterpart in Spandex and
body armor has been walking – and riding – the beat there for 12.
“Then,
we've got the Confederate war heroes today, too,” she said.
Sure
enough, in perfectly symmetrical fashion, the Descendants of
Confederate Veterans were holding a ceremony with many flags unfurled
at the building's east gate to honor the 206th birthday of
General Robert E. Lee. When they fired a volley from their cap and
ball black powder rifles, fire and smoke belched from the antique
muzzles two fathoms in the crystal-clear winter sky, and the echoes
from the buildings downtown were deafening. People all over the area
jumped out of their skins.
Dressed
in period garb and gaudy uniforms, they peered out of the past like a
long-lost family portrait in living color.
Said
Mr. Patterson, to the cheering crowd, “I'm the only elected
official here who doesn't have to represent liberals (cheers),
Democrats (even louder cheers) and...” his voice trailed off as he
choked back tears.
The
paramount sentiment, both spoken and unspoken, of the pro-gun rights
people's remarks was their grief for the brutal murders of the kids
at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
He
is one of the few people in the world to take on federal gun control
laws and win. Ordered by the passage of the Brady Bill to register
cowboys' six guns in his rural ranching community, he and other
County Sheriffs took their case to the Supreme Court with the help of
the NRA and obtained a victory under the terms of the 10th
amendment.
Why?
Because a majority of the Court could not find constitutional
justification for the requirement. Sheriff Mack has since relocated
to Fredericksburg, where he mounted an ill-fated campaign to unseat
U.S. Representative Lamar Smith in the Republican Primary.
While
waiting for the show to start, The Legendary chatted up a little old
gray-haired man of about the same age who has recently relocated to
El Paso from his Connecticut home. A tool and die maker, he invented
a device that applies a stainless steel jacket to a .308 bullet and
makes its muzzle velocity even faster than a copper-jacketed round
the same caliber.
The
objective? To make the ammunition lighter and less of a strain for
infantrymen to carry into battle.
Like
the copper jacket on a .223 round fired by M-16, AR-15, and M-4
carbines, the jacket rips off and shreds tissue as the bullet tumbles
end-for-end and the lead projectile explodes.
He,
too, chose Texas when he left the state that saw the development of
the Peace Maker six-gun, the Walker Colt Dragoon pistol, and the Navy
Revolver, and all the legendary Smith & Wesson revolvers favored
by steely-eyed defenders of the mythology of the gun such as Dirty
Harry and Marshal Dillon.
“We've
already spent our kids' inheritance,” he chuckled. “We might as
well retire here so they can take care of us.”
Angry scribes, shutterbugs are distributing this message:
Columbine shooters as they lay following the massacre
COLUMBINE
STUDENT'S FATHER 12 YEARS LATER
Guess
our national leaders didn't expect this. On Thursday, Darrell Scott,
the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School
shootings in Littleton, Colorado, was invited to address the House
Judiciary Committee's subcommittee. What he said to our national
leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully
truthful.
They
were not prepared for what he was to say, nor was it received well.
It needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every
politician, every sociologist, every psychologist, and every
so-called expert! These courageous words spoken by Darrell Scott are
powerful, penetrating, and deeply personal. There is no doubt that
God sent this man as a voice crying in the wilderness. The following
is a portion of the transcript:
"Since
the dawn of creation there has been both good &evil in the hearts
of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds
of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott,
and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children
who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.
"The
first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel
out in the field. The villain was not the club he used.. Neither was
it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain,
and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain's heart.
"In
the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how
quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am
not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun.
I am not here to represent or defend the NRA - because I don't
believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death. Therefore
I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they
had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest
opponent.
I
am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy -- it
was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the
real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of
the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers
themselves. I wrote a poem just four nights ago that expresses my
feelings best.
Your
laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your
words are empty air.
You've
stripped away our heritage,
You've
outlawed simple prayer.
Now
gunshots fill our classrooms,
And
precious children die.
You
seek for answers everywhere,
And
ask the question "Why?"
You
regulate restrictive laws,
Through
legislative creed.
And
yet you fail to understand,
That
God is what we need!
"Men
and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, mind, and
spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we
create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and
wreak havoc. Spiritual presences were present within our educational
systems for most of our nation's history. Many of our major colleges
began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact.
What
has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in
so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when
something as terrible as Columbine's tragedy occurs -- politicians
immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately
seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our
personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws.
Eric
and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount
of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of
massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.
"As
my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his
two friends murdered before his very eyes, he did not hesitate to
pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right!
I challenge every young person in America , and around the world, to
realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was
brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by
those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with
a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given right
to communicate with Him.
To
those of you who would point your finger at the NRA -- I give to you
a sincere challenge.. Dare to examine your own heart before casting
the first stone!
My
daughter's death will not be in vain! The young people of this
country will not allow that to happen!"
According
to CNN, Algerian Army operatives have freed two Britons, a Kenyan and
a French citizen taken hostage by Al Qaeda guerrillas Wednesday at a BP gas plant protesting conditions in Mali. Seven Americans are confirmed among the 100 hostages taken.
