TX Committee for Constitutional Carry Appointed, Leadership Confident

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Texas Second Amendment supporters have been working hard to pass Constitutional Carry in Texas for several years. The leadership of the Texas Republicans has been hostile to the idea, even though Constitutional Carry was one of the top planks in the Texas Republican Party platform. Changes in leadership, by resignation or removal in primaries, made passage plausible in 2021.

A new Republican Party Chairman, Allen West, pushed hard for passage. Speaker of the House, Dade Phelan supported it. It passed the house, 84 to 56 in mid-April. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (who controls the Texas Senate) and Governor Greg Abbot got on board. It passed the Senate, with all 18 Republicans voting for it. All 18 votes were needed, as required by the Texas Senate filibuster rule.

The price of some of those votes was in eight amendments, several of which were problematic.

On Wednesday, 12 May, the House rejected the amendments attached to HB1927 in the Senate and moved to send the bill to a conference committee to work out the differences.

Speaker of the House, Dade Phelan, immediately appointed five members of the House, including Representative Schaefer, the sponsor of the bill, and Representatives Burrows, Canales, Guillen and White.

On 13 May, in the afternoon, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick appointed five members of the Senate to the Conference Committee. They are Senators Schertner, Birdwell, Campbell, Creighton, and Hughes.

The members of the Conference Committee all voted for HB1927. This shows both Speaker of the House Dade Phelan and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, who runs the Texas Senate, are serious about passing HB1927 and getting it to Governor Greg Abbott, to sign into law, this session.

It may be that only 16 votes will be needed in the Senate to pass a bill from the Conference Committee. Perhaps a reader who is intimately familiar with Texas legislative procedure can enlighten us on that point.

There is not much time left in the Texas legislative session this year. The Session ends at midnight on 31 May. There are legislative procedures and schedules to follow.

Both Speaker Phelan and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick expressed confidence they could get the bill to Governor Abbott to sign. Dade Phelan Tweeted:

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

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