Men Legally Carrying Firearms Arrested at Texas Capitol 9/13/2013 – Troopers Not Aware of Gun Law Exemption

Update: Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson and Governor Candidate Tom Pauken have demanded that the charges be dropped against these men because it is not illegal to open carry the guns the men had in the manner they carried them. Also, it has been confirmed that it was three men who were arrested, not just two. Also, it has been confirmed that the group of men were part of an organization called Open Carry Texas.

At least 3 men (one a war vet in a wheelchair) were arrested today, 9/13/2013, at the Texas Capitol in Austin, TX after Texas DPS State Troopers, not aware of the law, arrested them and then had to think of other charges to put on the men after finding out that it was not illegal for them to open carry the guns because pre 1899 black powder pistols are expressly exempted from the firearms law. It was humorous to see (at about 8:50 into the arrest video below) the State trooper start reading the Texas firearms law and then go silent when he got to the part about pre 1899 black powder pistols being exempts from the law. Instead of admitting the mistake, they go ahead and charge the man with disorderly conduct/causing alarm with a gun. I completely support law enforcement and the Texas DPS Officers are a good group, but they are not perfect and this was wrong.

For a self-proclaimed super conservative, gun-rights haven, it is shocking that Texas is one of the minority of states who do not allow some form of open carry for handguns. Yep, you can have a concealed handgun in Texas and pass all the background checks and shooting qualifications just like a police officer, but you cannot open carry like an officer or like citizens in several other states can. Rifles are ok to open carry in Texas, and Texas law also specifically exempts pre 1899 black powder pistols from being defined as firearms.

To exercise their rights, and make a statement that you can carry guns in Texas and be safe, a group of guys went walking around the Texas Capitol LEGALLY open carrying. They knew of course that the police would likely arrest them even though they were not breaking the law, so they had their cameras with them. Sure enough, the Texas State troopers, carrying handguns openly on their hips themselves, came and started making arrests. Two men, Terry Holcomb and Gary Hays, were arrested. After finding out that the pre 1899 black powder pistols were exempts from being considered firearms, the troopers went ahead and charged the men, not for open carrying a handgun, but for disorderly conduct/causing alarm with a firearm. Neither of those laws were broken because in Texas, the simple sight of a gun on someone’s hip or being carried cannot cause alarm. The person has to be doing something with the gun to intentionally cause alarm with the gun like pointing it at people. This reminds me of the recent story of the Master Sergeant in Texas who was legally carrying his rifle on a road march. A police officer did not like it so, even though it is legal to carry a rifle, the soldier was arrested and charged with the same type of disorderly conduct/alarming others with a gun like what these men in Austin were charged with today.

At least the State Troopers at the Capitol today knew enough to know that they group of men COULD have the rifles they were open carrying at the Capitol. That just makes the troopers look even sillier because they claimed the sight of a handgun caused alarm, but the rifles on the men’s back did not cause alarm? It does not make sense. It is not illegal what these men did, but Texas is still stuck in gun control land when it comes to open carrying. That leads to men getting arrested on ridiculous, trumped up charges even though they were legally carrying. It is time for Texas to really act conservative, and join the many other states who allow open carry.

Below are more of the pictures (from Facebook) and video from the arrests today of Gary Hays, Terry Holcomb and Scott Smith at the Texas State Capitol:

If video does not show below then click here to watch video

Texas Should Take Public Integrity Unit away from Travis County DA

from Rick Perry vs. The World:

Take Public Integrity Unit away from Travis County DA

BOR cogently argues why the Public Integrity Unit of Texas should not belong to the Travis County DA:

Those calling on Lehmberg to resign need to recognize the severity of handing the Public Integrity Unit and the environmental prosecution division over to a Perry crony whose attitude on everything from pre-trial release to the death penalty is likely to be out of touch with Austin's progressive community values.

Executed properly, the Public Integrity Unit invaluably serves all of Texas by enforcing anti-corruption law. Yet our Public Integrity Unit is subject to the whims of white Austin liberals who dominate the Democratic primary in Travis County.* Their current selection Rosemary Lehmberg has shown herself to be unfit for the office in a variety of ways.
Officials who serve all Texans should be accountable to all Texans, not to "Austin's progressive community values."


* One wonders whether moving the Public Integrity Unit to Travis County would pass Voting Rights Act preclearance in the Obama Justice Department.

N. Korea Threatens Nuke Missile Strike on Austin, Texas

North Korea Dictator Kim Jong Un has signed orders putting his rockets on combat ready status, and, according to Kim Jong Un's U.S. Mainland Strike Plan, Austin, TX is one of his top 4 American cities targeted by this potential nuclear missile strike (see picture of strike map below from NKNews.org). Occupy Movements, plastic bags, and Hippie Festivals are no longer the greatest threat to this liberal controlled Texas City. This actually brings up a valid question though. What is America doing to protect the Homeland from a strike like this coming from the Gulf of Mexico or countries south of the United States of America?

When Americans think of a potential missile strike, it is safe to say that most people would assume the missiles would hit either the East of West Coast. Not many people would name a city in Texas, for instance, when asked about a potential missile strike against the United States of America. Both the East and the West Coasts of America have defense measures in place. In fact, the new Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, recently announced, possibly in response to N. Korea, a plan to add 14 more missile interceptors in Alaska to protect the West Coast. Hagel is also requesting to beef up the missile defenses of the East Coast, likely in response to Iran. What about states like Texas? What if a missile strike came up from the Gulf of Mexico? What defense measures are in place? Why do southern states not have as much protection as the other coasts?

In fact, while the West and East Coasts are beefing up their Air Defense Systems in 2013, Obama is actually trying to shut down air defense systems along the southern border of the United States (including along the U.S. Mexico Border and the Gulf of Mexico Coast). Just a couple of months ago I broke this story: Obama Closing Air Defense System on U.S./Mexico Border: Texas & America Vulnerable to Attack from Low Altitude Missiles and Aircraft. After widespread outrage, the Air Force has said they would keep this Tethered Aerostat Radar System air defense system up until at least the end of this year instead of closing TARS at the beginning of the year as originally planned.

When planning for an attack from the enemy, all options must be considered. This includes the option that a country planning to attack the U.S. knows the East and West Coasts are well protected and therefore the country will try to attack a less protected state along with Gulf of Mexico. Just last year, a Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine armed with long-range cruise missiles operated undetected in the Gulf of Mexico for several weeks.

Why attack Texas? Is anyone surprised that North Korea's hit list includes the capitol city of Texas? You shouldn't be surprised. The Republican controlled State of Texas is a shining example of hope, prosperity, opportunity, and economic stability in America. In fact, the State of Texas is a perennial top 15 largest economy in the world compared to entire countries.

Austin’s Plastic Bag Ban Violates TX Law, will Harm Consumers, Jobs and the Environment

from Raquel Bubar:

The Austin bag ban that takes effect on March 1st. As you may have heard, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell pushed through a short-sighted ordinance to ban grocery bags in the city. The ordinance is terrible public policy that is bad for the economy, bad for business and bad for Austin consumers. It also penalizes businesses who fail to comply with a class C misdemeanor and a $2,000 fine. That’s drastic for grocery bags!
If Austin’s politicians were serious about cleaning up litter and creating jobs, they would have considered other solutions, rather than banning a 100% recyclable product that amounts to only 0.5% of the litter stream, according to the U.S. EPA.

Here is a fact sheet that highlights the downsides of this ban, which might be interesting to share with your readers. Also, check out this infographic on why plastic bags make sense.


from KLBJ News Radio:

New 'bag ban' may go against state law


Newsroom

2/26/2013

An association representing store owners is suing the city of Austin over it's impending ban on single use plastic bags. Ronnie Volkening with the Texas Retailers Association says the ordinance appears to go against a state law that may pre-empt it. Volkening doesn't give many specifics about the statute, but says by his reading the new bag ban goes against part of the state's health and safety code.
Volkening says he is not trying to get an injunction to stop the ban before it starts. Instead his association's suit is seeking a 'declaratory judgement action' about the ordinance.
Volkening says he's telling his members to abide by the ordinance until the case is heard in court. The bag ban goes into effect Friday.

In TX, Eric Holder Ignores Democrat Voting Fraud & Hypocritically Requires ID to Hear Him Speak

The United States Attorney General Eric Holder paid a visit to Texas. He tried to accuse Republicans of voter fraud while ignoring that most cases of voter fraud are by the Democrats. He did not mention that he let the New Black Panthers off the hook for intimidating voters at polling places. He spoke about how Voter ID in Texas elections would somehow be discriminating to minorities, and yet he hypocritically required everyone show ID in order to be able to go see him speak. He made it seem as though Hispanics could not get elected unless the lines were redrawn in Texas to favor Democrats, and yet he failed to mention that more Texas Hispanics were elected to office in 2012 from the Republican Party than from the Democrat Party. Eric Holder is a Farce as the Attorney General and he should be fired for his knowledge of the fast and furious gun running government program that led to a Border Agent getting killed by guns bought as part of this program.

Katherine Engelbrecht, the founder of True the Vote, led a rally in Austin to Protest Eric Holder’s Texas Speech. Adryana Boyne was one of the key Hispanic speakers at this rally and the video of her speech at the rally against Eric Holder can be seen my clicking here.

True the Vote emailed me a great summary of what happened at the rally, what Eric Holder said during his speech, and how Eric Holder is just plain wrong.

Below is the Email from True the Vote about Eric Holder and the Rally Against Him:

Austin: Successful Rally to Oppose AG Holder's Attack on Election Reforms

On Tuesday, December 13 a rally was held near the LBJ Library at the University of Texas, Austin to highlight the attack on election reforms launched inside by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder went to Texas to denounce the Lone Star State's voter ID laws and claimed that simple voter ID laws were somehow discriminatory. Holder ominously claimed that he would use the power of his office to "enforce civil rights protections" during the upcoming 2012 elections.

Outside the LBJ Library nearly 200 citizens gathered to hear a multi-racial panel of six speakers denounce Holder's partisan attempts to push the administration's agenda to turn a blind eye to continuing voter fraud that consistently favors candidates from the Democrat Party.

The rally was sponsored by the Houston-based True The Vote, a grass roots voter integrity project staffed by volunteers. True The Vote is a nation-wide organization that has affiliates across the country, every day citizens interested in the integrity of the elections in their home district.

True The Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht said she was thrilled by the turnout that was arranged on only a few day's notice:

"We gathered for the purpose of setting the record straight and people came from all over Texas to hear a host of speakers all representing different sides of the issue. All were clearly saying that the thought that photo voter ID laws would in some way suppress the vote or would in some way disenfranchise voters is on its face a farce. This is only being done to advance a politically motivated agenda that has at its core the themes of victimization and race baiting."

In his comments AG Holder cited one Republican in Maryland that was convicted of trying to trick black voters into staying home on Election Day, but what this single case has to do with voter ID laws was unclear. Holder's intent, it seems, was to dismiss vote fraud from Democrats while shifting the blame to this one Republican. Holder did not mention such Democrat fraud as that seen in the 2008 Indiana primary, the New York Democrat that recently pleaded guilty to vote fraud, or any of the other such cases that can be easily found in the news.

It should be noted that at least one major case of voter suppression occurred during Holder’s tenure at the Department of Justice but it went ignored by his office. In 2008 a pair of militant Black Panther Party members used bats and weapons to intimidate white voters from entering a Philadelphia voting place. Ultimately Holder’s office decided not to prosecute this clear case of voter suppression.

There were five other speakers that appeared after Engelbrecht. Those speakers were: Anita MonCrief, the founder of the Boots of Liberty Task Force (BOLT) and the Editor-in-Chief of Emerging Corruption. MonCrief is also known as the ACORN/ Project Vote Whistleblower. Adryana Boyne, the National Director of VOCES Action a non profit organization that educates and empowers Hispanics with conservative fiscal and moral values. Election lawyer J. Christian Adams who served in the Voting Rights Section at the U.S. Department of Justice and whose book Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department is a must read for anyone interested in the hard facts of the DOJ. C.L. Bryant, a native of Shreveport, LA and a former president of the NAACP’s Garland, Texas Chapter. And finally, George Rodriguez, President of San Antonio Tea Party. Rodriguez served as a presidential appointee under both Presidents Bush and Reagan and is also the nation’s first Hispanic Tea Party President.

The crux of the rally was to spur citizens to get involved. "'Democrat or Republican voter fraud is unacceptable but it is up to us to stop it," said Engelbrecht,

"Here's my message today - everyone listening needs to take stock of the situation facing our country, and then ask themselves what they are doing to make things better. What are you doing? There are all kinds of places and ways that citizens can directly engage and work for the good of this country and hold to what made us great. True the Vote is a great example -- a great way to serve in a desperately needed and critically important area -- protecting the sanctity of the vote. Our election process was always intended to be run by American citizens for the good of America and Americans. We need to take our process back and need to educate ourselves in the ways we can get engaged."

One last bit of irony -- if not hypocrisy -- was experienced as people lined up to enter the LBJ Library to hear AG Holder rail against voter ID laws. As each person entered the library they were required to present their photo IDs in order to be allowed in to hear the speech.

Travis County (Austin, TX) using Taxpayer Dollars to Sue Republicans over Redistricting

At the most recent State Republican Executive Committee meeting I was informed by the State Chairman that the he was served papers letting him know of a lawsuit against the Republican Party over redistricting by Travis County, TX. Why? Because Travis County does not like their Austin population getting split up. They want their own district all to themselves and they don’t care about anyone else. They want to draw the lines instead of the Texas Legislature whose members get elected to do draw the lines in redistricting. Districts have to have roughly equal population numbers in each district and for that to happen there have to be districts where big cities get split up and put in a district with less populated counties so that the numbers add up and the district sizes stay reasonable. Otherwise there would be tiny districts in the big cities and then the rural counties would all be in one big district that spans 300 miles. All the other big cities get split up too. Stop Crying Travis County and Stop Wasting Taxpayer Dollars. That’s right. The county is using tax money to do this.

It upsets me that when Democrats are in power they carve up the maps in Redistricting and they oppress the Republicans in every way they can, but now that the Republicans are in power they whine about being oppressed when really they are not. Republicans rule the voting boxes in Texas and yet we are giving the Democrats HALF of the four new congressional seats that we are getting in Texas. That is very generous. We could have been like Illinois where the Illinois Democrats run things and they are virtually wiping the Republicans off of the map in their redistricting efforts. Many of the GOP incumbents no longer live in their old district, and the Democrats did as much as they could to put GOP incumbents in districts where they would have to run against another Republican in a primary. Why not the outrage about that? It is hypocrisy at its best.

The other notable lawsuit against Republicans over Redistricting is a lawsuit from Mexican American Legislative Caucus. They are suing because they want non-citizens to be able to vote and they make the absurd claim that only Hispanics and African Americans can best serve Hispanics and African Americans. What an absurd claim. You vote for a person’s values, beliefs, and what they are going to do. You don’t vote for someone based on the color of their skin. That is racism. The truth is that most minority groups are actually conservative Republicans in their beliefs.