Act Now to Stop Gun Control in Texas

To ALL Texas Gun Owners:

I need your help IMMEDIATELY to stop a sneaky gun control over-reach here in Texas (HB 316). Not only is this bill actually moving forward in the legislative process, it is already funded in the proposed Texas budget.

This is urgent. The House of Representatives will debate the budget this week on Wednesday. Representative Matt Schaefer has proposed an amendment to defund this sneaky measure — but we’ll need to work hard to pass that amendment.

We also need to let our legislators know how strongly gun owners oppose HB 316.

Let me explain to you what this bill does and why we oppose it.

HB 316 purports to establish a statewide public awareness campaign for “safe gun storage and suicide prevention.” It uses taxpayer dollars (with $1 million in funding over the next two years) and is very open-ended by tasking the Department of Public Safety, the Department of State Health Services, “and other government agencies” with developing the program.

Needless to say, I have serious concerns about what this program would look like.

In my testimony before the committee, I explained that firearms safety training is very important to gun owners. As a firearms instructor, I believe that safe and responsible use of firearms is an integral part of firearm safety training. 

I would love for more Texans to be more familiar with safe handling and use of firearms. But I absolutely do not believe that this government program is the correct avenue.

As several other witnesses and I explained, there are many private organizations doing a good job of promoting firearm safety and training. Our legislature shouldn’t demand our tax dollars for this project.

As I suspected, the witnesses who supported the bill made it clear that they want the public awareness campaign to communicate that safe storage means keeping guns locked up and completely inaccessible for any legitimate defensive use. They used phrases like, “If only the gun had been locked in a safe, maybe he would still be here today.”

Unfortunately, they fail to see the value of a firearm as a tool that can actually save lives.

This is not the message that Texans need to hear — and not the message we want to be funding with our tax dollars.

Gun groups across Texas stand in solidarity in opposition to this bill, as you can see in our video from last week’s hearing.

Act NOW!

Please contact your legislators immediately ABOVE. Ask them to OPPOSE HB 316 and also to vote “YES” on Rep. Schaefer’s good amendment that strikes Rider 51 of Article V in the budget bill — thus removing funding from this program.

Also, please take a few minutes to call the Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee members. It is in their power to stop this bill from moving out of the committee, and we need to make sure they vote NO.

You’ll talk to a staff member — simply ask them to pass the message to the representative to vote NO on HB 316 in committee. Each call should take only a few seconds.

CHAIR: Rep. Poncho Nevarez (D) — (512) 463-0566

VICE CHAIR: Rep. Dennis Paul (R) — already committed to vote NO — thank you Rep. Paul!

MEMBERS:

Rep. DeWayne Burns (R) — (already committed NO vote — thank you Rep. Burns!)

Rep. Gina Calanni (D) — (512) 463-0528

Rep. Travis Clardy (R) — (512) 463-0592

Rep. Vikki Goodwin (D) — (512) 463-0652

Rep. Celia Israel (D) — (512) 463-0821

Rep. Mike Lang (R) — already committed to vote NO — thank you Rep. Lang!

Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R) — already committed to vote NO — thank you Rep. Tinderholt!

Please don’t delay! The budget vote is this Wednesday, and the committee vote may be Thursday morning.

Thank you for your help in defending our liberties!

For Texas,

Rachel Malone
Texas Director, Gun Owners of America

P.S. Be sure to join my weekly phone call updates each Sunday evening at 8pm for more information on gun-related legislation in Texas!

Call: (515) 604-9912

Code: 140414#

Or join online: https://join.freeconferencecall.com/goa