Are Republican lawmakers ready to capitulate on 2nd Amendment rights?

Good morning,

Seemingly capitulating to the Democrats’ gun-control narrative, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott [[link removed]] and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick [[link removed]] are taking "actions" to confront mass shootings and gun violence.

Today's Texas Minute looks at some facts inconvenient to those who would so readily rush to strip Texans of their Second Amendment rights.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan

Monday, September 9, 2019

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Last week State Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler) received national scorn [[link removed]] for refusing the “do something” mantra of the radical left and their enablers in the media on Second Amendment rights. He was absolutely right. Republican capitulation to the demand to “do something” are already leading to the abrogation of our rights and liberties.

In the wake of the horrible shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the Washington Post [[link removed]] dramatically printed the names of 1,196 individuals killed in such incidents since 1966. That’s a nationwide average of 23 per year. Horrific? Absolutely.

But context matters. We are, after all, a nation of more than 325 million people.

Empower Texans’ president, Ross Kecseg, checked some weather-related numbers. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [[link removed]], an average of 47 people per year die from lightning strikes.

Twice as many people die on average from lighting strikes than in mass shootings. Roughly speaking, an American is twice as likely to be struck by lightning than die in a mass shooting.

According to the Crime Prevention Resource Center [[link removed]], more than 90 percent of mass shootings have occurred in “gun-free” zones.

Data from the Federal Highway Administration [[link removed]] indicates that since 2006, an average of 784 people have died per year because of people running red-lights.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 10,497 people who died “ in alcohol-impaired driving crashes [[link removed]]” in 2016. Nearly 10 times as many people died in a single year from drunk driving as died over a 50 year period in mass shootings.

The CDC also reports 1,233 children (aged 0-14 years) died in traffic accidents in that same year. More children died in one year from drunk driving incidents than the combined total of deaths from mass shootings in one year.

The CDC also reports an average of “3,536 fatal unintentional drownings” annually in the United States.

The flu, according to the CDC [[link removed]], is responsible for “between 12,000 – 79,000 deaths annually.”

Why hasn’t the Washington Post listed any of those names?

In Houston there were 289 murders in 2018. And the same weekend that saw the El Paso horror, Houstonians experienced 13 homicides – a fact overlooked by the media and politicians rushing to restrict citizens’ rights to keep and bear arms. So Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick are now rushing to "do something"... why? Because the media and the Democrats are demanding it? Because it might poll well with people who aren’t going to vote for Republicans anyway?

After both men actively (and unsuccessfully) pushed a major tax increase [[link removed]] during the spring’s legislative session, how are Republican voters to take their apparent capitulation on Second Amendment issues this fall?

As State Rep. Jonathan Stickland (R-Bedford) wrote to Abbott on Twitter [[link removed]] last week: “Start leading folks to liberty. Stop pandering to progressives.” “Texas is already blue. Democrats are now getting Republicans to paint it blue for them.” – Conservative analyst Daniel Horowitz [[link removed]]

Lt. Gov. Patrick made the Left cheer late last week by saying he would defy the National Rifle Association [[link removed]] – “willing to take an arrow,” as he put it – by imposing new gun control regulations on Texans. The NRA quickly responded to Patrick attempting to “resurrect” the policies proposals of “the Obama Administration.” “Surveillance of Texan-to-Texan private firearms transfers is a failed idea. It doesn’t work in Chicago, and it won’t make us safer here. It will infringe our rights to self-defense.” – State Rep. Matt Schaefer [[link removed]]

Many Democrats (and now some Republicans) want to implement Extreme Risk Protection Orders – the fancy name for "red-flag" laws – that would circumvent due-process rights by allowing police to confiscate a citizen’s firearms. I thought it might be fun to do an ERPO check on government:

History of violence? 🚩Has threatened violence? 🚩Engages in dangerous action? 🚩Emotional instability? 🚩Has previously acquired guns/ammunition? 🚩

Lots of red flags there. Don’t let government anywhere near your guns.

Today in History

On Sept. 9, 1776, the nation was officially named the “United States of America” by the Continental Congress.

Quote-Unquote

“A man's rights rest in three boxes. The ballot box, jury box, and the cartridge box.”

– Frederick Douglass​

Texas’ Governor

Greg Abbott - R

(512) 463-2000 [[link removed]:(512) 463-2000]

Texas’ Lt. Governor

Dan Patrick – R

(512) 463-0001

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CEO, Empower Texans

Texas Scorecard & Texans for Fiscal Responsibility

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PO Box 36875 | Houston, TX 77236 The Texas Minute is a quick look at the news and info of the day that we find interesting, and hope you do as well. It is produced on week days and distributed at 6 a.m. (though I'll probably take the occasional break for holidays and whatnot).

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