Dear Texas House District 19 NRA Member:
The Texas Legislature passed groundbreaking legislation to restore and protect your Second Amendment rights in the Lone Star State, during its 2021 Regular Session. As NRA-ILA reported to you last week, a dozen new pro-Second Amendment bills took effect on September 1.
Your State Representative, James White, joint-authored and voted for House Bill 1927, NRA-backed constitutional carry legislation, this session. HB 1927 allows law-abiding adults, 21 or older, to carry a handgun concealed or unconcealed for personal protection without paying a fee and obtaining a license from the state. Texas’ existing License To Carry law remains on the books so that residents and non-residents may continue to obtain LTCs for purposes of reciprocity and NICS-exemptions when purchasing a firearm.
Representative White was also a joint-author and supporter of House Bill 1500, which establishes that firearm and ammunition manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, suppliers and retailers are essential businesses that shall not be prohibited by state or local officials from operating during a declared disaster or emergency. This bill ensures that law-abiding Texans can exercise their constitutional right to purchase and own firearms during future disasters or emergencies, regardless of any statewide or local officeholder’s personal politics.
As chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security & Public Safety, Representative White played a key role in advancing other significant pro-gun measures from his committee onto the House floor for timely votes, thus ensuring that the bills ultimately made it to Governor Abbott’s desk for his signature:
* Senate Bill 20, which protects the ability of hotel guests to store lawfully-possessed firearms and ammunition in their rooms, and to transport them directly en route between their vehicles and their rooms. Hotels frequently fail to include information on their websites, or in reservation notices, to inform guests about restrictive firearms policies. This forces gun owners, upon arrival, to consider leaving their firearms in their cars or trucks and make them susceptible to theft, in order to comply with policies they knew nothing of in advance.
* Senate Bill 550, which eliminates the requirement that a holster for an openly-carried handgun by a License To Carry holder be a belt or shoulder holster. This change will allow LTCs who carry openly to choose the type of holster that best suits their personal situation and self-defense needs.
Please take a moment to thank Representative White for his hard work on, and support for, these landmark pro-Second Amendment measures in the Texas Legislature.
