GUN RIGHTS

At the 2022 Texas Tribune Festival, the Texas House speaker also signaled willingness to consider exceptions to the state’s abortion ban.

A judge appointed by former President Donald Trump based his decision on a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down New York’s concealed carry law.

Both Gov. Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke hope to define the election on issues viewed as favorable to their own parties.

U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, who cited the Second Amendment in his decision, stayed the ruling pending appeal.

The Republican U.S. senator shepherded landmark gun legislation through the Senate last month. Between April and June, his disapproval rating went from 39% to 50%, according to a Texas Politics Project poll.

Four senators, including Cornyn, used a distinctive combination of policy expertise, legislative experience and political courage to push past obstacles that had repeatedly stymied previous attempts at compromise.

The U.S. House passed the legislation Friday afternoon. Nearly all Texas Republicans voted against it. The bill is widely viewed as a series of modest changes to current gun regulations, falling far short of proposals pushed by House Democrats and President Joe Biden.

The senators said they would support proposals like raising the age to legally own an assault weapon from 18 to 21, creating red flag laws and regulating private gun sales.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was one of the lead negotiators for the proposal, which would expand background checks for people under 21 and encourage states to enact “red flag” laws. President Joe Biden and House Democrats had wanted to go further.

Outside the Capitol in Austin, relatives of Jackie Cazares, 9, and Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10, two of the 19 students killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, tearfully addressed a crowd.

Since Texas launched the school marshal program in 2013, just 84 school districts out of more than 1,200 have armed school staff. Educators say the program’s lack of popularity shows that teachers don’t want to be the ones to defend schools from mass shootings.

In arguing over causes of the latest mass shooting, political debate often overlooks the range of incremental steps that could lessen the chances of mass killing and help address the nation’s persistent gun violence.

More than 250 self-declared gun enthusiasts, including donors who have contributed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaigns, have signed on to an open letter supporting Sen. John Cornyn’s efforts at bipartisan gun reform legislation.

House Democrats are combining several gun policy bills into one large package known as the Protecting our Kids Act. Among the measures in the bill: raising the age to purchase semi-automatic weapons to 21; outlawing the sale, manufacture, transfer or possession of a large-capacity magazine; and creating tax breaks for purchasing proper gun storage equipment.

Gutierrez, a Democrat who has been critical of the state’s response to past shootings, said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also snubbed state senators whose districts were affected by shootings in El Paso and Santa Fe.

Longtime Uvalde residents say the city is a hunting mecca and the love for guns goes right along with it. But some would now support measures like raising the age limit to buy AR-style weapons or monitoring high-volume ammunition purchases.

O’Rourke became known on the presidential campaign trail for his “Hell yes” promise to ban assault weapons. He’s been less vocal about the policy in his run for governor but this week, after the school shooting in Uvalde, he’s been newly assertive about the issue.

The question moving forward is whether Democrats, outnumbered in the Texas Legislature for two decades, will be able to put enough pressure on lawmakers to move on a previously intractable issue in gun-friendly Texas and that Republicans, who support looser gun laws, will fight tooth and nail.

The “God-given right” to self-defense has become a rallying cry in Texas politics, further cementing gun ownership as a holy cause and political identity. The state’s Republican leadership has spent decades carrying the banner.

Trump spoke at the Houston event three days after the Uvalde school shooting.

He brought only one of the rifles with him into the elementary school, according to the briefing. The other was left in a truck he crashed nearby.

Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican leaders signaled an openness to some gun restrictions after recent mass shootings. But in the last several years, lawmakers have eased gun laws, most notably by passing a permitless carry bill last year.

Texas’ recent string of deadly mass shootings has sparked public debate about gun rights — and a host of laws aimed at preventing the next one.

Most voters approve of using state money to add border barriers between Texas and Mexico. But 57% disapprove of a new abortion law’s provision allowing lawsuits against people who help someone get the procedure.

A gun rights group filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in opposition to Texas’ abortion law, fearful that similar statutes could be crafted in other states to target gun ownership.

The law that went into effect Sept. 1 allows anyone 21 years or older to carry a handgun in public without need for a permit or training.

Texas’ new near-total abortion ban, one of the most restrictive in the nation, punctuated a week that brought into stunning relief just how far the state’s political pendulum has swung to the right since the 2020 election.

The agreement advances the legislation even closer to becoming law. Abbott has said he will sign such a proposal.