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New Texas Law Makes It Easy For Criminals To Openly Carry Handguns

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Nation’s Loosest Open Carry Handgun Law Takes Effect In Its Second-Largest State

With Americans already on edge over the very real threat of mass shootings, Texas just compounded those fears for many of its citizens by allowing nearly one million people in the Lone Star State to carry handguns in plain sight. 

On Jan. 1, Texas became the largest state to legalize the “open carry” of handguns. Houston, meanwhile, is now the nation’s largest city where open carry is legal, and along with Dallas and San Antonio, it joins only Philadelphia and Phoenix in the top 10. 

Some suggest the new law is much ado about nothing, pointing to the fact that 45 states already allow some form of open carry. Presumably these same folks believe the “status quo” — a horrific epidemic of gun violence in which the US averaged one mass shooting per day in 2015 — is something worth preserving. 

But for Texas, which was home to three of the eight deadliest gun violence incidents of the year, the law is hardly the status quo. Pushed through by GOP legislators at the behest of pro-gun lobbyists and constituents, the law is vaguely worded with apparently little concern for its unintended — and likely deadly — consequences. 

The law directly applies only to the 850,000 people in Texas who have concealed handgun licenses, as well as those with recognized permits from other states. However, it’s unclear whether police can legally approach those who are openly carrying handguns and request to see their documentation. Naturally, this could embolden criminals and people with little or no firearms training, giving them cover if they choose to pack heat in plain sight.  

Posted by 1 Million Moms Against Gun Control on Friday, August 9, 2013

“We’ve changed things here a lot and we’ve not thought this through,” Charley Wilkison, executive director of the state’s largest law enforcement officers’ union, told the Associated Press. “People will drive without a license and we can sure count on them to carry a weapon without training or license.”

Even if police do approach gun holders and ask to see their permits, experts say those who refuse to produce them have committed no crime and can’t be arrested. In practice, police say they’ll be reluctant to inquire about permits due to the fear of harassment lawsuits — a legitimate one given that gun “enthusiasts” who already believe the new law is too restrictive say they’re anxious to challenge it in court.  

“We’re going to assume they’re a license holder, probably,” Austin Police Department training commander Andy Michael told the AP. 

The law allows businesses and private universities to opt out, and many have announced plans to do so. However, people can now legally and openly carry handguns into the lobbies of police stations and other public buildings in Texas, leading to “panic” among employees at places like Dallas City Hall. 

“People have died across the country, and residents and city employees want to know: When should we be worried?,” city spokeswoman Sana Syed told The Dallas Morning News. “There is no barometer for knowing which person is in their right mind to have a weapon like that.”

Unlike open carry statutes in other states, the Texas law doesn’t allow cities to opt out, something Democrats in the Legislature pushed for. 

“As a result of this shortsightedness, Texas is now home to the largest cities in the United States that have open carry laws with no local restrictions,” state Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Dallas Democrat, said in a statement this week, calling the law the “most extreme” in the nation. “I don’t want strange men walking down my street brandishing guns while my daughters are riding bikes or playing outside. My neighbors and constituents don’t want that, either.”

As one of Anchia’s neighbors, I can certainly vouch for that statement, and the law will undoubtedly fuel a spike in emergency calls from alarmed citizens. 

Law enforcement officials say it could also result in those who openly carry handguns becoming targets for violence, or endangering lives by trying to play hero when crimes occur. If you’re a police officer arriving at the scene of a shooting, how do you differentiate between suspects and civilians? How do you even begin to control a crime scene when everyone has a weapon? 

While these chaotic scenarios are hypothetical, another grave consequence of the new Texas law is more certain.

“Any time you introduce more guns into any environment, empirical data has shown, you have more accidental shootings,” Police Chief Mike McClelland told The Houston Chronicle. “You have more suicides, more children shoot themselves.”

 

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Image by Paul Weaver via Flickr and a CC license 

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‘On Day One’: Trump Vows to End Protections for LGBTQ Students

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Donald Trump says the day he enters the Oval Office for a second term he will end anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students implemented by the Biden administration.

Serving up a scattershot series of complaints with the hosts from the Philadelphia-based right-wing talk radio show “Kayal and Company” on Friday, Trump compared LGBTQ+ protections to a “cuckoo’s nest.”

“A lot of things don’t make sense, having to do with what they’re doing, from the border to all of the men playing in women’s sports. I mean, the world is like a cuckoo’s nest right now with what they do,” Trump declared.

One of the hosts alleged President Joe Biden has engaged in “manipulation” of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. She claimed parents now have to “pinch some pennies” to be able to afford private Christian schools for their children, to remove them from the enhancements that go into effect this summer.

“Many schools are grappling with what they’re going to do,” she said, “because as of August 1, as you know, because of Biden’s manipulation of Title IX, these kids, the school boards, have no choice, they’re meeting right now they, many of them perplexed, and they don’t know what to do, Mr. President, because they’re so upset over this that at August 1 a biological boy can change in a locker room.”

READ MORE: ‘Rejection of Trump’: 1 in 5 Indiana GOP Voters Just Cast Their Ballot for Nikki Haley

Trump replied, “It’s crazy. Crazy.”

“We’re going to end it on day one,” Trump vowed. “We’re going to change it on day one. It’s going to be changed. We’re going to end it. That’s right.”

“The whole thing is crazy. Look, it’s like men playing in women’s sports. It’s like open borders for the world to come in. Send all their prisoners. We’ll take as many as you can give us. Send all their people from mental institutions.”

“We’ll get that changed. Tell your people not to worry about it. It’ll be signed on day one. It will be terminated,” Trump promised, vowing to end the LGBTQ+ protections which include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.

On his first day in office, President Biden implemented “the most far-reaching of any federal protections yet” for LGBTQ+ people, according to NPR.

In an explainer on the new expanded rules, Ms. Magazine reports “The 2024 regulations prohibit discrimination not only on the basis of sex, but also on the basis of sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

According to GLAAD, which is tracking “the Biden administration’s executive orders, legislative support, speeches and nominations that affect LGBTQ people and rights,” President Biden has made 337 “moves” in 1206 days.

Listen to a short clip below or at this link.

READ MORE: Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

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Ari Fleischer Offers Donald Trump Advice Attorney Says ‘Effectively’ Violates Gag Order

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A Fox News panel discussing the Trump New York criminal trial debated whether or not the indicted ex-president could attack the judge’s daughter, with former Bush 43 press secretary Ari Fleischer insisting he should, and claiming doing so would not violate the terms of the gag order.

“President Trump needs to stop calling the judge ‘conflicted.’ He needs to explain why he’s conflicted,” Fleischer said Friday to a panel that included former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “Every day of the trial he goes in there, he says, ‘the judge is conflicted, conflicted bigger than I’ve ever seen anywhere in my life.’ He doesn’t explain how or why. He needs to say that the judge’s daughter works for a Democratic political consulting firm that does anti-Trump business. He needs to explain it. Otherwise, it’s just an assertion with no proof. And the President if he’s going to say it, back it up. Explain.”

“I think that’s a violation of the gag order, is it not?” a Fox panelist replied.

“No, he can criticize the judge,” McEnany responded.

READ MORE: Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

“Not the judge but the family,” the panelist added.

“But when he says the judge is conflicted, you can still explain how and why, and I think comply with a gag,” Fleischer insisted.

The panelists then agreed Donald Trump has been “measured” in his remarks.

National security attorney Brad Moss weighed in on social media, posting the relevant portion of the gag order and writing that Fleischer “effectively recommends Trump violate the terms of the gag order.”

The gag order in part reads: “Defendant is directed to refrain from” … “Making or directing others to make public statements about (1) counsel in the case other than the District Attorney, (2) members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or (3) the family members of any counsel, staff member, the Court or the District Attorney, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staffs work in this criminal case, or with the knowledge that such interference is likely to result.”

Despite Trump’s repeated attacks, an ethics panel last year cleared Judge Juan Merchan of any issues surrounding his daughter’s work.

On Monday, Judge Merchan warned Trump he may throw him in jail if he violates the gag order again.

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil

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Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

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A federal appeals court panel of three judges has upheld the criminal contempt of Congress conviction of Steve Bannon, the far-right provocateur and former Trump chief strategist and senior White House advisor. Legal experts say he can appeal but ultimately he will he headed to prison.

Bannon had refused to comply with a subpoena lawfully-issued by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

“Bannon was sentenced to four months in jail in 2022 by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols after a jury convicted him of two counts of contempt of Congress,” Politico reports Friday. “But Nichols, a Trump appointee, agreed to postpone the jail term while Bannon appealed the decision, agreeing that the complex mix of laws that govern executive privilege and testimonial immunity for White House aides could be overturned by higher courts.”

The appeals court panel includes judges appointed by President Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, according to CNN’s Zachary Cohen.

In their ruling the judges wrote: “Public accounts indicated that Bannon had predicted on a January 5, 2021 podcast that ‘all hell [wa]s going to break loose’ the next day,” and noted, “In addition to the podcast prediction, Bannon had reportedly participated in discussions in late 2020 and early 2021 about efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.”

READ MORE: House Ethics Committee Extends Investigation Into ‘Ultra MAGA’ Congressman

Politico noted the “three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bannon’s argument, saying the former aide and prominent podcaster had no legal rationale for his blanket refusal to appeal before the Jan. 6 committee — and that long-standing case law.”

Bannon is a peddler of conspiracy theories whose podcast “was crowned the top peddler of false, misleading and unsubstantiated statements among political podcasts,” according to The New York Times, citing a Brookings study.

“Bannon is unlikely to have to report to prison immediately,” NBC News reports.

Legal experts weighed in on the question of prison for Bannon.

READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil

“And now it’s time for Bannon to be given a date to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence,” remarked MSNBC and NBC News legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor.

“Bannon is effectively out of appeals,” observed professor of law and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney. “He can delay a little bit longer, asking for the full court to review the decision en banc & asking SCOTUS to hear his case on cert, but neither one of those things will happen. Bannon is going to prison.”

Professor of law and former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter remarked, “it’s slammer time.”

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