I see a lot of Texas bashing here on Daily Kos. I might have even participated in it from time to time before I moved here, but I Texas-bash no more.
There are some loopy people who live here. Our new Senator, Ted Cr(azy)uz, was recently in the news claiming that what Washington really suffers from is an excess of compromise, and that in fact we don't need more of that compromis-ey stuff, just common sense wingnuttery of Cr(azy)uz's variety.
Texas has also been in the news lately for some residents desire to secede from the union.
So we have our fair share of crazy. But the major metropolitan areas of Texas, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and especially and historically Austin, harbor some non-crazies who keep the state more balanced that you might think.
In that tradition of oft-unrecognized Texas non-craziness (I'm on a prefix kick this morning), Travis County, home of Austin, Texas, is considering banning gun shows on county owned property, and perhaps even going so far as to restricting them on private property, as well.
From the Austin-Statesman story:
City of Austin and Travis County officials plan to take steps to ban gun shows on city- and county-owned property — and potentially even curtail them on private property within the city limits, the American-Statesman has learned.
Less than a month after the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting that killed 26 students and staff, Council Member Mike Martinez said he and at least two other council members are considering bringing to a vote this month their unprecedented proposal.
The measure would primarily affect several well-attended gun shows typically held at the Travis County Exposition Center as well as any other city-owned property.
Obviously, this didn't sit well with everyone on the council:
The proposals are expected to draw loud criticism from gun rights advocates. Late Friday, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said he didn’t know of any state law that would prevent the city from passing a law prohibiting gun shows on city property.
“I can’t think of anything dumber,” Patterson, a supporter of gun rights, said of the proposals. “It’s absolutely not going to reduce gun violence.”
Charles Harris, owner of Storied Firearms on U.S. 290 near Oak Hill, said he sees the measure as “a feel-good thing. Politicians saying, ‘Look what we’re doing. We’re doing something to curb gun violence,’ when in reality, it doesn’t do anything to prevent crimes. Criminals can still get a gun on the streets anyway. I think there are other laws that can do a lot more good to get bad guys away from their guns.”
Patterson must be super-smart if he can't even conceive of anything dumber than closing the gunshow loophole in the quickest way possible, by forcing the gun shows to move out of their areas.
Of course, this is Texas, so even the supporters of the proposal had to voice their strong approval of legal gun purchasing and ownership.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Lee Leffingwell said he generally supports the proposals, but wants an opinion and input from Police Chief Art Acevedo. Acevedo said Friday night that he hasn’t yet read a draft of any resolution or ordinance.
“I think that anything we can do as a city to manage the proliferation of firearms and make sure, not necessarily that we stop law-abiding Texans who are of sound mind from buying firearms, but making sure we’re keeping them out of the hands of people engaged in criminal activity,” Acevedo said.
So, is your city sponsoring legislation to close the gun show loophole? If not, than your city may be crazier that crazy ol' Texas.