The legislation picked up surprise momentum when it cleared a House panel on Monday. Lawmakers were initially caught off guard when the measure to raise the legal age for certain weapons from 18 to 21 came within range of a full vote in the state House.
The committee passed the legislation with an 8-5 vote, though even its supporters knew that it had little chance to gain passage in Texas.
It came only two days after a gunman opened fire at a crowded outdoor mall and killed eight in Allen, Texas.
Late Tuesday, however, the measure was allowed to languish by gun rights supporters in the House. Monday’s passage left little time for the proposal to be added to the House calendar. The final day for the chamber to pass bills was Thursday, and the agenda must be approved at least 36 hours ahead of the legislators convening.
The deadline for House Bill 2744 was then, in reality, around 10 p.m. Tuesday night.
This means there is almost certainly no chance that it will clear the massive legislative hurdle in the Second Amendment-supporting state.
Legislators could hear around a dozen protesters chanting outside the chamber. The gathering included parents and guardians of last year’s Uvalde mass shooting tragedy. One victim’s guardian was removed from the Capitol by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Supporters of the Second Amendment rallied behind the scenes to oppose the age increase for purchasing semiautomatic rifles. Chris McNutt, president of advocacy group Texas Gun Rights, said it “is the perfect example of a knee jerk ‘just do something’ mentality.”
It is also an example of a purely emotional response to an unspeakable horror. The bill was filed by Rep. Tracy King (D) of Batesville, which is near Uvalde. It would have banned selling, renting, leasing, or gifting a semiautomatic rifle with a greater caliber than a .22 that is able to accept a detachable magazine to someone under 21 years old.
There were some exemptions built into the measure.
Options exist that lawmakers could feasibly use to revive HB 2744, but even supporters give this little chance. Even if the bill were to somehow clear the House, it would likely face even more opposition in the Texas Senate.
There is a legal maxim that hard cases make bad law. Nowhere is this more certain than when opponents of Second Amendment rights converge after a tragic incident to rally against the freedom of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.
As previously quoted, there is often intense pressure to do “something” in response to a crisis. But hasty decisions applied as a band-aid to cover a complex problem are rarely the proper solution. They may be tonic to make some feel better for a short time, but that’s hardly a sufficient reason to trample on constitutional liberties.
Many expressed surprise in the brief momentum gained by the rare Texas gun control measure. It is probable that emotions played a major role in the bill clearing the House committee. But cooler heads prevailed, and it is almost certain that there will not be any bargaining away of basic freedoms in the Lone Star State.
Undoubtedly there will be grandstanding by anti-gun zealots and further attempts to address violent crime by going after inanimate objects. But these will also be met by those who understand that it is criminals who commit horrendous acts, and attacking those who follow the law is hardly a logical solution.
