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CHLPP is proud to announce its entry into North Carolina. Current conceal carry permit holders in North Carolina may now sign up for membership with CHLPP online, by mail or by phone. For additional information, please contact our customer service toll free line at 866-851-9744. |
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CHLPP APPROVED IN TENNESSEE AND FLORIDA Effective Immediately, both Tennessee and Florida have been announced as the newest CHL Protection Plan markets. |
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CHLPP APPROVED IN MISSOURI AND OKLAHOMA Effective, September 1, CHL Protection Plan has been been approved to market its product in Missouri and Oklahoma. Marketing initiatives will be conducted through field reps and retail outlets, as well as conceal carry associations and instructors. |
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"CHL Protection Plan President Rick Mackey with U.S. Congressman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) at a recent rally in Dallas" |
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"Many Texans feel trapped in their homes by the threat of criminal violence. Parents should feel their children are safe to play in our parks and playgrounds. However, taking personal protection away from law-abiding citizens is not the answer." Pete Sessions |
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Perry signs 'Castle Doctrine' Bill AUSTIN -- Gov. Rick Perry signed into law Tuesday a bill that gives Texans a stronger legal right to defend themselves with deadly force in their homes, cars and workplaces. Both chambers of the Legislature overwhelmingly approved the measure earlier this month. The bill, backed by the National Rifle Association, states that a person has no duty to retreat from an intruder before using deadly force. "The right to defend oneself from an imminent act of harm should not only be clearly defined in Texas law, but it is intuitive to human nature. You ought to be able to protect yourself," Perry said, surrounded by lawmakers who pushed for the law. This is the first bill-signing this legislative session by the Republican governor. The law takes effect Sept. 1. "This is reasonable legislation," Perry said. The building or vehicle must be occupied at the time for the deadly force provision to apply, and the person using force cannot provoke the attacker or be involved in criminal activity at the time. Some refer to the measure as the "castle doctrine," drawing from the idea that a man's home is his castle and that he should have the right to defend it. Fifteen other states have passed similar laws. Texas is the first state to pass such a law this year, said Rep. Joe Driver, a Garland Republican who sponsored the measure. Sen. Jeff Wentworth, a San Antonio Republican who pressed the issue in his chamber, said the law changes previous Texas law that in some cases requires a person to retreat from an intruder. The new law will also provide civil immunity for a person who lawfully uses deadly force in any of the circumstances spelled out in the bill. Police and prosecutors can still press charges if they feel deadly force was illegally used, legislative sponsors said. |
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Rick Mackey named Executive Vice President of TCHA The Texas Concealed Handgun Association Board of Directors unanimously elected Rick Mackey as Executive Vice President of TCHA. Elections took place on Sunday, February 18, 2007 at the annual membership and board meeting in Dallas, Texas. |
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Contact: Rick Mackey January 11, 2006 214-789-6814 PRESS RELEASE Grapevine, Texas....On Friday, January 6, 2006, charges of use of deadly conduct were dismissed against Gerald Brookman. Brookman was charged in June, 2005, when he was forced to draw his weapon in self defense against four teenagers shooting at his service animal and toward him with .22 caliber handguns at Lake Grapevine, Texas. Brookman, a concealed handgun license holder, held the youths at bay awaiting arrival of the Grapevine Police Department. Charges were filed later that evening against Brookman for "use of deadly conduct" and his gun and license were confiscated by the Grapevine Police. Brookman is a member of the CHL Protection Plan, a Dallas based company, which defends the rights of covered members that are involved in self defense incidents and are charged. "I am sure glad I decided to join the CHL Protection Plan. The lawyers involved in my exoneration were both knowledgeable and professional. I would have been out of pocket some major expense had I not been a member of the CHL Protection Plan", Brookman stated in telephone interview. The CHL Protection Plan is a contract legal services company licensed by the State of Texas. Annual memberships are sold to concealed handgun license holders for an annual or four year membership fee. Any CHL Protection Plan member that is involved a self defense incident using their handgun is covered with professional and competent legal representation with no out of pocket expenses. For more information, please visit website chlpp.com or contact CHL Protection Plan corporate offices in Dallas, Texas, at 866-851-9744.
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"Pistol-toting drivers without a permit will still be prosecuted," Rosenthal warns. TSRA Webmaster Note: If so inclined, you can contact Chuck Rosenthal. Try to be nice. By CLAY ROBISON AUSTIN - Motorists arrested for carrying pistols in their cars without a concealed handgun license will continue to be prosecuted in Houston, despite a new law that purports to give them a legal defense, Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said Monday. Although the sponsor said the law should reduce the number of arrests for unlawful handgun possession, Rosenthal said it won't change enforcement practices in Houston after it goes into effect on Thursday. "It is still going to be against the law for (unlicensed) persons to carry handguns in autos," the district attorney said, adding that the new legal defense can still be challenged by prosecutors. The new law, enacted during the regular legislative session last spring, seeks to clarify a longtime law that allowed Texans to carry handguns while traveling, a qualification that was subject to a number of inconsistent court interpretations over the years. The new statute says a person is "presumed to be traveling" if he or she is in a private vehicle, is not engaged in criminal activity (except for a minor traffic offense), is not prohibited by any other law from possessing a firearm and is not a member of a criminal street gang. It also requires the handgun to be concealed in the car, although weapons can be discovered by officers during routine traffic stops if a driver gives permission for a car to be searched or opens a glove compartment where a gun is secured to retrieve an insurance card or other documentation. "The intent of the law is to keep innocent people from going to jail," said the sponsor, Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, a former prosecutor and former Travis County sheriff who now is a candidate for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The law, House Bill 823, was supported by the National Rifle Association and the American Civil Liberties Union and opposed by various law-enforcement groups. More than 237,000 Texans have concealed handgun licenses. But many other law-abiding adults don't have licenses because they are disqualified by exceptions that have nothing to do with public safety, said Alice Tripp, a lobbyist for the Texas State Rifle Association, an NRA affiliate. Tripp said people who have defaulted on student loans, who owe the state sales tax or franchise tax payments or are behind in child support payments are ineligible to receive a license. Keel said he hoped the law will prompt police officers to think twice about arresting motorists who meet the new legal presumption and spare them the expense and "indignity" of arrest and prosecution. Otherwise, he said, "They basically are going to arrest innocent people and make them prove their innocence." Rosenthal and Rob Kepple, executive director of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, disagreed. Rosenthal said the new presumption about "traveling" doesn't define what constitutes traveling and can be challenged in court by prosecutors, leaving it to juries to decide verdicts "based upon the facts of the case." A prosecutor could summon witnesses to successfully argue that a defendant wasn't traveling because he was simply "driving around the corner for a carton of milk," Kepple said. "I really don't think (the law) should affect how police officers respond in arresting somebody," he added. Houston Police Department spokeswoman Johanna Abad indicated Houston police were going to take their advice from Rosenthal's office. Unlawful possession of a weapon is a class A misdemeanor punishable by as much as one year in county jail and a $4,000 fine. Rosenthal said most cases are resolved through plea bargains. The prosecutor said he asked Gov. Rick Perry to veto the bill because "taking weapons off the street is a pretty good deal." He said his office handled about 5,000 weapons cases of varying degrees of severity last year. Tripp called Rosenthal's opposition a case of "sour grapes ... and a threat to the general public." |
The Concealed Handgun Law: Ten Years Later By Commissioner Jerry Patterson When the Texas Concealed Handgun Law took effect in 1996, pundits and naysayers predicted anarchy. Any minute, there would surely be mass violence as armed Texas citizens began roving the streets settling arguments with gunfire. Certainly, several proclaimed, within a year there would be blood in the streets as Texas returned to the days of the Wild West. Ten years later the facts paint a different picture. Texas under the Concealed Handgun Law isn’t the Wild West, but the Mild West. No recurrent shootouts at four-way stops, no blood in the streets. Quite the contrary, Texans are safer than before. But why are we safer? Why did the fears of the naysayers fail to materialize? One of the reasons I authored Senate Bill 60, the Concealed Handgun Law, was because I trust my fellow Texans. Contrary to opinions expressed on almost every editorial page across the state, I knew that when law-abiding Texans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms was restored with the passage of S.B. 60, they would exercise good judgment and behave responsibly. Ten years later, and the statistics continue to prove the point. Since the passage of the Concealed Handgun Law, the FBI Uniform Crime Report shows an 18% drop in handgun murders, down from 838 in 1995 to 688 in 2004. And a 32% drop in handgun murders per 100,000 population, down from 4.5 murders per 100,000 Texans in 1995 to 3.08 per 100,000 in 2004. In 2000, on the fifth anniversary of the Concealed Handgun Law, the National Center for Policy Analysis issued a report that indicated Texans with concealed carry permits are far less likely to commit a serious crime than the average citizen. According to the report, the more than 200,000 Texans licensed to carry a concealed firearm are much more law-abiding than the average person. The report illustrated that Texans who exercise their right to carry firearms are 5.7 times less likely to be arrested for a violent offense. They are 14 times less likely to be arrested for a non-violent offense. And they are 1.4 times less likely to be arrested for murder. H. Sterling Burnett, a senior policy analyst at the NCPA and the author of the report, concluded: “Many predicted that minor incidents would escalate into bloody shootouts if Texas passed a concealed-carry law. That prediction was dead wrong,” Burnett said. Texas Department of Public Safety Uniform Crime Report indicates the overall crime rate in Texas has continued to drop over the past 10 years. In 1997, DPS reported 5,478 crimes per 100,000 Texans, based on a population of 19,355,427 Texans. In 2004, with almost 3 million more Texans, the crime rate is 5,032 per 100,000. The effect of the Concealed Handgun Law has been so positive, it has converted some of its most outspoken initial critics. John Holmes, former Harris County district attorney, wrote to me several years after the passage of the law. “As you know, I was very outspoken in my opposition to the passage of the Concealed Handgun Act. I did not feel that such legislation was in the public interest and presented a clear and present danger to law abiding citizens by placing more handguns on our streets,” Holmes wrote. “Boy was I wrong. Our experience in Harris County, and indeed state-wide, has proven my initial fears absolutely groundless.” Glenn White, president of the Dallas Police Association, shared this view. “I lobbied against the law in 1993 and 1995 because I thought it would lead to wholesale armed conflict. That hasn't happened,” White told the Dallas Morning News. “All the horror stories I thought would come to pass didn't happen. No bogeyman. I think it's worked out well, and that says good things about the citizens who have permits. I'm a convert.” To the supporters of individual liberty and the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, this outcome is no surprise. However, the Concealed Handgun Law isn’t just about personal safety. Perhaps even deeper than its roots in constitutional freedom, the Concealed Handgun Law is about trust. And after ten years, the Concealed Handgun Law is a shining example of what happens when elected officials have faith in their fellow Texans. The legacy of Senate Bill 60 is grounded in the concept that our government should place its trust in us, not the other way around. JERRY PATTERSON is the 27th Texas Land Commissioner and author of Senate Bill 60 the Concealed Handgun Law. |
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