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Floridians Retain Right to Keep Firearms in Vehicles After a three-year fight, the Orlando Sentinel reports, gun rights advocates in Florida won the right to keep firearms in their vehicles at work. According to a story in the Orlando Sentinel, you can take your gun to work, but there are restrictions. "Florida's Preservation and Protection of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Motor Vehicles Act of 2008" isn't completely cut-and-dried. So don't put your pistol in your lunchpail until you know the rules. First, not just anyone can bring a gun to work. Only those with a concealed weapon permit from the state of Florida are protected by the law. The NRA had pushed for this change for years, arguing that many law-abiding gun owners were left unprotected on their way to and from work because their employers prohibited firearms on their property. The Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Retail Federation fought hard against the bill. They argued it would trample businesses' private property rights by taking away their ability to set policies for their employees. But a federal judge upheld the law, which applies to full- and part-time employees, independent contractors, volunteers, interns and other similar positions. Employers aren't allowed to search workers' vehicles looking for guns — or even ask employees if they have one, according to the story in the Sentinel. What was labeled the "guns-at-work" law really should be called the "guns-in-the-parking-lot" law, gun-rights advocates say. "It conjured up images of people having guns in their office or in their plant. It was deliberately misleading," NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer said. The law doesn't allow gun-owners to carry semi-automatics weapon into offices or supermarkets where they work. Rather, it only allows them to leave it locked up in their vehicle outside. In effect, it prevents most employers from telling their workers to leave their weapons at home. There are exceptions. The law doesn't apply to schools, prisons, nuclear power plants, defense plants or businesses that have combustible or explosive materials. The exemptions built into the law became controversial after the law was passed. Some employers, including Disney and Universal Studios, twisted themselves into odd shapes to get an exemption. Disney claims an exemption because it has a permit for explosives — namely, fireworks used in its extensive pyrotechnic displays. Universal Orlando houses a work-study program staffed by Orange County Public Schools, so it also prohibits firearms on its property. A Disney security guard defied the ban and sued after he was fired. Eventually, the case was dismissed. State law also allows people to carry a gun in their vehicle even without a concealed-weapon permit, as long as it is secured and "not readily accessible for immediate use." So, businesses can't kick you out for having a firearm on their property, as long as it's locked up and not being brandished.
Changes to Texas Concealed Handgun Laws effective June 1, 2009 • Defaulting on a student loan will no longer disqualify an applicant for a concealed handgun license. • Texans can now buy firearms and related supplies in any other state where allowed by law. An old rule, limiting residents to only contiguous-state purchases, was repealed. • The requirement to display your permit to officials on demand is repealed, and the punishment section is amended to remove the penalties. [NOTE: This bill passed in final form as part of the 244-page DPS revision law, HB2730, and will be posted here soon.] • A student may not be expelled for use, exhibition or possession of a firearm if it occurs at an approved off-campus target range, while preparing for or participating in a school-sponsored competition or a shooting sports educational activity, which is sponsored or supported by the Parks and Wildlife Dept., or a shooting sports sanctioning organization working with the department. • A CHL holder has a defense to prosecution for being on the premises of a liquor-serving establishment (the type that must post “51” signs), if the person did not get “effective notice.” This provides CHLs a degree of protection if a place fails to post the sign, or posts it in a way that could be overlooked or not recognized. • Clarifies that a prohibited possessor includes (among others): 1) a person ordered by a court to receive inpatient mental health services under HSC chapter 574; 2) a person acquitted in a criminal case by reason of insanity or lack of mental responsibility; 3) a mentally retarded person committed to long-term care under HSC chapter 593; 4) adults who have an appointed guardian under Probate Code chapter XIII for lack of mental ability to manage their own affairs; and 5) a person incompetent to stand trial under CCP chapter 46B. DPS is required to provide only the information necessary to identify prohibited possessors, to the NICS background check database run by the FBI. Those persons shall have access to their own information, which is otherwise confidential except as provided by law. DPS must have a procedure to correct the information and send the corrections to the FBI. A person seeking relief must provide a copy of a judicial order that the person is no longer incapacitated or is entitled to relief under HSC 574-088, or proof of relief under the federal rights-restoration statute, 18 USC §925 (which has been suspended and of no use since 1992, as affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003). A person seeking rights restoration is authorized to petition the court for the needed orders, and the court must consider evidence to ensure the person is indeed qualified to have rights restored, including: 1- circumstances that led to the disability under federal law (18 USC §922(g)(4)), the person’s mental history, criminal history and reputation. The court must officially state that the person is no longer likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety, and removing the person’s disability to purchase a firearm is in the public interest. Courts are required to provide relevant mental health dispositions to DPS, including disqualifying and relief-from-disabilities findings, within 30 days of determination. The notification must include detailed identifying information for the person and copies of relevant court orders. Court clerks are required to provide back records from Sep. 1, 1999, by Sep. 1, 2010. • Having, transporting or transferring a firearm that was obtained illegally is a 3rd degree felony. If three or more firearms are involved it is a 2nd degree felony. If the activity is done for profit or other remuneration, the next higher category of penalty applies, and other charges may be added. Police officers acting in the line of duty are exempt. • A citation issued for a class C misdemeanor domestic-violence offense must include a statement in bold, underlined capital letters warning the person that a conviction could remove the person’s right to keep and bear arms under federal and state law. Before a defendant enters a plea of guilty or of no contest to a domestic-violence misdemeanor, the court must give the same warning, orally or in writing (if only a fine is involved, the written statement on the citation is deemed sufficient). • For the purpose of prohibiting eligibility for a CHL, a felony does not count if it has been vacated, set aside, annulled, invalidated, voided, or sealed under any state or federal law (in addition to expunged or pardoned). A felony is determined at the time it is committed (used to be at the time of application for a CHL). If the law was a misdemeanor at the time, or doesn’t contain all the elements of a felony, it is not considered a felony for the purpose of denying a CHL. The specific conditions that constitute a felony in Texas, another state or under federal law are spelled out.
New Arizona Law Allows Concealed Carry in Bars effective September 30, 2009 PHOENIX—A new Arizona law that went into effect September 30, 2009 allows guns into Arizona bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. Under the law, backed by the National Rifle Association, the 138,350 people with concealed-weapons permits in Arizona will be allowed to bring their guns into bars and restaurants that haven't posted signs banning them. Those carrying the weapons aren't allowed to drink alcohol. If a bar owner does not post a state-approved sign, such as an 8 1/2-by-11-inch sign that says "No Firearms Allowed" and shows a red slash over a gun, then CCL holders can bring firearms into the bar. Arizona has 5,800 bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, but the state doesn't track how many of them ban guns. The department has provided 1,300 signs to bar and restaurant owners who went to the department in person or asked to have signs mailed to them. The NRA says 41 states now allow guns in businesses that serve alcohol. Taking a gun into a bar banning the weapons would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $500.
Utah Gov Worried About State's Nonresident CCL Totals SALT LAKE CITY — Gov. Gary Herbert is concerned that Utah's high counts of out-of-state concealed weapons permits -- more than 50 percent of all the state's concealed weapons applicants were from outside Utah. Reason: Utah's permit and reciprocity agreements allows the holder to carry in nearly three dozen states. During a taping of his monthly news conference for public television station KUED, Herbert, a Republican, said, "I think we need to protect the Second Amendment, that's for sure, and Utah ought to stand tall in that regard. That being said, I don't want to be a wholesale clearinghouse for anybody who comes to Utah that we don't have the ability to kind of track ... that they then go some place else outside of our borders and conduct themselves inappropriately." Up-to-date state concealed carry records show that about 196,000 people have Utah permits, but only about 116,000 of those were residents. "I'm not much into reciprocity, whether it's real estate licenses or gun licenses. I think Utah needs to find out what we think is important for Second Amendment issues and do what we think is right as a state right here in Utah. Let others do the same," he said.
CHLPP offers "From Luby's to the Legislature" by Suzanna Gratia Hupp as a paid membership book choice The mass shooting at Luby’s Cafeteria in Central Texas made news around the world and turned an unknown chiropractor into a national champion for the right of ordinary citizens to carry guns for self-defense. Suzanna Gratia, then 32, was having lunch with her parents at the restaurant in Killeen that day in October 1991 when a man crashed his pickup through a window and began shooting people. When the shooting stopped, her mother and father were dead along with 22 other people, including the shooter. No one was interviewed more about that shooting than Suzanna Gratia Hupp (her married name). She became an icon for gun rights and the Second Amendment because she was not afraid to be interviewed by the news media and because she told them what they did not expect hear. She did not blame the shooter – how can you blame a rabid dog? – and she did not blame guns. She blamed politicians who had legislated away her right to carry a gun to protect herself and her family. No one has had more to do with passing the rash of state concealed-carry laws that swept the country in the 1990s allowing ordinary law-abiding citizens to carry handguns for self-defense. She has told her story to the national media and has testified before Congress and numerous state legislatures. She served for 10 years in the Texas Legislature. Now she has put it all down in a memoir entitled "From Luby’s to the Legislature: One Woman’s Fight Against Gun Control". Hupp recounts how guns have affected her life – from playing with cap guns with her brother to filing bills in the Texas Legislature to allow students with concealed carry licenses to pack guns on college campuses. The latter has become a hot topic following the shootings at Virginia Tech. She tells what happened on October 16, 1991 at the Luby’s Cafeteria and how it affected her and her family. She recalls making “the stupidest decision” of her life when she decided several months before the shooting to stop carrying a revolver in her purse in case she was caught and lost her chiropractor’s license. That decision left her unarmed at the time she most needed her gun. While Hupp had much to do with the passage of concealed carry laws, her attitude about them is ambivalent. She calls them “discriminatory at best and racist at worst.” In most states the licenses are expensive and far beyond the reach of many who most need a gun for self-defense– a minority single mother being stalked by a former husband or boyfriend. She also thinks that ordinary citizens should not have to seek permission from government to exercise a constitutional right. Hupp lives with her husband and two sons on a small ranch near Lampasas in Central Texas where she raises Arabian horses.
CHLPP now available in all fifty (50) states Rick Mackey, President & Chief of Executive Officer of CHL Protection Plan, has announced that concealed carry permit/license holders in all fifty (50) states, territories, and APO/FPO addresses may now sign up for CHLPP membership online or by phone. CHLPP marketing initiatives will be conducted through the four avenues of field reps, retail outlets, conceal carry associations and instructors. For additional information, please contact CHLPP customer service at 866-851-9744.
Rick Mackey elected President of Texas Concealed Handgun Association (TCHA) Rick Mackey and Texas State Representative Joe Driver Representative Joe Driver (R-Garland) was a featured speaker at the TCHA members annual meeting March 7-8, 2009 in Kerrville, Texas. Representative Driver successfully pushed the enactment of the Texas Castle Doctrine through the Texas State Legislature during the 2007 session and is currently championing the right to concealed carry on college campuses in Texas. The Texas Concealed Handgun Association Board of Directors unanimously elected Rick Mackey as President of TCHA. Elections took place on Sunday, March 8, 2009 at the annual membership and board meeting in Kerrville, Texas. Rick, a life long resident of the Dallas Metroplex, is also President of CHL Protection Plan as well as its Program Director. TCHA, a Texas not-for-profit Association, originated in 1996 and is one of the first State concealed handgun associations to be formed in the United States. TCHA is the professional association of concealed handgun instructors, concealed carry permit holders, law enforcement and concerned citizens throughout the U.S. For additional information, please contact CHLPP customer service at 866-851-9744.
State official wary of repeal of gun ban in U.S. parks Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson By Dave Montgomery, Copyright 2008 Fort Worth Star-Telegram AUSTIN — Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson welcomed Monday the federal government’s decision to lift a concealed-gun ban in national parks but expressed skepticism that it will remain in force under incoming President Barack Obama, a strong gun control advocate. Consequently, Patterson said in a telephone interview, he has no plans to relax his opposition to transferring the state’s remote Christmas Mountains to the National Park Service until after Obama’s Democratic administration sets up shop. The outspoken Republican land commissioner has been criticized for trying to sell the 14.5-square-mile tract to private bidders after the park service signaled an interest in acquiring it. Patterson said he opposed the transfer because of what he called an unconstitutional restriction on firearms. "I said, 'No guns, no hunting, no deal,’ " Patterson told the Star-Telegram. "Now we have the Department of Interior doing the right thing. The question remains: Will the president leave that in place? "Before we make any moves on this positive development, we’re going to have to see how that plays out." On Friday, the Interior Department overturned a 25-year-old regulation that restricts loaded guns in national parks. The rule, which takes effect in January, will allow visitors to carry a loaded, concealed weapon into most national parks and wildlife refuges. Gun-rights groups hailed the ruling. But Patterson suggested that the Bush administration reversal may not survive after Obama installs his team at the Interior Department. As a senator from Illinois, said Patterson, Obama talked "out of both sides of his mouth" in responding to a landmark Supreme Court ruling that struck down the District of Columbia’s handgun ban and upheld an individual’s right to a firearm for private use. Obama supported the D.C. ban but later endorsed the Supreme Court’s decision, saying it "protects the right of individuals to bear arms." "Those are dramatically opposite positions," Patterson said. "I guess he’s schizophrenic on the Second Amendment." Obama has also opposed state concealed-carry laws and has advocated reinstating a ban on assault weapons. According to a CNN.com review of his positions on gun control, Obama has said that while he believes in a constitutional right to bear arms, that "does not mean that the state or local government can’t constrain the exercise of that right." Patterson’s press secretary, John Suydam, said the park service has rebuffed past offers to acquire the Christmas Mountains as a federally protected site because of existing conservation protections that were in place when the land was donated by a private foundation in 1991. "In the past, they haven’t been interested in spending their money to preserve something that is already preserved," he said.
CHLPP President Rick Mackey with U.S. Congressman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) at a recent rally in Dallas "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
PRESS RELEASE Grapevine, Texas....On Friday, January 6, 2006, charges of use of deadly conduct were dismissed against Gerald Brookman. Brookman was arrested 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 a .22 caliber handgun 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 CHL 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 our website www.chlpp.com or contact the CHL Protection Plan corporate offices in Dallas, Texas, at 866-851-9744.
The Concealed Handgun Law: Ten Years Later Texas Land 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. With 247,345 concealed handgun licenses active in Texas as of December 2005, the number of law-abiding licensees has had a positive effect on the crime rate. 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 Texas Land Commissioner and author of Senate Bill 60 the Concealed Handgun Law.

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