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Concealed Weapon Laws In Texas This year, in February and March, America again witnessed tragic cases of high-profile, gun-related killings in Atlanta, Chicago, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Texas. Twenty four men, women and children as well as three of the gunmen were killed. However, in contrast to past tragic accidents, those recent ones were not accompanied with widespread clamor for stricter gun control. As practice reveals, the killings usually stimulate calls for more Americans to arm and thus prompt legislation in making easier for ordinary law-abiding citizens to obtain weapons, carry concealed guns and utilize the deadly force. However, the circumstances of recent tragic incidents differ entirely from those at Columbine High School in that the majority of guns involved were obtained legally, and even, in the case of Atlanta's courthouse, were taken from a law enforcement officer. From the critical point of view, the advocates of gun control and lawmakers assert that the reasons for the evident shift in public perception of gun control run significantly deeper.
While advocates keep pressing new gin restriction with legislatures, the gun industry's impact is revitalized with the Republican takeover of the White House and Congress, and in contemporary context the concern of national and individual security prevails in political discourse. According to Sarah Brady, one of the most famous proponents of gun control, the atrocities of September 2001 impeded the movement (KEMPER, 1 C). Fears about individual safety have significantly spread, the Nra's membership has grown more than twice and gun sales increased. According to Tom Mauser, father of son killed in Columbine High School, asserted that he had grown frustrated with the continuing gains of gun industry. As he points out, commenting a bill that would protect the gun industry from lawsuits, I am outraged of the gun lobby and of Congress (KEMPER, 1 C). From the practical standpoint, the majority of experts suggest that the major trend has evidently toward allowing law-abiding citizens more of their Second Amendment freedoms.
Moreover, gun lobbyist claim that gun control advocates reinvigorate the fund-raising, exaggerating the disadvantages and setbacks they. Still, gun lobbyists played down their string of successes, with one NRA official calling it a "mixed bag. " They charged that gun control advocates are only trying to reinvigorate their fund-raising by exaggerating the disadvantages and setbacks they encounter. While the public and legislature debate goes not, the issue becomes even more controversial on the state levels. In Texas, the mentioned shooting incidents stimulated new legislation to allow judges and prosecutors to be armed.
Critically, even supporters of gun control admit that the atmosphere is entirely different than in 1999 with Columbine tragedy. According to Kate Zernike, those shootings inspired gun-control proposals in Congress and in state legislatures, and forced gun advocates to retreat from legislation they hoped to pass, including a Colorado bill to allow concealed handguns (Zernike, 25). The 1995 Texas law allowing concealed handguns specifically bans concealed weapons from schools, school events, courts, hospitals, churches, bars, sporting events, governmental meetings and amusement parks. Many cities and counties have bolstered the limits by posting signs barring guns in their buildings. The new law strips cities and counties of that right. According to State Senator Kenneth Armbrister, who initiated the legislation, the bill was intended to reduce the confusion for licensed gun owners (KEMPER, 1 C).
As Armbrister asserts the 218, 000 licensed gun-carrying Texans were forced to deal with a patchwork of local rules regarding their weapons (KEMPER, 1 C). From the critical point of view, the enactment of this law is courting disaster. The debate of the new law is heated with the Civil Liberties Defense Foundation, which recently persuaded the transit authority in Houston to back off of its ban on lawfully carried weapons, and is planning to talk to agencies in San Antonio and Austin. As Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who chairs the foundation, points out, "I look forward to just sitting down with them informally, maybe over a cup of coffee, and telling them what the law is" (KHANNA, A 1). Patterson referred to a 1995 law that he wrote while in the Legislature. It allows licensed owners to carry handguns in most public places, and a list of exceptions did not include transit vehicles.
Nevertheless, transit agencies in Houston, San Antonio and Austin passed policies that same year to prohibit such weapons. An attorney general's opinion in 1996 backed them, saying they could do so under police powers to maintain safety. The civil liberties foundation disagreed and joined the Texas State Rifle Association and several Houston handgun owners in 2003 to sue the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County. Houston transit officials eventually decided they could not win in court and rescinded their policy. Logically, the win gives the foundation extra leverage for upcoming discussions with San Antonio and Austin. Simultaneously, as VIA spokeswoman Priscilla Ingle asserted, We want to do what's right and be in compliance with the law.
Some bus riders here are nervous about a possible repeal (). According to words of San Antonio's citizen, who commutes daily by bus, Buses are places that can get crowded and noisy, with incidental bumping and occasional harsh words. Sometimes the mix includes drunks and bullies (KHANNA, A 1). However, as Patterson explained the real danger comes from criminals carrying guns, which is something an agency policy won't stop. Patterson asserted that those passing FBI background checks and 10 hours or more of training to get a handgun permit have the right to protect themselves if needed (KHANNA, A 1). For whatever reasons, Texas has passed law allowing its citizens to carry concealed weapons in public places, and this law indeed may make legislators feel good and some citizens feel safer, certain dangers for employers exist - dangers that could cost employers money and customers.
There are at least two areas of liability exposures for employers in states with concealed-weapons laws - the exposures following from the duty of safety owed to an employee and the duty owed to a customer. An employer who allows customers on the business premises has to provide a reasonably safe area. If an employee, carrying a concealed weapon as permitted by the state law, negligently or deliberately shoots a customer who is on the business premises, the employer is subsequently sued for the injuries suffered by the customer. The question of the employers liability is debatable, but there are two certain facts: one, the employer will most definitely be brought into any lawsuit by the injured customer; and two, the duty of the employer's insurer to defend the insured-employer will kick in unless there is some clear, unquestionable exclusion on the general liability policy that would apply to the shooting occurrence (Thamann, 59). From the critical point of view, legal enforcement of concealed guns leads to more questions than answers.
Texas public sympathy for concealed guns is accompanied with emerging concern of boomerang effect of the issue. Figuratively, guns have some incredible inclination to shoot on their own purpose and owner (Graves, 10). Although Mr. Clinton has argued many times that we protect aspirin bottles in this country better than we protect guns from accidents by children, Harvard economist W. Kip Viscusi has indicated that child-resistant bottle caps have resulted in 3, 500 additional poisonings of children under age 5 annually from aspirin-related drug as consumers have been lulled into a less-safety-conscious mode of behavior by the existence of safety caps (Dickerson, 56). At the local level, in particular in small towns across the state of Texas, it is recommended to form community response teams to immediately investigate the cause of every gun-related death or cases involving mentally diseased individuals, to identify patterns and suggest preventive measures.
The teams would provide a basis for nationally consistent surveillance and data collection, gathering not only statistics but insight about environmental and behavioral roots of gun violence. On a governmental level, the regulations regarding the gun possession, usage and control should include the following steps: - Set and monitor the use of gun safety standards, such as trigger locks and load indicators; - Spell out where firearms are allowed and how they should be carried and stored; - Promote gun safety through education and financial disincentives for particularly dangerous firearms and ammunition; - Prohibit gun ownership not only by convicted felons but by all who lack the training and judgment necessary for responsible gun ownership, individuals having mental problems, and those with histories of impairment by drugs or alcohol; - Make adults legally responsible through civil penalties if their guns fall into the hands of youth, and stiffer penalties when firearms are involved in a homicide. Bibliography ROMA KHANNA. (2005). Metro is expected to ease gun ban on buses, trains. The Houston Chronicle, January 27, p. A 1 David D.
Thamann. (2004). Concealed Weapons May Leave Firms Exposed. National Underwriter, Property & Casualty/Risk, November, V 101 KATE ZERNIKE. (2005). Shootings Fuel a Drive to Ease Gun Laws. The New York Times, April 3 BOB KEMPER. (2005). Violence fails to raise gun control volume.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 8 John F Dickerson. (1998). Gun control: Shots in the dark, The Economist. London: Mar 23, Vol. 338, Iss. 7958 Earl G Graves. (2001). Stop the guns, Black Enterprise. New York: May. Vol. 31, Iss. 10
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Research essay sample on Concealed Weapon Laws In Texas
