TEXAS — Legislation passed this session aligned with the goals of Second Amendment supporters.
State Rep. Wes Virdell, R-Brady, spent his freshman session continuing his advocacy for gun ownership. Virdell served as the Texas state director for Gun Owners of America before serving in the state House.
“If you want to feel safe at the end of the day, make sure that you have something that you can defend yourself with because bad people don’t care what the law is,” he said.
The first bill Virdell authored and passed prohibits municipal funding for gun buyback programs, believing them a waste of taxpayer money.
“You can very easily go to a local gun store. If you have a gun you don’t want, you could turn it in, trade it in, give it to them, and they’ll take it,” said Virdell.
The victims of the 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting were killed by a type of short-barreled firearm that lawmakers have now made legal.
“Short-barreled firearms have been strictly regulated federally for decades because, going way back in time, they were the weapon of choice for mobsters. They are easily concealable, easily maneuverable and highly lethal,” said Nicole Golden with Texas Gun Sense.
With the bill signed by the governor, Virdell is lobbying the U.S. Congress to also get rid of the federal restrictions on this firearm.
“That’s in the big beautiful bill that they’re working through, so we hope that that stays in there,” he said.
If the policy change is removed from the congressional bill, Virdell plans to challenge the National Firearms Act through the court system.
Another law set to go into effect on Sept. 1 will end extreme risk protective orders that currently allow a judge to temporarily restrict a person’s access to firearms during a crisis, similar to a red flag law. Opponents say such orders prevent mass tragedies in other states, but the Texas law does not allow judges to honor extreme risk protection orders from other states.
“If someone came here from a neighboring state who’s under an extreme risk protection order in that state, they could feasibly purchase a firearm here,” said Golden.
The national gun violence prevention organization GIFFORDS, founded by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, is applauding the Texas Legislature’s $2 million allocation for community violence prevention.
“Often violence is a repeating cycle, right? And with consistent funding, we have the power through these organizations to break that cycle to reduce crime and to ultimately make our community safer,” said Roger Garza, the group’s Texas director.
The group was also instrumental in stopping bills that would have allowed guns in polling places, reduced the age to own a handgun to 18 and eliminated gun-free zones.