{"id":110006,"date":"2025-05-14T14:42:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T19:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=110006"},"modified":"2025-05-14T14:45:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T19:45:13","slug":"110006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=110006","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Of course, politicians (I’m pointing a finger at both<\/strong><\/em> the Texas House and Senate) can’t simply pass the same bill in both houses of their legislature.
\nIt’s like they’ve never heard of email, text messages, or the telephone where they can coordinate things.<\/p>\n

\n

Texas House Lawmakers Pass Self-Defense, Pro-Second Amendment Measures<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas House members have passed legislation that would strengthen Second Amendment rights and expand protections for individuals who lawfully exercise self-defense.<\/p>\n

House Bill 170<\/a>, filed by State Rep.\u00a0Ryan Guillen<\/a>\u00a0(R\u2013Rio Grande City), would prohibit civil actions against an individual who threatens or administers force or deadly force if a grand jury does not indict them, or if charges are dismissed or the person is acquitted.<\/p>\n

In addition, if the person pursuing the civil action is found to be prohibited from seeking it, Guillen\u2019s proposal would require them to pay court costs and the defendant\u2019s attorney fees.<\/p>\n

The measure is similar, but not identical, to\u00a0Senate Bill 1730<\/a>\u00a0by State Sen.\u00a0Bob Hall<\/a>\u00a0(R\u2013Edgewood), which senators\u00a0passed<\/a>\u00a026-3-2 on Monday afternoon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like Guillen\u2019s measure, Hall\u2019s would extend civil immunity protections to those who exercised self-defense and never faced grand jury charges. However, unlike Hall\u2019s measure, Guillen\u2019s proposal would extend immunity to those who merely \u201cthreaten\u201d the use of force.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis strengthens the Texas castle doctrine by extending civil immunity to individuals who lawfully threaten to use force or deadly force in self-defense, without requiring the force to actually be used,\u201d said Guillen.<\/p>\n

HB 170 finally passed in a 118-20-3 vote by representatives on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Another proposal,\u00a0HB 2458<\/a>\u00a0by State Rep.\u00a0Wes Virdell<\/a>\u00a0(R\u2013Brady), would provide a defense to prosecution for aggravated assault when an individual threatens death or serious bodily injury by displaying a deadly weapon if they:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Successfully demonstrate that their threat constituted legally justified self-defense.<\/li>\n
  2. Reasonably believed that using the deadly weapon was immediately necessary to protect themselves from aggravated assault.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The legal term \u201cdefense to prosecution\u201d is a type of total affirmative defense. These defenses, even if the prosecution proves the elements of the crime, present additional facts that could otherwise negate the defendant\u2019s liability.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThis is just saying that if you have to unholster your weapon while you\u2019re acting in self-defense, then it\u2019s a defense to prosecution,\u201d explained Virdell.<\/p>\n

    Lawmakers passed HB 2458 in a 119-18-2 vote.<\/p>\n

    Two proposals dealing with citizens\u2019 gun rights were also approved by representatives on Tuesday, but they faced more pushback from Democrats than those related to self-defense, with both votes splitting largely along party lines.<\/p>\n

    HB 3053<\/a>, filed by Virdell, would ban local municipalities from adopting or enforcing firearm buyback programs\u2014government initiatives intended to remove guns from circulation by purchasing the firearms.<\/p>\n

    State Rep.\u00a0Gene Wu<\/a>\u00a0(D\u2013Houston) pushed back on the proposal, arguing that cities should be able to decide for themselves if they want a buyback program.<\/p>\n

    While Virdell contended that cities often ignore their citizens in passing the programs, Wu argued that the buyback program in Houston was widely supported by residents.<\/p>\n

    \u201cI have been to multiple gun buyback programs in my districts that were overwhelmingly popular\u2014that people lined up around the block for hours and hours and hours to trade in their weapons,\u201d said Wu.<\/p>\n

    Virdell noted that most firearms bought through the programs are not destroyed entirely, with the government auctioning off parts of the weapons to private contractors who then resell them back to the public.<\/p>\n

    \u201cAt millions of dollars per city that\u2019s doing this, and the estimate by\u00a0The Trace<\/em>\u00a0over the time period this has been going on is over a billion dollars right now,\u201d said Virdell.<\/p>\n

    The measure passed 85-56-2.<\/p>\n

    HB 1794<\/a>, filed by State Rep.\u00a0Carl Tepper<\/a>\u00a0(R\u2013Lubbock), would permit those with a license to carry (LTC) to bear concealed handguns at certain polling locations, unless carrying at the location is otherwise prohibited by state law.<\/p>\n

    Primary or secondary schools are examples of polling locations at which Tepper\u2019s proposal would not apply.<\/p>\n

    \u201cI would also like to add here that private property owners get to keep their own policies,\u201d said Tepper. \u201cSo, if the grocery store doesn\u2019t allow handguns, the polling place will also not be allowed to have handguns.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Tepper\u2019s measure passed 83-50-2.<\/p>\n

    All four of the measures will now be sent to senators, who have increasingly limited time to read over and consider the\u00a0hundreds of measures<\/a>\u00a0that representatives have stacked up for them.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Of course, politicians (I’m pointing a finger at both the Texas House and Senate) can’t simply pass the same bill in both houses of their legislature. It’s like they’ve never heard of email, text messages, or the telephone where they can coordinate things. Texas House Lawmakers Pass Self-Defense, Pro-Second Amendment Measures Texas House members have … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110006"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110010,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110006\/revisions\/110010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}