TexasCHLforum.com

G.A. Heath wrote:
Kinda OT, Since your looking to become a Texas CHL instructor where, in Texas (Texas CHL classes must be taught in Texas), will you hold your Texas classes? I'm up for renewal in less than a year and live in a Tx/NM border county so I may consider you if your set up in time and close enough to me.

I live in Las Cruces, and plan on setting up classes in El Paso. Lots of border between NM and TX, what part of the state are you in?

74novaman wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote: When asked specifically if either the NRA or TSRA caused any delays, he said, "that's not beyond the realm of possibility" but he had no knowledge of it.

Chas.

So, sounds like staffers are letting people fill in their own blanks...Is this a "don't blame us, here's a hypothetical bogyman" situation? Very interesting response on his part. I guess if you were already bent towards blaming TSRA or NRA for all your woes, a statement like that could sound like "Its their fault, not ours".

ETA: Certainly not blaming Lavender for spreading rumors, just sounds to me like a staffer is covering his rear by leaving open possibilities other than "well, my boss didn't get it filed early enough to pass in this busy legislative session".

That was similar to my experience on the phone with the staff.

They would give all sorts of vague answers, and as soon as the questions got too pointed I'd get transferred to somebody else. The last lady I talked to at first would only commit to saying the NRA and TSRA were 'less than helpful'. She kept waffling and wouldn't give a straight yes or no on any question unless I'd ask it like three times.

Finally, I asked the pointed question of "Did the NRA and TSRA ask Mr. Lavender to delay his bill?"

I didn't get a yes or no, I got a long story about how they understand the importance of the other bills and how Mr. Lavender worked quietly on the bill at the beginning of the session drumming up support, or at least neutrality, from police groups. She said this was in anticipation of later support for the bill from TSRA and NRA. She also said this was a great victory for open carry for next session because in the past the OC crowd has been rowdy and turned people off but that this year it was a lot more classy.

So I asked again, "So are you saying the NRA and TSRA asked him to delay filing the bill until later with the promise of future support?"

Once again, no yes or no, but she said it was very frustrating that the NRA and TSRA didn't support the bill when they said they would and kept delaying support to a future hurdle once they'd overcome one.

Between all that was said, it seemed pretty clear that the story was true, but there was never a clear yes or no moment.

Typical politician stuff :)

Before I get started, I want to introduce myself and my intentions here to start a civilized and productive discussion. That and I'm not hiding behind any walls of anonymity.

I am Dusty Sensiba, a New Mexico CHL instructor. I am also an NRA instructor and do some AZ permit work with AZ DPS (reciprocity for NM isn't nearly as good, so we usually get an AZ permit to improve our carry coverage). I live just north of El Paso, and myself and most of my students regularly travel into Texas carrying concealed, so while we're not residents, Texas policy does affect us greatly.

I'm also working on getting set up for Texas CHL instruction and will get a Texas CHL while I'm at it. Heck, yet another piece of plastic in the ol' wallet, but unlike New Mexico, Texas puts 'instructor' on your license, who wouldn't want that?

I heard about Texas CHL Forum over on opencarry.org, but before you all start drawing down on me , I'm not here to start yet another battle in the cross-board flame wars. Open carry isn't anything special in New Mexico, and we don't have all the controversy and anti-CHL sentiment in the New Mexico section. But I do keep an eye on the Texas section and try to do anything I can to improve things for both TX and NM residents.

I'll keep an eye on the 'Other States' section here, and if anybody has any NM or AZ questions I'll be there to help out.

I would have put all of this in a 'New Member' post, but I couldn't find a section for that.

Anyways, on to the actual topic of this post....

I read over there on OpenCarry.org forums, some guy was saying that TSRA asked the legislator who filed the bill to hold onto it and give Campus Carry and the parking lot bill a chance to get going before introducing it or working it hard in the open, promising support for his bill if he waited as requested. So he did, and the bill was filed very late. But, once the waiting was over and the bill was introduced, he was then told to get the bill out of committee and then they'd support it. So he got it out of committee and then he was told to get it to the floor for a vote and they'd support it. Unfortunately, the chances of getting the thing through calendaring is next to impossible because the bill was filed so late in the session.

I didn't take the post I read at face value, as the poster is usually kind of rabid (I had to re-read his post three times to understand what he was saying). So, I called Lavender's office and talked to his staff for a few minutes to see if there was any truth to the story I was hearing on the forum.

Unfortunately, I got the same story from them. The staff is saying TSRA talked him into delaying the bill knowing it would would never get on the calendar without some serious support at the last minute (which was never provided as promised). So, either the staff is lying to me, or the TSRA really did this.

As a member of the NRA and as an NRA instructor, seeing something that looks as unethical as this really doesn't make me feel very good. It's not very ethical to hammer out an agreement with somebody, have them fulfill their part, and then never fulfill yours.

Anybody here from TSRA who has some information I don't have, or with some good reasoned justification?

I really don't want to get into a debate over the wisdom of open carry, or the particular content of the bill (which, I do agree, has some problems), or the childish behavior that sometimes goes on over at opencarry. None of that is really relevant to this particular situation or to TSRA's behavior. I'd hate to see them do this to a perfectly good bill in the future.