18 April 2015
Honorable Scott Turner
Texas State Representative HD-33
6537 Horizon Rd, Suite B2
Rockwall, TX 75032
Subject: Open-Carry legislation
Scott,
As of this Saturday morning, 360 members of a Facebook group calling itself “Come and Take It Austin” and also “Come and Take It Texas”. pledge to create mayhem at the State Capitol by wearing toy guns disguised as Glock handguns.
These folks mean well. But, such bully tactics work contrary to restoring Texas firearms freedoms lost as a consequence of the Civil War.
As of March of this year, there are 826,000 Texans licensed for concealed-carry. Between 09/01/2013 – 08/31/2014 the Department of Public Safety denied licenses to 850 persons for one reason or another. Doing the math, fewer than one-tenth of one percent of our number were deemed lawfully unqualified for concealed carry.
Another calculation, 360/826,000 reveals fewer than one-third of one-tenth of one percent is numerically insignificant. This is not to say our fellow Texans are insignificant, but to say they do not by any means represent the vast majority of Texans who qualify under law to bear a concealed handgun.
Between 01/01/2013 and 12/31/2013 Texas DPS tallied 50,869 convictions for all crimes. Out of that number only 158 CHL holders were convicted of any crime whatsoever. Our overall conviction rate during this time period was merely 0.3106% of all criminal convictions. According to Rockwall County Sheriff Harold Eavenson, speaking at our April CARGO Rockwall Gun Club meeting, arrest and conviction rate for CHL holders is less than for law enforcement officers.
I ask you to not judge all Texans who would carry handguns by the actions of a minuscule group of activists. Judge us by our track record.
I support licensing of all persons who would carry handguns “with a view to prevent crime”.
Respectfully,
John White
Rockwall, Texas
