Texas Laws On Firearms: One Day After Mass Shot In Odessa, More Flexible Firearms Laws Come Into Force



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A series of relaxed gun laws came into effect in Texas on Sunday – just one day after the state's declaration last mass shotwhich killed at least seven people. The new laws facilitate the carrying of firearms in public places, including schools, apartment buildings and places of worship.

These measures were adopted by the Republican-controlled legislature and signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott in June. Abbott vetoed another bill restricting the use of firearms at airports at airports.

The bill would have allowed local authorities to fine travelers carrying firearms in secure areas of Texas airports, instead of allowing only federal agents to do so. According to federal law, firearms are prohibited in secure airport areas.

The laws that came into effect on Sunday:

  • Allow owners of licensed handguns to carry weapons in places of worship, including churches and synagogues.
  • Prohibit owners and owners from prohibiting tenants from owning, carrying and transporting firearms on their property.
  • Prevent school districts from prohibiting licensed firearms owners – including school employees – from storing firearms and ammunition in parking lots schools, provided that it is not visible.
  • Allow shelter homes to store firearms.
  • Prevent citizens from being accused of carrying a handgun without a permit when evacuating or returning to a disaster area.
  • Allow disaster shelters to accommodate evacuees with firearms.
  • Allow schools to have more armed marshals on campus.
  • Defend owners of licensed firearms who unknowingly enter designated areas free of firearms, provided they leave after being informed of the policy.

Texas has also approved a $ 1 million statewide campaign for safe firearms storage, which will begin in the next year.

The National Rifle Association supported the bills and a regional lobbyist for the group said the Texas lawmakers had given the NRA "one of the most successful sessions we have had".

The new laws in force follow two mass shootings in the last month in the state. On Saturday, an armed man in Odessa killed at least seven people and wounded 24 others in a beating before he was killed by police. A few weeks earlier, an alleged gunman who allegedly posted a racist cap killed 22 people and wounded 24 others. Walmart in El Paso.

Texas has hosted two other high-profile mass shootings over the past two years. In May 2018, an armed man who would have been a student at Santa Fe High School High School killed 10 people and injured 13 in the school. In November 2017, an armed man killed 26 people and wounded 20 during a Sunday. church service in Sutherland Springs. The sacking of Sutherland Springs is the deadliest shooting in Texas history and the deadliest in a place of worship in modern US history.

Speaking in Odessa Sunday, Abbott said that he "had attended too many of these events".

"I'm tired of the death of the people of the state of Texas," said the governor. "Too many Texans are in mourning, too many Texans have lost their lives, the status quo in Texas is unacceptable and measures are imposing."

Abbott said the state needed "solutions that would keep criminals guns" while protecting the rights of the Second Amendment, although it did not call for control measures specific firearms.

The Democratic presidential candidate in the 2020 presidential election, Beto O. Rourke, a native of El Paso and a Texas congressman, called for a universal background check, red flag laws and a national gun registry during an interview with CBS & # 39; "In the face of the nation" on Sunday.

"People live in fear, they have the feeling of having targets on their backs," said O & # Rourke. "The kids are scared to go to school tomorrow morning.This is not good, unacceptable and I will not accept it."

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