Showing posts with label Ken Paxton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ken Paxton. Show all posts

Friday, October 4, 2024

Guns are banned at the Texas State Fair. Thank God!

Texans can legally carry handguns, but some Texas venues still ban them. The Texas State Fair, which hosts millions of visitors every year, doesn’t allow people to bring firearms onto the fairgrounds.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tried overturning that ban, but the Texas Supreme Court upheld it. Thank God!

Many years ago, when I lived in Dallas, I had an unpleasant encounter at the Texas State Fair. I was standing in line to make a purchase (perhaps a Fletcher's Corny Dog), and a young Mexican woman was before me. She was accompanied by a small child. I think she was an immigrant because she didn't speak English.

Three men in line made racist remarks about her, calling her a wetback and making other derogatory comments.

I came to the woman’s defense, and soon, I was in a shouting match with these three bigots. All three men began hurling abuse at me. I remember they repeatedly called me a homosexual. In addition to being racists, they were homophobes.  Calling me gay was the worst thing they could think of to demean me.

I admit that my responses were no more appropriate. I began calling them white trash— the worst thing I could think of. I may have called them redneck white trash, which would’ve been gratuitously redundant.

I finally walked away and realized I had made a severe mistake by coming to the Hispanic women’s defense. I had triggered a confrontation that frightened her. She would’ve been better off had I said nothing.

Here’s my point. If my three antagonists had been armed, I think one of them would’ve shot me. And if I had been carrying a gun, I might have shot one of them--maybe all of them.

Americans have a Second Amendment right to own weapons, and several states allow people to carry concealed handguns, and even to wear them openly.

Mark Twain observed that the Constitution guarantees people the right to free speech, but most people have the good sense not to use it.

I feel the same way about handguns. In many states, people have a legal right to carry a pistol. Thank God, most citizens have the good sense not to avail themselves of it.

Urban crime is on the rise. Except for wealthy people who are protected by private security, everyone knows this is true. The day may come when it will make sense for law-abiding people to carry handguns, but that day has not yet arrived.

I’m glad the Texas Supreme Court upheld the State Fair’s firearms ban. If the time comes when people need to carry pistols to the State Fair, then that event should be canceled. Then where would I get my Fletcher's Corny Dog?


Hands off my corny dog, pilgrim.


Tuesday, June 27, 2017

California bans state-funded travel to Texas. Frankly, my dear, Texans don't give a damn.

In a fit of governmental lunacy, the California legislature passed a law last year banning government-funded travel to any state that discriminates against LGBT people.  As of this week, eight states are on California's travel-ban list: Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas. 

As a former Texan who is proud to have received a law degree from the state's flagship university, I feel quite confident in saying that Texans don't give a damn.  Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General, jokingly remarked that California probably imposed the travel ban to reduce the number of Californians who visit Texas and decide to relocate. 

In fact, 600,000 Californians moved to Texas over the last decade, while only 350,000 Texans moved to California. Between 2009 and 2014, California suffered a net population loss of nearly 1 million people; and Texas absorbed more California emigrants than any other state.

California's travel ban is a display of cultural arrogance equal to that displayed by the British Empire toward India during the days of the Raj. Texas, after all, is not a cultural backwater. It has the nation's second largest economy, and its cities are as culturally diverse as Los Angeles. Houston, which will soon pass Chicago to become the nation's third largest city, has a thriving gay community and even elected a lesbian mayor. 

As of now, California's travel ban only applies to eight states; but there will surely be more. Kentucky, for example, was put on the travel-ban list because it passed a religious freedom statute. But 19 other states have adopted similar laws. Why single out Kentucky?

Let's face it. In the eyes of California's progressive politicians, the entire country is benighted compared to the Golden State. Why doesn't California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who put Texas on the travel-ban list, make a clean sweep and ban state-funded travel anywhere in the United States except Boston and New York City?

No one in California wants to visit flyover country anyway, and people in flyover country will do just fine even if they receive fewer visitors from California.


Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn if you don't want to visit Texas.


References

John Daniel Davidson. California's travel ban messes with Texas. The Federalist, June 27, 2017.

Phillip Reese. Roughly 5 million people left California in the last decade. See where they went. Sacramento Bee, 2017.