What good is a license to carry if license holders are denied their ability to carry their weapon when they conduct routine business?
You may know certain private businesses post “30.06” and “30.07” signs prohibiting a license holder from entering their property armed.
We all respect their right to decide what happens on their private property and the gun owner can decide to disarm themselves to enter or to take their business elsewhere.
But what if the signs aren't on private property? What if they are illegally posted on so-called “government” property . . . meaning they are owned by the people?
With very few exceptions in Texas, government entities are prohibited from banning firearms on property they own or lease.
This has long been the case in Texas, and in 2015, the legislature strengthened the penalties against government entities that break the law and illegally bar license holders from entering the property armed.
Fines are as much as $10,000 per day for repeat violations, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is bound by law to enforce the law against local entities that don't comply. The law even details a complaint process where license holders can report non-compliant cities to the Attorney General for investigation and possible fines.
So why -- more than 4 years after the penalties and enforcement mechanism was approved by the Texas legislature -- are several county governments still illegally posting signs that force gun owners to disarm to conduct basic governmental functions like filing paperwork with the county clerk, viewing legal postings inside the county courthouse, or meeting with their county commissioner?
I know for a fact anti-gun politicians such as the Texas City mayor, police chief, and city council members and county judges and county commissioners in Brazoria and Chambers Counties are illegally posting signs forcing Texans to disarm to enter into public buildings.
I also know the complaint process has been initiated by license holders as far back as three years ago, and Attorney General Paxton's office has been notified with official complaints against several anti-gun local governments but has taken no action.
Please help restore gun rights to Texans by calling the 30.06 hotline at 844-584-3006 and tell them you don't want them to help anti-gun cities and counties disarm law-abiding Texans.
Please ask them to fulfill their legal requirement to complete investigations into local governments that are breaking the law by posting illegal "30.06" and "30.07" signs.
Also, please email Attorney General Ken Paxton at communications@oag.texas.gov and demand he direct his investigators to do their jobs.
So why are these anti-gun politicians knowingly illegally disarming Texans?
We may never know why they don't trust licensed Texans to lawfully carry their firearms, but we do know they are deliberately misapplying the law that prohibits firearms in an actual courtroom or court offices to the entire building -- no matter if the areas they are illegally prohibiting are related to the court or not.
We can understand why you may not want to allow firearms in a courtroom where proceedings are taking place, but why can't a person who wants a copy of their birth certificate or wants to visit with their county commissioner keep their firearm to protect themselves?
We know that posting signs for the entire building is illegal because Attorney General Paxton issued an opinion in 2015.
KP-47 says: “we construe subsection 46.03(a)(3) to encompass only government courtrooms and those offices essential to the operation of the government court.”
In other words, only the courtroom and offices are off limits -- not the entire building.
The attorney general even sued the anti-gun city of Austin for doing just this. He won his case and penalized Austin thousands of dollars for disarming Texans illegally.
So why is Ken Paxton ignoring his own opinion? We wish we knew, but his office won't give us a straight answer.
And with all of this in mind, why are anti-gun politicians still breaking the law?
If you ask them -- like we did -- they give a few pathetic excuses, like saying they want to wait (for years) to see how the Austin case ends up through the appeals process . . . or they say it would be too hard to follow the law because their court buildings are too old.
But the number one reason given is that Attorney General Paxton has not made a determination that they are actually breaking the law! Ken Paxton has refused to notify them that they are breaking the law and demand they stop illegally disarming Texans!
That's right, even though the law requires the attorney general to make that determination, Ken Paxton refuses to notify the anti-gun politicians and tell them they are breaking the law and to stop their illegal disarming of Texans!
A simple letter and postage stamp from Ken Paxton's office could restore gun rights in several counties and cities immediately -- but he refuses to do so.
So why has Ken Paxton apparently lost interest in stopping the illegal disarming of Texans? When Texas Campaign for Liberty asks his “investigators,” we get several excuses that make no sense.
First, we are told the attorney general does not have the “resources,” but as far as we can tell, the only “resources” required to send a letter to the anti-gun politicians are an envelope, a piece of paper, a bit of ink, and some postage.
We even offered to donate postage and printer paper to send out the notices Ken Paxton is required to send out -- they wouldn't take us up on our offer.
Then we were told they are waiting for a court case that has already been resolved to finish up! That's right, the “investigators” are waiting for resolution on a case that doesn't even exist anymore.
Could the reason Ken Paxton won't enforce the law be because these county and city governments seem to be in “red” counties?
And maybe these county commissioners, county judges, and city officials (often elected as Republicans) think that Ken Paxton won't go after someone in the same party.
If so -- it looks like they are right.
That might make sense since the only government entity Paxton has sued is in deep blue Austin.
Ken Paxton has had his own political problems and going after liberal Austin city government sure looks better to Republican voters than having to fight anti-gun Republican politicians.
But is it any less of a violation when “conservative” anti-gun politicians illegally disarm Texans instead of “liberal” anti-gun politicians? I don't think so and I hope you don't either.
Please help me expose this dereliction of duty by Ken Paxton and his “investigators.”
It is clear that Ken Paxton's actions -- or rather, inaction -- is helping to force law-abiding Texans to choose to either disarm or not access the public buildings and offices we all have a right to.
We hope Ken Paxton and his staff turn away from their anti-gun policies and start to enforce the law or at least send a simple letter that could restore gun rights to our fellow Texans.
Please help restore gun rights to Texans by calling the 30.06 hotline at 844-584-3006 and tell them you don't want them to help anti-gun cities and counties disarm law abiding Texans.
Please ask them to fulfill their legal requirement to complete investigations into local governments that are breaking the law by posting illegal "30.06" and "30.07" signs.
Also, please email Attorney General Ken Paxton at communications@oag.texas.gov and demand he direct his investigators to do their jobs.
In Liberty,
Kelli Cook
Gulf Coast Regional Coordinator
Texas Campaign for Liberty
P.S. Don't let Ken Paxton allow “conservative” anti-gun politicians to illegally disarm Texans in our public buildings.
Please help restore gun rights to Texans by calling the 30.06 hotline at 844-584-3006 and tell them you don't want them to help anti-gun cities and counties disarm law abiding Texans.
Please ask them to fulfill their legal requirement to complete investigations into local governments that are breaking the law by posting illegal "30.06" and "30.07" signs.
Also, please email Attorney General Ken Paxton at communications@oag.texas.gov and demand he direct his investigators to do their jobs.
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