by Barbara Harless
The Texas 83rd Legislature failed to pass strong 2nd Amendment bills that support individual right of self-defense and individual right to defend individual property. Instead, they did things like increase the locations that collect non-criminal data (complete set of fingerprints) for CHL holders to be available within 25 miles of every Texan (HB 698). Not only does this make government services more expensive and expansive, but making the collection process of this data more and more prevalent is the sort of stuff that whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden will stand up against, but sadly not many Texans do. When permanent personal data; the permanent data type that can’t be altered such as finger prints, dental records, DNA, etc., is gathered for non-criminal reasons, Texans need to be paying attention.
A “passive bill” at the state level, acknowledging local school districts and municipalities to address how best to handle the security of their students and employees on the local level with local citizen advice and input, will be the best thing Austin can do for densely populated cities, as well as remote rural schools. Local control (and civic participation!) trumps an Austin mandated one-size-fits-all mentality on this and most issues.
Creating legislation that encourages local communities to address the protection of local citizen rights and responsibilities will be the right thing to do. Instead of sheltering people from their responsibilites, governments should once again hold all people accountable for their rights and responsibilities, not take them away under cover of the nanny state.
Rights are like teeth: Only floss the ones you want to keep, and only fight for the rights you care enough to keep!
