Texas is hardly home to the America’s best gun laws – or lack thereof. Concealed carry still requires a license, which requires training, a shooting test, a background check and fingerprints. Open carry – due January 1 – requires a license as well. Campus carry makes the scene next August – with university-chosen carve-outs. But don’t be mistaken. The Lone Star State’s gun culture is extremely vibrant. One need only clock the success (and attend) the Texas Firearms Festival, or visit any number of gun ranges and guntry clubs throughout the state, or check out the firearms sales stats to know the truth about guns in Texas. Or see the tweet above. As I said, God bless Texas. [h/t DH]
The stars at night are big and bright!
Clap, clap, clap, clap….
Deep in the heart of Texas….
In defense of Texans: the residents of California need them more, Texas is pretty well squared away, excuse the border…
Can’t.
I am from OK, but I still remember the Alamo.
But yes, GOD BLESS TEXAS!
Private sales aren’t tracked in Tejas.
If you’re like me, most the guns you own are only new to you and the sale wasn’t tracked.
You know, that whole “loop hole” thing.
Private sales aren’t tracked in any state, unless you allow it. How did that government program go? Just say no?
I’m doing the best I can, but the wifey keeps going on and on about mortgage payments, electric bills and groceries…ugh
You really want to be sick, look at your yearly interested paid on the note and think about how many gun you could’ve purchased.
Mine keeps mentioning feeding and clothing the kids as important.
Unrestrained property taxes killing me.
I bought two new guns this month. Moving into Christmas time and with OC coming in the new year, this is good gun buying weather.
SSE. We were trying to buy up whatever guns we could that were off roster.
I figured it would have something to do with this. Meanwhile here in Texas we had to reason for a panic buy, if anything we have more people wondering what pistol they may want to purchase for OC.
I feel bad for our friends in Cali with their miserable gun laws (among their litany of other terrible laws), it’s such a beautiful state, ruined by a bunch of wackos and their never-ending quest for Utopia through legislation.
…I’m sorry – that image is of the FBI stats for NICS checks of years 1998 through 2015 and is not representative of Texas directly.
Actually, Texas is third; after California second, and Kentucky comes in first:
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/reports/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year_by_state.pdf
And I was hoping Indiana would make the cut considering all that illegal gun traffic to Chicago 😉
Isn’t that the only purpose for the State of Indiana to supply Chicago’s criminals and take their money? 😉
Yes, and take Illinoyed residents back to Indiana.
That’s actually a pretty good point. If demand is so high for firearms in Chiraq, the laws of economics would suggest that the price of a handgun on the street would be pretty high, yet if guns are so plentiful “it’s easier to buy a gun, than a book,” the lack of bookstores or interest in reading not withstanding, the price would be considerably lower. This also is at odds with the gang sanction argument for why criminals don’t ditch their guns in Chitown.
It would seem that if demand is soooo high, and Indiana is allegedly the primary source, NICS would be going through roof to support demand.
Woah we need to slow down here and first assume that there’s some type of a loophole. Surely there must be because business owners are so willing to sell guns due to a lack of legal buyers 😉
Funny, I don’t remember filling out the federal background check for the last book I purchased…..
Well good to see Dr Vino and myself have something that out does Texas, besides high taxes and insane politicians pushing insane anti gun laws.
I read an article in the Texas Rifle Association magazine this week that suggested that once open carry goes into effect in January, the act of open carrying will be enough probable cause for police to stop you and ask for your license. That seems contrary to what the legislature intended. And, an article on the front page of the Houston Chronicle a few days ago said that the “consensus” was that university presidents could restrict concealed carrying in classrooms, which would be an enormous carve out and also contrary to what the bill’s author said during debate. Even in Texas, anti-gun people work hard to find loopholes.
Actually, my school claims that they recognize that they can’t do a blanket ban on classrooms. Every ban has to be specific and with a stated reason why. They can decide to ban a whole building (crossing my fingers they don’t ban carry at the engineering campus), but again they have to have a stated reason.
I love this shit. A “consensus” of who, exactly? Absolutely undefined, we are talking about a consensus of gun-grabbers. No one with any respectability, intellect, or honor. A university president has absolutely zero authority, in ANY state, to pass binding laws of any kind on any subject. Just as Catholic bishops or whoever have no authority over priests who rape little boys (which is, apparently, most of them). That authority rests in courts.
Brain storming here: I think it’s better to out-reach to university regents, presidents and students. We are fighting the anti-gun people’s use of the law to restrict our freedom (and right to defend human life). I do not agree that using government to impose EVEN OUR will on others is legitimate. Leave that to the cowards who’re afraid of guns and need Mommy Government to “protect them” from SEEING A GUN. Out-reach too slow for ya? Some of the best and greatest goals are reached by patience, persistence and through earnest, well-spoken persuasion. We are doing virtually nothing to persuade / convince our educators of the rightness of defending human lives. Instead, we are caught up in our own outrage over the gun free zone kill-boxes that schools keep trapping school children in. Showing how smart we are is for our own benefit as well. Lets just show ’em how smart we really are.
I left out an important part of my idea: Let me tell you, it’s also most important to reach student governments in colleges and universities. Many universities are particularly aware of and responsive to their student government. That’s because parents are major contributors to college funding, sometimes to an extent which would amaze you. Gun owning parents probably outnumber “gun resistant” college presidents and regents. Get the picture?
Go Go Golden State!
That chart tells me someone’s math is off somewhere. The most frequently referenced surveys (referenced in the media) seem to suggest about 270-310MM bangsticks across the whole USA in civilian hands. Well, if California is outdoing Texas (like always) and guns don’t magically vanish when they turn 18 then there are almost certainly at minimum more than 310MM in private hands just between California and Texas. What the hell else is the rest of the country shooting?
The NICS check numbers can also be a little misleading. For example in AZ if you have a CCW permit you do not need a NICS check when purchasing a gun. You simply fill out the 4473 and that’s it.
That’s a good point. Here in TX it is same.
Whatever the stats are, I applaud Governor Abbott’s sense of humor.
He has a great sense of humor, at that. He’s HUGE into Halloween, too, creating costumes that incorporate his wheelchair. My favorite was the year he went as a tank. True story.
Wait, the 2nd most populous state in the Union had the 2nd most gun sales?
Of course Commiefornia purchased more guns. They have to cause reloading is for suckers. They need 3 black ghost guns to equal the one ar15 I bought behind a Mexican meat market with the owners initials ‘ATF’ carved in the stock.
Oh, so THAT’s where it went!
Strictly speaking, these are just the number of NICS checks. They don’t necessarily correspond to the number of guns purchased.
If more than one gun is purchased at a time, there’s only one NICS check. If a gun is purchased privately (in free states) or by a concealed carry license holder, there’s no NICS check. If the sales is denied or the buyer changes their mind, there can be a NICS check but no gun sold. If a gun is pawned, then reclaimed by the owner, there is a NICS check just to get his own gun back. Same with guns taken into police evidence and later returned to their owners.
A NICS check is run on applicants for concealed carry licenses, too, where no firearm is even being sold. States re-run NICS checks on current licensees to confirm their ongoing eligibilty, which they do at different intervals, and which can distort their state’s NICS count.
Look at the figures broken down by state. You’ll see Kentucky’s count surge, in one year, around 2006, from a quarter million per year, to about 2.5 million per year and remain there. It’s because they switched to monthly checks of their license holders. Seriously, little Kentucky is not buying that many guns; double that if Texas or California.
The posted table has no title.
It could be the number of burritos sold at Taco Bell, for all we know.
Kinda stupid, I think.