handgun revolver bullet muzzle smoke
Shutterstock
Previous Post
Next Post
handgun revolver bullet muzzle smoke
Shutterstock

Lone Star Gun Rights is alerting Texans to a bill pre-filed by Texas Rep. Terry Meza; HB 196: AN ACT relating to the use of deadly force in defense of a person or property. Per LSGR:

…a very worrying piece of legislation was introduced by Irving State Representative Terry Meza. HB 196 seeks to repeal the Castle Doctrine, preventing a homeowner from using firearms to defend their property.

Yes and no. The bill does strike “robbery, or aggravated robbery” from the list of things one can use deadly force against in Sections 9.32(a)(3)(B). But the use of deadly force — and not just with a firearm — to prevent the loss of “tangible, movable property” is left intact in Section 9.41.

Now, in my own state one cannot use deadly force to prevent a theft, but nonlethal force is permissible. And if a criminal is stupid enough to escalate the situation by assaulting you in order to complete the theft, deadly force would then be on the table. That’s also the case in Texas under Section 9.31. So I don’t think that would be too great a problem in of of itself, other than the precedent of restricting rights.

The problem is that HB 196 would also do something else, something problematic. Texas has no duty for victims to retreat. This bill would require a victim to attempt to retreat in the face of an attacker before using deadly force, except when you are in your own home (Section 9.31(c)). This eliminates so-called stand your ground protection.

I call duty to retreat Faster Than A Speeding Bullet, because if your attacker is armed with a firearm, that’s how fast you would have to be for a retreat to work.

Texans should read LGSR’s entire alert for a list of other bad Dem-sponsored 2A infringements.

Previous Post
Next Post

108 COMMENTS

  1. So now it begins in Texas,,,
    All the anti’s moving from blue states are going to turn The lone star state into another Calif or Mass, wait & see.

    • Meza’s just barking at the moon, a-la Wendy Davis a while back.

      His bill won’t even get a House committee vote, much less come to the floor. And even if is magically did and managed to pass the Texas House (yeah, right), the chances of getting the required 60% of the Texas Senate to allow it to come up for a vote . . . nonexistent, even if the Lt. Gov. would allow it to come to the floor (he would not). And then of course Gov. Abbott — a former state AG and a very pro-2A guy — would veto it.

      Remember, the Texas Constitution (passed in the wake of Reconstruction) was deliberately designed to make it very, very hard to pass anything (see, e.g., why there’s not even been a vote on a Constitutional Carry bill). Despite its numerous failings, the state GOP has done a pretty good job of passing a number of laws over the past two decades that are designed to further cement things in place. The structural inability of the State to do much (even if it wants to) is a big reason why Texas remains such a business-friendly environment.

      Yes, there are lot of folks moving into the state, and we should always be aware of the risk of going the way of Colorado. But note what just happened in the state . . . despite a huge influx of out-of-state money to sup[port people like Wendy Davis to try and “turn Texas Blue, they achieved . . . nada. The GOP is still firmly in control, and indeed the GOP has gotten rid of a number of RINOs in the caucuses.

      Yes, there are lot of folks moving into the state, and we should always be aware of the risk of going the way of Colorado. But note what just happened in the state . . . despite a huge influx of out-of-state money to sup[port people like Wendy Davis to try and “turn Texas Blue, they achieved . . . nada. Except in urban areas, the GOP remains popular and is still firmly in control of state government. Indeed, the GOP has gotten rid of a number of RINOs in the caucuses, and so if anything Texas state government is probably the most conservative it’s been since the 70’s.

        • Henry, I agree we are being infested with INO’s. That being said, may I ask: Are you a registered Republican, and if so do you attend your Republican Caucuses? It is our complacency that allows these Rat Rino’s to infest the tent.

        • Henry, I don’t have too much confidence either. Remember that fake Mexican, Betto almost won.

      • I don’t trust Abbott as far as I can roll him after his wishywashy COVID bs.
        Getting harder and harder to tell the difference between the Dems and Republicans. They are both tax and spend. Republicans have been promising property tax reform for years and who gets it stuck up the arse when Covid shows up? Property tax payers! Out with all these dips and replace.
        More and more foreign license plates showing up in Texas because they are scared of what’s happening in California, Pennsylvania, New York etc. Dumbasses will be voting here in Texas soon.

    • Under my dead body is the only way TEXAS has always been a state to where you can protect your family and property and I will die to defend my little piece of it

      • Looks like the communist/globalist are taking over America. End of our free country. Unless real men stand up and stop them. It is a peaceful coup by the left and the rinos, they use BLM and Antifa to do the terrorist dirty work. Left takes the white house in January we are done as a free country. If you can’t defend your own home your own lives what good is even owning a gun? They took over while we were not looking. Gold help us.

  2. Another nitwit pos wanting to take the teeth out of a law that caters to victims. That’s right…Let’s do all we can to embolden criminals and tie the hands if the law abiding.
    The only people applauding such stupidity are murderers, thieves, rapists, kidnappers, child molesters, perverts and Gun Control scumbags.

    • You mean all the people that the leftists have encouraged to riot, steal and destroy these last few months.

      Gotta show their constituents that they will do whatever it takes to continue to get their votes.

      Never understood how stealing someone’s property is any less an assault on someone than straight out attacking them, unless one is so short-sighted as to believe there is nothing more than property lost when a thief steals it (or rioter destroys it).

  3. The last time the Dims has House, Senate and Presidency, they wasted the two full years on Obamacare. This crowd learned from that, and we should expect attacks all along the line (attacks against any traditional values), all the time, in the first two years of Biden.

    Some Dims are already calling on Biden to bypass legislatin altogether, and implement the Leftist agenda by EO/EA; let the Repubs fight it out in court.

    It’s gonna be a bumpy flight.

    • To the Democrats in their 1970s fantasy land, they are only things and they are covered by insurance. We (not they) MUST share the bounty of our privilege with those less fortunate.

      The mindset of a Progressive must drive them crazy with the logical contradictions.

    • “The last time the Dims has House, Senate and Presidency, they wasted the two full years on Obamacare.”

      You’re right, Sam. Obama’s laser-focus on cementing a piece of legacy legislation cost him and his party dearly. Not just his administration, but down the line to the state houses as well. We cut his political nuts off 2 years later, and he was a lame duck for the next 6 years.

      If we’re unable to dismantle that vote theft empire they built, the last metaphorical box will be here in a few years…

  4. Another in a long series of Violent Felon Protection Laws promulgated by the most violent felons of all, the Democrats.

    BTW, check out Meza’s official photo. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

  5. Debbie, you left out the socialist democrat controlling wing of the DNC. >>> never mind, just re-read your 3rd sentence, you got em covered.

  6. Well there goes Texas. That’s the kind of stuff that happens when you let to many of those liberals coming from Commiefornia move in.

    • Cut out that crybaby defeatist bullshit. Texas just voted more Republican than ever before in the last election. Predominantly hispanic populations in districts that haven’t voted for Republican candidates in a century did so this last election, and that’s the pattern we’ve seen for the last 25 years. Texas is becoming more and more conservative, not less. The white upper class liberals from the coasts voting Dem don’t make up for the traditional value Hispanics growing up in the state.

      • “Texas is becoming more and more conservative, not less.”

        So is Miami, Florida. This interesting article popped up today :

        “On Health Care, Hispanics Reject Government Meddling”

        “In Venezuela, the situation is “dire.” For them, going to a hospital for treatment means bringing your own food and medical supplies. In fact, things are so bad that the government has stopped publishing public health statistics. Despite this, the World Health Organization estimates that in 2016 there were 7,800 cases of tuberculosis, up from 6,000 cases in 2014, and in 2017, there were 414,000 cases of malaria compared to 36,000 cases in 2009. This, in a country with the richest supply of oil in the Latin America.

        Meanwhile, in the United States, Americans far removed from the realities of government health care wonder why Hispanics would walk away from the promises of universal health care offered to them. The answer is quite simple. Hispanics have seen this all before.”

        https://www.realclearhealth.com/articles/2020/11/12/on_health_care_hispanics_reject_government_meddling_111135.html

      • If you are saying that Republicans are ipso-facto all pro gun/pro gun rights/pro self defense, I suspect that you might need to clean your glasses. To say that all Democrats are opposed to the above mentioned might be equally wrong.

        • “To say that all Democrats are opposed to the above mentioned might be equally wrong.”

          The number who are not opposed is statistical noise. Click-bait, at best, to divert 2A defender attention into non-productive efforts to “convert” that small number.

          Owning a gun, whomever, is not the badge of a 2A defender, or member of the “POTG” collective.

        • Democrats are, by current definition, anti-self-defense, anti-2A, while they are pro-gun control and pro-criminal. If you don’t like the facts, too damned bad.

  7. So, if that bill becomes law, you cannot use deadly force to defend yourself during a robbery or an aggravated robbery? What is the rationale in that?

    If that bill becomes law, the state will openly and officially be on the side of robbers and against its own citizens. At that point, I cannot see how citizens owe any allegiance to state employees who support and advance that situation.

    • “you cannot use deadly force to defend yourself during a robbery or an aggravated robbery? What is the rationale in that?”

      Workplace safety, of course!

      We can’t have people in their chosen line of work getting hurt or killed over a misunderstanding! They weren’t going to steal, they were just going to borrow it and bring it right back!

      (Do I really need the sarcasm-tag? 🙂 )

  8. “The mindset of a Progressive must drive them crazy with the logical contradictions.”

    Nope. Liberalism is a mental disorder; untreatable.

  9. Some people need to have things they worked hard for their whole lives taken away from them so they can realize what its like to feel that loss.

    Might as well claim rape shouldn’t be a crime because its like shaking your hand, you can just take a shower and everything goes away…..

    • “…Might as well claim rape shouldn’t be a crime because its like shaking your hand,…”

      That might be coming. There are claims that sex is a human right, and that the rape was just a “clumsy pass” that shouldn’t be criminalized…

  10. I’m somewhat confused here.

    Does the bill strike the ability to use lethal force against armed robbery and aggravated robbery from the Penal Code (as per the link) or was the section making such use of force illegal stricken from the bill itself?

    The way this reads it sounds like you can’t defend against robbery (by definition violence) but you can still smoke someone for simple theft (by definition non violent)… which seems backwards even from what passes for a libtard point of view… you can shoot a garage-ing teenager over a case of beer but must retreat from a knife wielding guy demanding your wallet?

    • “One can only hope that those pushing and supporting this bill become victims of their own ignorance…”

      It’s an empty hope.

      Case in point –

      When it was clear what a cluster-fuck the ‘Affordable Care Act’ was going to be, the Republicans did something smart (for once, it seems.)

      That was, that congressional staff (all those that work for the congress-critters on Capitol Hill) would be *required* to be on ObamaCare so they could get a good taste of what it would be like for average Americans.

      Once they got that taste, they raised holy hell about it and that ‘requirement’ was quietly dropped, since Democrat and Republican staffers were equally impacted. It took *YEARS* later and Trump to do the same for us by nixing the legal ‘mandate’ by canceling the IRS ‘tax’ penalty…

    • No, you’re just here because you’re an asshole.

      Bad news – As far as assholes go, you’re a pathetic lightweight.

      Now go back to your mom’s basement and resume jerking off, it’s about the only thing you’re competent at doing… 😉

    • “maybe the sponsor of this bill should the first victim of it”

      See my reply to ‘Wisconsin Patriot’ a few comments up, don’t get your hopes up…

  11. “They think they will do their Progressive utopia differently but they keep making the same mistakes.”

    Critical mass covers up a multitude of “mistakes”. The communist take over of post-Tsar Russia was not a smoothly flowing river of progress. Nonetheless, relentless determination blew through numerous mistakes of Lenin, Trotsky (etc.) and obliterated all competition. The Russians then used the same tactics to destroy the German army. Concentration of Mass is a classic military imperative because it works.

    • The Germans taught the lessons of blitzkrieg. The Russians mastered it and took it to a higher level.

      Quantity has a quality of it’s own.

      • “The Germans taught the lessons of blitzkrieg.”

        That was negated by the brutal reality of the Russian winter.

        Relentless attrition also has a dispiriting quality of it’s own.

        “When you lay wounded on the Afghan plain, and the women come out, to cut up your remains,

        Roll to your rifle, and blow out your brains,
        and go to your God like a soldier…

        (Kipling?)

  12. “Except in urban areas…”

    That’s where the votes will swamp the rest of even Texas. Locusts go where the feeding is best.

    • Give it time.

      That’s the Leftist M.O.

      Relentless pressure. The Alinsky political concept of ‘Nudge’…

  13. It’s never about making evil people accountable or even any level of justice. What they will do is throw innocent people in jail for having the misfortune of being victimized.

    I don’t see this actually going anywhere but the left is certainly trying.

    • In the Progressive mindset, the criminal is the true victim of a cruel and unjust society. We as members of this society have to be punished for flaunting our privileges of education, employment, and positive work ethics.

    • Well I’m going to say Texans will not vote this into affect because if anyone trys to break into there home’s or trespass on there property well they Will shot and it’s always been that way and it’s not going to change. I’m sorry but nobody is going to take my gun’s away they will have to pry them from my Cold Dead hand’s and I think that the Americans need to stand up together and take our country back cause if we don’t it’s going to hell in a hand basket it’s already begun and it’s just going to get worse no job’s no socializing stay at home crap people losing there homes living on the Streets this really is pothetic can’t you see what the real picture is? Well I’m not going to sit back and watch our country go to Shit and I say we need to stand together and take our country back and get our economy back up and job’s open all store’s restruants bar’s social activities schools get back to normal and not have some idiots try to control us and make our country a third world country and start a all out war we the people are better than that this is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the Brave!! And in God we trust now let’s do what honestly needs to be done take our country back and get all the dumbasses in office out of office this really is pothetic and I can’t believe it’s honestly gone this far. I pray that all the true Americans come together and take our country back the sooner the better and if it comes down to war I hope the good Lord call’s me home cause I don’t want to sit and watch America lose everything and that’s exactly what is going to happen it’s already been prodicted in the Bible so hang on to your Ass cheeks and get ready to kiss them goodbye. And grab your Bible and read it and get right with God cause it’s going to happen. May God bless all of our country and people and I pray that we will be back to normal and not destroying our country and one another. Everyone else needs to Pray as well save our country and ourselves Amen

  14. Everyone has heard the slogan “Texas, it’s like a whole other country” if that is true, the Austin must be San Freakincisco!

  15. As long as there is a duty to retreat there can be no real ability to use force against someone trying to steal from you. The moment you chase them or attempt to use any small amount of force you have put yourself at risk to have to choose between death and prison- because if they actively resist, you may find yourself in a situation where you pursued them and now feel like you need to use deadly force.

    This is why police are exempted from the duty to retreat- because they have to chase people down and arrest them. You can’t do that if, upon doing so, you can’t defend yourself.

  16. Typically, duty to retreat only applies in the instance where retreat can be done with complete safety. Running…er, retreating…from a perp with a gun would not meet that condition. No one has ever out run a bullet of any caliber. FIRE AWAY!!!!!

  17. “No one has ever out run a bullet of any caliber. ”

    Apparently you do not understand the essence of confrontation: if you are not there to confront, there is no reason to attack you; no reason to shoot at you. Give up, and give in. Change the dynamic so that a potential attacker has no need of using force against you. It takes two to tango, so if you depart the scene there can be no dance.

    A person who resists when faced with force is the proximate cause of any injury that occurs. If you evade, neither you or the attacker gets hurt. If you cannot evade, beg for mercy and display complete surrender. This prevents the attacker from remaining aggressive toward you because harming you after you surrender is unmanly. The law will deal with robbers, and other criminals. You have no right to take the law into your own hands, ever. Even the life of a criminal is precious, and using a weapon to defend yourself declares that your life is more important, which a good society cannot countenance.

    And don’t even use a rape whistle. It puts the aggressor in danger just when you need to show them that you represent no danger. If you are nice to others, they will be nice in return.

    Oh, if faced with an attacker, make sure you hide your eyes; don’t look at them. That way the attacker knows you cannot identify them, showing once again you are not presenting a danger, which the attacker will appreciate and decide to not cause you any harm. People like to say that zillions of defense gun uses happen each year, without firing a shot. Can you imagine how many lives can be saved if you don’t try to resist/antagonize a robber or attacker?

    Why can’t we all just get along?

  18. “There are claims that sex is a human right”

    If that is true, rape is not a “clumsy pass”, but the exercising of one’s natural, human and civil right. If the person being raped resists, that person is committing a violent act to deny what is rightfully yours. Such a situation should permit the raper to seek damages in court.

    • People who refuse to embrace basic hygiene and learn basic social skills (like TTAG’s fuckwit trolls) have a right to experience fulfilling sexual encounters.

      (They would say. *gag*…)

      “Can you rinse it off, do you suppose?” :

  19. “Rep. Terry Meza grew up in Irving, Texas”

    Nothing good can come from Irving; they let the Cowboys Stadium be taken from them.

  20. Robbery is not a property crime. Theft or larceny are property crimes. Robbery is a crime of violence against a person. It is an unlawful use of force or threat of force, the wrongful taking of property is just the motive behind it.

    Utterly insane.

  21. Stupid bills are filed all the damn time. Hardly anything to get butt hurt about. Follow it through the process and keep an eye on it.

  22. Texas has never been about individual liberty. You 60-year-old children just want it to be because you think violent, dong-waving cowboys are cool and you can’t tell fiction from reality, and the cheap suburbs suit your taste and income.

    • Best for you to just put all your valuables out in the street and keep your family safe you chicken livered bastard

  23. MLee is correct – happens all state legislatures. Jim A. is correct too, I saw it happen to New Hampshire as the lefty’s moved in from their costly liberal neighboring states. Peaked in the 90’s – I left in 99. Now G.Shumway is using revisionist history & liberal B.S. Gordon should just stay out of Texas! He’s free to live elsewhere in a progressive controlled state & pay the consequences. The Loss of Liberty and higher taxes.

  24. What a crock of ——-. A person trying to retreat shows his/her back to an attacker, that means no means of defense. A free shot to harm the person retreating. If you use military history as an example, you will find more people killed in fleeing a battle than in a fighting withdrawal or defense.

  25. Ha, I will have to retreat, cower down, risk getting killed, and my family and let the scumbags do what they want. Ha, are these fools for real. What is wrong with these idiots? NEVER happen!

  26. “Tangible movable property” refers to motorhomes, basically. In other words this bill, if passed, would prohibit you from using a firearm to defend your home from a burglar if he does not display a weapon. It would in fact be a repeal of castle doctrine, which states that if someone is trespassing in your home, you can reasonably infer that they intend to do you the kind of harm that warrants lethal force.

    “Duty to retreat” is, of course, just a way for leftist prosecutors to selectively prosecute lawful self-defense, but that’s a whole other issue.

  27. Right now there are NO consequences for violating the US Constitution. So, ever day some liberal hack of Bloomberg financed knucklehead sneaks up to the bar and submits his new affront to the American citizen and his/her ability to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed rights that are attacked every day and requires you to get a license, permit, or some perverted sicko to grant you permission to exercise that right. You have no free speech when you have to get a permit to speak, you have no second amendment when you can get arrested for not having a concealed carry permit, you have no justice when you firearms are seized without compensation or grand jury and you lose the 5th and 2nd amendment and there is a lot more.

  28. Yeah.. screw around and find out.
    If you come on to my property with malintent, you’re going home in a body bag.

  29. All it gonna take is for 1 person to shoot one of these bastards and take them out , and they will stop this shit! That goes for all of them!

  30. You have the right to defend your safety & wellbeing 😡 any law that prohibits that is a human rights violation as it forces you to either be the victim of physical assault/murder or get thrown in jail if you dare to defend your life.

  31. Meza is 71 years old. Went to law school about 20 years ago. She has lived in Arlington(Tarrant County) since 2000. How did she get elected for district 105 which is in Irving(Dallas Coutry)?

  32. A serious question. How does this legislation go with the thinking of Libertarians, that you should not use deadly force to protect private property?

    Since they agree with this Texas lawmaker that you should have a duty to retreat from a commercial private property.

    How is it different between a commercial private property and the private property of a residence?

  33. Problem being is that only by 5% did Texas stay red. And with that problem too many hidden Demrats running as Republicans show their true colors after a couple years. The 2022 midterm elections going to be hell. I live deep in Parker County. Normally don’t see out of state plates. Last few months seen more blue state plates than I have in last 8 yrs. By next presidential election I fear Texas will fall blue. Praying im wrong.

  34. Gorden Shumway is the very definition of whats wrong in this country, let alone texas…
    Your a damn moron…
    As for the bill, the left “i know what’s best for you” liberals are a stain on society… they keep pushing & pushing to take all your rights away. The “right” better get off the couch and get back in the fight,make some noise, etc..
    Otherwise, it will be too late….
    Someone once asked me….”is what you have worth someone’s life?” My response…” your asking the wrong person, you need to ask the one intending to steal what I have if they THINK what I have is worth their life!”.
    THEY are making the decision, not me. If they didn’t come to take something from me, they would be in no danger of being shot,, im not out looking for them to shoot them.
    And finally, the comment about “thats what insurance is for”……. your another of the many morons that posted here. Insurance is outrageous due to that type of thinking… if insurance has to cover the loss, WE ALL PAY FOR IT DUMBASS!
    You idiots keep holding hands & singing cumbiya with the criminals & see how that works out for ya… I will keep doing us both a favor & put one right between the eyes… one less menace to society! Once we take them ALL out, the world will be a better place & you won’t need insurance.

    • “And finally, the comment about “thats what insurance is for”……. your another of the many morons that posted here. ”

      Working with the insurance company requires way less paperwork than dealing with the “justice” system.

  35. In the mid and late 90’s I can remember in rural and cities near rural areas, walking into cafes and seeing gun belts hung on hooks.  DPS troopers, police, and deputies would just walk by them on their way in to eat or out to go back to work.

  36. This witch is helping the muslims and we wonder why she wants to do this TEXAS let’s wake up we cant let this happen to TEXAS has anyone started any kind of protest petition or getting ready to appear in person to speak if so please inform me as I will join in on the cause to protect our laws and land

  37. Let’s see what happens to her when thieves show up at her house with guns do you think she would feel the same way. What is wrong with people thinking crime is ok? You are a joke and the people you represent should be embarrassed you represent them. You are a disgrace and a disgusting human being.

  38. LEAVE TEXAS AS TEXAS IS. Stop with trying to make it like California. If you want that then move there and leave our Lone Star State alone.

  39. Get that stupid cunt out of politics. Anybody dumb enough to trespass on my property deserves a death sentence. There’s nothing here for them

  40. Terry Meza should be removed from office she has no right to infringe on second amendment rights for one to protect his family! you don’t have time to ask an intruder or a thief that breaks into your home if he has a weapon and will he use it! NO, he is there at HIS OWN peril. If you take away the consequences the crime will escalate! the b**** should watch ID Discovery and see how many home invasions end up in the death of the owner or the innocent people living in the home! maybe it should be her home get her where it hurts at least get rid of her ass!!!!!

  41. Why are we the only country that gives criminals more rights then non criminals! What is wrong with these people, they are destroying our country and so many idiots follow along! The lazy get more free handouts from the government, criminals have more rights then non, cops can’t shoot criminals if they are a person of color, we can’t spank our children, we can’t defend ourselves, when will it ever end!!!

  42. Terry Meza. You are a dumb ass. You don’t know what you are talking about. Someone break into your home you don’t know it they are there to hurt or kill you.
    Someone breaks into my home they will end up in a body bag. I am ex – military.

  43. You need to see Meza’s actual comments on the bill:
    Thieves only carry weapons for self-protection and to provide the householder an incentive to cooperate. They just want to get their loot and get away. When the resident tries to resist is when people get hurt. If only one side is armed fewer people will be killed.”

    “In most instances the thief needs the money more than the homeowner does,” Meza reasoned. “The homeowner’s insurance we reimburse his losses. On balance, the transfer of property is likely to lead to a more equitable distribution of wealth. If my bill can help make this transfer a peaceful one so much the better.”

    • “You need to see Meza’s actual comments on the bill:”

      Liberalism is a mental disorder, and it will get us all killed.
      – – M. Savage, radio host

      Those who are kind to the cruel will be cruel to the kind.
      – – D. Prager, radio host

  44. WHAT KIND OF A MORON WOULD WANT TO EVEN THINK ABOUT PASSING SUCH A FUMDUCKIN LAW. WAKE UP AMERICA THESE SILLY COMMIES WANTS TO DISTROY OUR COUNTRY???? I DON’T THINK SO, YOU BREAK INTO WHERE I LIVE AND IT’LL BE YOUR LAST TIME

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here