CCW helps you get through security!

[Paraguy]

Finally, CCW holders viewed as the good guys!
Welcome to the Texas Capitol, where children go through metal detectors... but gun-toting visitors breeze straight in

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 6:32 PM on 14th February 2011

Comments (3) Add to My Stories .
There's an easy way to skip the long lines of children and tourists waiting to be security-checked at the Texas Capitol - take a gun.

In a remarkable loophole, visitors with a concealed handgun licence do not have go through the metal detectors and security scanners put in place last year after a gunman fired shots outside the government building.

But not everyone bypassing the checks is carrying a gun. Lobbyists and journalists have signed up in droves to get a licence before this month, when the legislature is convened and the Capitol is at its busiest.

 
Skip the line: Children face a long wait for security checks at the Texas Capitol - while concealed handgun licence holders go straight through the CHL lane

 
Self-defence: Texas state senator Dan Patrick says he always carries his gun inside the Capitol

Carrie Knoll, advocacy director at the Texas Paediatric Society, decided to get a licence before the new legislative session to avoid being stuck behind crowds of schoolchildren.

She said: 'Do I think it's silly? Yes.'

Licence-holders enter the building in a special 'CHL access' lane, bypassing the metal detectors and X-ray scanners used for everyone else.


But Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said state troopers stationed at the building's four checkpoints inspect the licences to make sure they are valid.

'It's not like they just whoosh on through,' she said.

Would-be licence-holders must take classes and have criminal background checks before they can get a permit, which costs $140.

Under Texas law, citizens can carry a gun with them - as long as they have a permit and keep it hidden.

The loophole was introduced to stop them having to take their guns out at security checkpoints.


More than 460,000 people in the state have a concealed handgun licence - including state senator Dan Patrick, who says he carries his gun at the Capital most of the time.

 
Gun-friendly zone: Lobbyists and have rushed to get concealed handgun licences which allow them to skip scanners at the Texas Capitol, Austin

He said: 'I don't ever want to be in a situation where I don't have the chance to defend myself, my family or my friends.


'We live in a world where you can encounter danger at home or work or on the street.'

It was Mr Patrick's office gunman Fausto Cardenas visited before firing several shots outside the building last year in the incident that prompted tighter security checks.

 
Hidden away: A model demonstrates how handgun can be concealed. In Texas, citizens can legally carry guns - as long as they have a permit

Richard Robertson, who brought his gun into the Capitol this weekend, said he is glad he can - and defended the state against gun campaigners who have criticised the system.


He told Reuters: 'It's not the Wild West mentality where I'm hoping to get into a fight, but if some lunatic tries something, I'd feel better having the means to put an end to it.

'Around here, it's not that big of a deal (to have a gun at the Capitol). Someone from out of state may think we're a bunch of yahoos.'

[Frosty]

To bad Colo. & other states don't follow Texas

[billt]

To bad Colo. & other states don't follow Texas

Colorado, like many other western states, has been infiltrated by tree and bunny hugging liberal yuppies, trying to escape the big cities for greener pastures. They have been raised on a steady diet of libtard gun hatred, and will never vote, or be a part of anything that is pro Second Amendment. Here in Arizona we've got Prescott to deal with. While not as bad as Colorado, there is a lot of white flight from California running there. They are bringing a lot of their stupid liberal thinking with them.  Bill T.

[Frosty]

Don't know about Prescott, Az., it sounds as though they may be Boulderized! The republic of Boulder has gone as far as banning airsoft guns! That is what I had heard on the radio a week or so back. Apparently it stems from an incident that occured in Lakewood, Co. where a couple of kids (approx. 13 yrs old) were goofing with airsofts and one shot the other in the eye, the parents of the kid that got shot took him to the Doctor and things went down hill from there. Lakewood P.D. arrested the 13 yr old and he faces serious chrges that will ruin him for life. The Jefferson County DA is pressing charges, the DA has reluctantly lowered some of the chrges only after numerous folks have hammered him and his office. To date I don't know of what has come of this poor kid and the charges he is charged with. It's a sad day in America This is what we face in Colorado.

[2HOW]

The way it should be everywhere, and airports too.

[Sponsor]

[JC5123]

To bad Colo. & other states don't follow Texas

2 main problems with CO, Denver, and Boulder. 

[TAB]

The way it should be everywhere, and airports too.

just becuase some one has a CCW, does not mean they are good person.


As I've said many, many times.  there is not a member here that has not commited a felony at some point in thier life.  We have just never been cuaght.  There are lots of felonys out there.  Every taken a cat off a car or truck? felony.  put some thing on a rail road track or walked down a railroad track? felony.  In many states having a fire work is a felony( az for example)  there is one southern state where oral sex with some one other then your wife/husband is a felony.  the list goes on and on and on.

The diffrence between a felon and the rest of us is they got cuaght, its really that simple.


there should be no diffrence in treatment between ccw holders and nonccw holders.

[MikeBjerum]

I think this is the third time I've seen this story come up in as many years.  Every time the anti's have something on their mind to push or the anti-gun movement is getting lethargic they run one or two of a handful of stories, and this is one of their favorites.  It always leads to letters to the editor and editorials about the lack of security and how scary a given city or state is.

Get a gun, shake the hand of your "good ol boy Sheriff" and strut around where every you'd like, just like Wyatt Earp.

[billt]

There are lots of felonys out there.  Every taken a cat off a car or truck? felony.

A cat? You mean like a meow kitty cat?      Bill T.

[TAB]

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