Dan Patrick, Constitutional Carry, and the "Law Enforcement" industrial complex....

"For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life."
Galatians 6:8

There's a post we've been procrastinating about writing for a month, thankfully Lt. Governor Patrick forced the issue yesterday:

"On constitutional carry, I’ll say the same thing: I don’t know if the votes are there," Patrick told San Antonio host Trey Ware.

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"I think with all the police violence today we have in our state ... law enforcement does not like the idea of anyone being able to walk down the street with a gun and they don’t know if they have a permit or not," Patrick said.

Let's unpack the phrase "law enforcement does not like" in the context of "I don't know if the votes are there."

Obviously, policing is an emotionally charged topic.  That was true before Dallas.  And it's even truer now.

Behind those emotional charges, however, lie a lot of politics.

And there's a gigantic difference between the courageous police officers who serve our communities, and the anti-taxpayer bureaucrats and lobbyists who allegedly represent "law enforcement" at the Capitol.

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We first noticed this phenomenon last session when we noticed various members of the 'law enforcement community' offered hysterical doomsday in the event various bills we considered rather modest were to pass.

Obviously, the rather inconsequential 'open carry' bill they passed last session was one such occasion.  Former Austin Police chief Art Acevedo (Sidenote: Boy is it satisfying to use the word 'former' in connection with Art Acevedo.) led the charge in over the top fearmongering.  But even more telling was the fact that nobody else in the so-called 'law enforcement community' told Acevedo to knock it off.

Even more telling was the "law enforcement" reaction to efforts to ban red-light cameras, when they argued that we were all totally going to die in car crashes if the state of Texas eliminated a municipal revenue generating swindle.

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The so-called "law enforcement community" can be further subdivided into two categories: The cop lobby [bad] and the district attorney lobby [EVIL].

The cop lobby consists of two major groups: Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (CLEAT) [obnoxious] and the Texas Municipal Police Association (TMPA) [bad].

The district attorney lobby is led by the Texas District and County Attorney Association.  These guys first creeped us out at a TPPF discussion of civil asset forfeiture in 2014.  We can't get into details on their mendacity without burning sources, but suffice to say that legislators and their staff will occasionally tell stories off the record that would astonish you [hint: ask about the Death Penalty].

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So, what does this long winded discussion have to do with passing Constitutional Carry in the Texas Senate?!?

In the Texas Senate, there are 20 Republicans.  You need 19 votes (60%) to pass a bill.  And Kel Seliger is a RINO.

That brings us down to 19 votes.

Which brings us to Senator Joan Huffman:  On this issue, the only thing you need to know about her is that she's a former prosecutor.

Which brings you down to 18 votes.

Which means Constitutional Carry doesn't pass.

It's that simple.

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Bottom Line: Politics is a dirty business and Dan Patrick did us a favor by keying us into one of the subtler aspect of that dirtiness.