“Pro-Gun” Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick Buys into Anti-Gun Kool Aid

For some gun owners, the National Rifle Association does not fully defend gun rights.

However, with recent developments in Texas, they are now beginning to take squishy Republicans to task.

Texas Scorecard reported on Friday, September 6, 2019 that the NRA criticized Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s suggestion of moving towards a universal background check system.

The Lieutenant Governor allegedly told a Dallas-based newspaper he was “willing to take an arrow” from Second Amendment supporters like the NRA in his attempt to compromise on the issue of gun control.

“Look, I’m a solid NRA guy,” Patrick said to the paper, “but not expanding the background check to eliminate the stranger to stranger sale makes no sense to me and … most folks.”

The NRA had choice words for Patrick, which compared his policy proposals to anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg and even tied them to the Obama administration.

“With due respect, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s ‘proposals’ would resurrect the same broken, Bloomberg-funded failures that were attempted under the Obama administration,” the statement declared. “Like most political gambits, Lt. Gov. Patrick’s ‘solution’ precedes his possession of the facts, including this critical concession by the Obama administration: Criminalizing private firearm transfers would require a massive, governmental gun registration scheme.”

Patrick’s latest scuffle with the NRA comes after Governor Greg Abbott issued several executive orders which facilitated inter-governmental cooperation among state agencies to tackle mass shootings from recent weeks.

But for anti-gun Democrats who want to radically transform Texas’s relatively solid gun laws, this is not enough. They want Abbott to call a special session of the legislature to put politicians on the record by forcing votes on gun control.

For many diehard Second Amendment activists, Patrick’s compromise on universal background checks—which effectively subjects all firearms transactions to some form of government approval—has rekindled gun rights activists fears’ about a statewide registration system.

Texas maybe witnessing an ideological transformation that may make gun rights activism much harder in the Lone Star State.

In the worst case scenario, both parties will not be viable mechanisms for pro-gun supporters to push solid Second Amendment legislation at the state level.

Instead, they might have to turn to the county level and start establishing sanctuary counties like they did in the border county of Presidio.

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