Texas House Speaker Calls In State Troopers To Intimidate Gun Rights Activist
Jose Nino
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Constitutional Carry appears to be dead in Texas, and now the free speech of a gun rights organization hangs in the balance.
On March 27, Texas state troopers were sent to Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen’s home in Lake Jackson, Texas in light of concerns that a gun rights activist was heading there to canvass and inform voters of Bonnen’s questionable leadership.
The activist in question is Chris McNutt, the Executive Director of Texas Gun Rights.
McNutt had already canvassed the districts of State Representatives Four Price and Dustin Burrows, two of Bonnen’s chief lieutenants in the State House.
After a successful canvassing effort and social media campaign targeting these districts, Bonnen felt the heat and decided to send DPS to intimidate the gun rights activist when he dropped by his district.
According to a recent report from Texas Gun Rights, rumors around the Texas State Capitol are suggesting that Bonnen is considering an investigation of the pro-gun group.
Should Bonnen go through with this investigation, Texas Gun Right’s free speech rights could be potentially at risk.
Derek Wills, the Senior Editor of Lone Star Gun Rights, saw this incident as a revelation of Bonnen’s pro-establishment tendencies.
The gun rights activist said, “Bonnen has finally admitted publicly that he believes Constitutional Carry is a bad policy. We have applied pressure to get him to prioritize HB357, and he is using the act of placing flyers on people’s doors as an excuse to kill it.”
Wills then added:
He knows we will hold him responsible, so in an act of desperation, he is using grassroots advocates as a scapegoat. Unfortunately for him, all this does is expose his corruption and prove he intended on killing it from day one.
A few days after this incident with DPS took place, Chris McNutt broke the silence on the Texas Gun Rights Facebook page in a video.
McNutt denounced Bonnen’s tactics saying “Instead of taking accountability for his own actions. for blocking Constitutional Carry, he [Bonnen] would rather find a scapegoat to avoid the heat of his own pro-gun constituents.”
Texas’s Constitutional Carry bill, HB 357, has been a rallying point for pro-gun activists during the 2019 legislative session.
However, it has encountered numerous roadblocks thanks to the leadership of establishment Republicans like Speaker Dennis Bonnen.
BLP reported how Bonnen appointed anti-gun Democrat Poncho Nevarez to the Homeland Security Committee, where all gun rights legislation is usually heard.
With these facts considered, Constitutional Carry appears to be on its last legs during the 2019 session.
The “Beto” mania of 2018 saw a troubling set of trends that flipped urban centers throughout the state blue.
In fact, gun rights activists lost a major champion in former State Representative Matt Rinaldi during this election cycle.
As migration trends start to change the demographics of Texas, the politics will likely follow suit.
Soon scenarios like the one that occurred in Florida in 2018, where then Republican Governor Rick Scott signed gun control into law, could potentially become a reality in Texas.
In sum, gun rights activists will have their hands full in the 2020 election cycle.
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