Friday, May 19, 2017

TX: Legislature lowers License to Carry Fees, Governor Abbot Likely to Sign



SB 16 Reforms the fee structure of the license to carry in Texas. Texas has one of the highest shall issue license to carry fees in the United States. The current cost is $140 for the original license and renewal is $70.  The reform law reduces the original license to $40, and the renewal to the same $40.  People who are indigent have the initial fee reduced by half, to $20.  The renewal fee for the indigent will be $5. For people 60 years or older, the same $20 for an original and $5 for renewal, applies.

SB 16 passed the House 111 - 30. It passed the Senate 31 - 0. It was sent to Governor Abbot on Monday, 15 May, 2017.  Governor Abbot has been a strong Second Amendment supporter. It is expected that he will sign SB 16.

John Lott's research has confirmed the obvious. The higher the costs to obtain a concealed carry permit, (or in a few states, license to carry)  the lower the percentage of people who obtain the permit or license. From crimeresearch.org:

Each $10 increase in fees reduces the percent of adults with permits by about a half a percentage point.
This bill reduced the fee for a License to Carry in Texas by $100, a substantial amount. According to the research cited above, that should result in a 5% increase in the percentage of adults with LTCs in Texas.  The population estimate for Texas in 2017 is 28.4 million.   73.3% of which are 18 or older.  That is 20.8 million adults.

Texas showed 1,150, 754 active license holders at the end of 2016.  That is between 5% and 6% of adults in Texas. 5% of 20.8 million is another million active license holders.

Other consideration besides price can chill the acquisition of Concealed Handgun Licenses or Concealed Carry permits. Texas requires training by Texas certified instructors, and legible fingerprints.

It is reasonable to project that Texas will pass the 2 million mark for CHLs by 2027.

If Governor Abbot signs HB 16, the statute will go into effect on 1 September, 2017.

The number of people with concealed handgun permits in the United States was estimated at 14.5 million in the middle of 2016. The addition of another million permit holders in Texas will continue the rapid increase in permit holders. Ten states have more than 10% of the adult population with permits. Indiana has over 15% of adults with permits.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.





4 comments:

ScienceABC123 said...

If you have to pay a fee, get a license, pass a test, or get someone else's permission in order to exercise a right then it's NOT a right. All gun control laws are an "infringement" on the 2nd Amendment.

Anonymous said...

That's true Paul but they don't give a shit

Anonymous said...

All laws concerning any thing that can be used as a weapon are infringing laws. the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed Is all inclusive and there is no definition of what arms are. It requires a ratified amendment to the constitution to ad a definition. The United States supreme Court has ruled, based on the tenth amendment, that federal law and the federal constitution are superior to any state law or constitution state laws and amendments to state constitutions can not be enforced over the federal laws or the federal constitution. If the tenth amendment has any validity, No state weapons laws are valid.

Anonymous said...

They don't give a shit, that is the issue we must combat. We have to make them give a shit. too many badges are pined on assholes. the assholes for some reason think they gain extra authority to enforce their personal agendas or opinions rather than actually knowing the law, they do as they damn well please. It is a fact in the law that rarely if ever is enforced, When a law enforcement officer or for that matter any public servant that violates the law under color of law, thinking they know the law better than someone else, or simply ignore the law and they know they are violating the law, immediately loose the authority of their lawful position, when a cop breaks the law they are no longer a cop, when a judge refuses to uphold the written law, they are in fact required to be impeached. everything they do after they violate their oath of office before they are removed from that office is void. Read it for yourself in the American standard for the application of law, Volume 16 second edition of American jurisprudence.

According to American Jurisprudence it is the responsibility of any elected or appointed official to take a complaint to be investigated by the authorities of any violation of law by any government actor. If you make a formal complaint to any government actor, mayor , chief of police ,another cop, a judge, a legislator at any level, county supervisor, city council and so on they are required to follow up. If they fail to follow up, they have violated their oath of office and in fact become a coconspirator in the crime you have reported.

This information is not hidden from the public it is just very poorly advertised to any one except those in government. It is hidden in plain site. if you can get to a federal district court law library that is open to the public and they are all supposed to be open to the public, you can do your own research. I found Items or topic headings 79 through 155 very informative.

I think there are some 22 or more volumes of American jurisprudence and they are all well over 500 pages, very large books. get the right volume and find the right topic and it will blow your mind in what you can find out. I was guided through my research by an attorney/Librarian.