Texas Lobbyists Use Concealed Handgun Permits To Skip Capitol Inspection Lines

[sonias]

Huffington Post 6/3/10
Texas Lobbyists Use Concealed Handgun Permits To Skip Capitol Inspection Lines

Lobbyists spend so much time in the Texas state capitol that they're sick of waiting in line for metal detectors, so they've started to sign up for concealed handgun licenses that also, for some reason, mean the state assumes they aren't a security threat, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Why am I not surprised? Well we can't have the flow of money into the Legislators' pockets impeded can we? :eyes:

[sonias]

1. Lobbyists turn to gun permits to skip lines at Capitol

Here is the Houston Chronicle article:

Houston Chronicle 6/2/10
Lobbyists turn to gun permits to skip lines at Capitol

AUSTIN — To avoid getting delayed behind noisy schoolkids waiting in line to pass through new metal detectors at the state Capitol, lobbyists are signing up for concealed handgun permits exempting them from the security checkpoints.

Visitors to the Capitol also now are subject to inspections of purses, bags and briefcases by Department of Public Safety officers.

The only people exempted are lawmakers, properly identified state employees or Texans who carry a pistol with a concealed handgun license — or just the license itself, which allows them to bypass the security lines for an express lane reserved for "CHL: Holders."

"Every lobbyist in Texas is going to become a card-carrying member or a gun-carrying member,"lobbyist and former state lawmaker Pat Haggerty said. "We're going to have more damn guns in here than we know what to do with."

[hobbit709]

2. Juanita Jean's take on it.

http://juanitajean.com/2010/06/03/this-could-only-happen-in-texas-no-seriously-only-in-texas/

[sonias]

3. "your concealed handgun is now your hall pass"

She's got that right.

:fistbump:

[sonias]

4. Kelso and Juanita Jean should get together

AAS Kelso Column 6/3/10
Maybe lobbyists at the Capitol should have a quick-draw contest
(snip)
I can dig that. If I could avoid those annoying checkout lines at the H-E-B automated pay stations by bringing along an AK-47, why not? But it's good that our lobbyists aren't getting handgun permits because they want to plug some House member who hasn't voted the right way. Nobody wants a Capitol where you hear in the hall, "Hey, boys. Look at the dude. Dance, dude."

Seriously, because of some goofy rule, lobbyists who get the state's $140 handgun license can keep from getting messed with at the security stations and just march right on into the joint. That's right. The express lane is marked with the message "CHL Holders." I can hear it now from the Department of Public Safety guy at the metal detector. "You people packin' heat, go ahead on. The rest of you clowns, spread 'em."

:rofl::rofl: