When Temple resident C.J. Grisham, a U.S. Army master sergeant, presented the Temple City Council with a gun rights resolution, the city became one of a series of Texas cities and counties being called on to articulate commitment to Texas residents’ Second Amendment rights. Per the Temple Daily Telegram, Grisham asked the council to “declare that citizens’ rights to keep and bear arms will not be infringed upon.”
“Right now, there are no less than six bills sitting in various committees designed to limit or negate the constitutional rights of citizens of this country, specifically the right to keep and bear arms,” Grisham said of his effort. “We can no longer count on the federal government to secure our rights.”
Per the Telegram:
Grisham asked the Council to sign and send the proposed resolution — which declares the confiscation, banning, special taxing of firearms, imposing limits on ammunition and limiting the size of gun magazines as infringements on Texans’ rights to bear arms — to several authorities, including President Barack Obama, Texas senators and congressmen, and Gov. Rick Perry.
“Numerous cities throughout the country and the state of Texas have passed resolutions recognizing our right to keep and bear arms,” Grisham added. “These resolutions make it clear that law enforcement and elected officials are directed to fulfill their oath of office to support and defend the Constitution. It’s a sad day when we have to ask for resolutions that recognize these fundamental rights.”
With a mixed record in supporting individual liberty and economic freedom issues, the current council’s interest level for this resolution remains to be seen. Ahead of a May 11 election, two contested council races are underway with Tim Davis and Scott Allen vying for the District 1 Councilmember seat (Russell Schneider is unopposed for the District 4 position) while current District 1 Councilmember Danny Dunn is running against Lamar Collins for mayor as current Mayor Bill Jones III leaves office one year ahead of his term’s expiration.
Candidate positions on this gun rights resolution certainly will offer voters insight as to prospective officials’ support of constitutional rights seen by many Americans as increasingly being threatened.
Similar Second Amendment resolutions have been approved in League City, Tiki Island, Gonzales and Rockwall. Lake Worth and Bandera County are additionally reported as passing resolutions while Webster, Magnolia, Pearland, Deer Creek, Friendswood and Nederland are considering such action.
League City Councilwoman Heidi Thiess introduced her city’s resolution and features a copy of that resolution as well as the Rockwall version on her Heidi for Texas web site. Using a How To Pass A Second Amendment Resolution In Your Town section on the site, Thiess offers this outlook:
People have asked how to go about passing a Resolution to protect the Second Amendment in their town or city. First of all, let me say that we shouldn’t have to do this, but the federal government started this fight a very long time ago, and now we’re in the 11th hour. It’s up to us to finish it. The big government politicians and activists have made their true intentions very clear, so don’t accept the rhetoric that all they want is a few tiny, inconsequential restrictions here or there. NOT TRUE! Their ultimate goal is CONFISCATION & PROHIBITION. Don’t take my word for it, read their intentions in their own words.
Do not sit back and wait for your representatives at any level of government to do this for you, it’s like pushing a rope. By the time you are forced to admit they don’t have the guts or are being out-maneuvered by their Legislative leaders (as is the case in Texas), it will be too late. So do what you can do where you are at: your own city.
As “hands off our guns” was the message local media took from Rockwall’s action on protecting its citizens’ Second Amendment rights, a growing number of Texas locales – as well as others across the country – appear poised to demonstrate similar sentiments.
Comments