Being anti-gun in Texas is a tenuous position for an elected official. But Texas state Rep. James Talarico — the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate — isn’t hiding his anti-Second Amendment positions at all.
No needle-threading. No trying to obfuscation. No tricking the voters. Just plain old-fashioned gun control positions that voters are more likely to hear about from candidates in gun control havens like Illinois or California.
That’s a hard sell come November for Texas voters who care about the U.S. Constitution. Second Amendment rights supporters should #GUNVOTE accordingly.
Purposeful ‘Misunderstanding’
Texas state Rep. James Talacrico is vying for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. His November Republican opponent is current Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, an avid Second Amendment supporter. Already facing an uphill task in a state that mostly reveres gun rights, some would think Rep. Talarico would at least try to peel some support from Texans who love their guns.
Think again.
During a 2020 video town hall, Rep. Talarico fully supported implementing strict gun control measures and his reasoning came from his faulty understanding of the Constitution.
“A lot of politicians like to talk about the Second Amendment,” Rep. Talarico asserted to the video town hall participants. “Very few have actually read the Second Amendment because, if they did, they would know that the words ‘well regulated’ are right there in the text of the amendment itself.”
Rep. Talarico’s suggestion that “well regulated” meant that the Founders believed all along that gun rights were supposed to be heavily restricted is as laughable as it should be disqualifying. We have a summer reading list for Rep. Talarico, and it begins with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Heller.
In the earliest days of the new American country, the term “well regulated”, as was written in the Constitution, referred to “well trained,” “well organized,” or “well exercised.” Basically, the militia (of “the People”) is trained and ready to go should it be called up into duty.
Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, dismantled Rep. Talarico’s arguments after he discovered the video of him making the remarks.
“Militias were considered the backbone of the American military, particularly by those who feared a standing army,” Turley recently wrote in a Fox News column. “Some militias were less capable than others during the Revolutionary War. A well-regulated militia meant state militias that were combat-ready.
“The individual right to possess guns was viewed as central to maintaining such militias. However, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that a ‘well regulated militia’ was not a limitation but a justification for the individual right,” Turley concluded.
Platform of Bans and Restrictions
Rep. Talarico has already made known his support for some of the strictest gun control restrictions that are increasingly popular among far-left politicians. It was recently revealed that he employed the former head of an extremist gun control protest movement as his legislative aide in the Texas House of Representatives.
That individual, Ana Lopez, led a radical gun control group at the University of Texas at Austin with a name NSSF would rather not repeat. Lopez helped Talarico craft three significant firearm restriction bills that he rolled out in the state legislature in 2019, all of which ultimately failed. Those efforts included bills to end concealed carry reciprocity in Texas, require background checks to rent firearms at sport shooting ranges and tighten requirements to obtain gun licenses.
More recently, Rep. Talarico spoke on a progressive podcast about gun control and voiced his strong opinion that it was “common sense” to mandate how lawful gun owners lock up their firearms. Specifically, Rep. Talarico explained that there should be more mandatory storage laws in place.
That would be directly contrary to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Heller decision. Talarico also discussed his support for universal background checks on firearm transfers, which would necessitate a national gun registry and is also already barred by federal law.
During his podcast conversation, Rep. Talarico erroneously equated his support for “common sense” gun control laws to the requirement that people are often required to apply for city permits in order to hold protests and rallies on city property. That comparison is so errant that it missed the target by a Texas country mile.
Yes, people who wish to hold a rally or protest on municipal grounds must usually apply for a permit to do so from the local city government. But these “time, place and manner” permits are primarily about logistics and resource allocation for public safety and infrastructure management, ensuring participants, and possibly counter protesters, are safe. These permits are not the local government granting or denying permission for applicants to exercise their First Amendment rights. They ensure that participants can exercise their First Amendment rights on city grounds safely.
Conversely, restrictive and overly burdensome gun ownership permitting schemes — the kind with which Rep. Talarico apparently likes — have been specifically designed in many states to make exercising Second Amendment rights far too costly and time-consuming that law-abiding citizens are priced out of that constitutional right or simply give up trying to exercise it.
All of these gun control schemes are favored by national gun control groups and the most ardent of anti-Second Amendment activists out there, including many of Rep. Talarico’s possible Democrat colleagues in the U.S. Senate. And on top of all of the restrictions already mentioned (none of which would penalize or hold criminals accountable), Rep. Talarico supports banning entire classes of commonly owned firearms, including the modern sporting rifle, or AR-15-style semiautomatic rifles. There are currently more than 32 million in circulation since 1990 – more than there are Ford F-150 pickup truck on the road today. Go down any street in Texas and you’ll find an F-150.
#GUNVOTE This November
It may seem far off now, but the November election is just a little more than 100 days away. NSSF’s #GUNVOTE initiative was created to ensure all law-abiding American gun owners are registered to vote, know when and where to cast their ballot, learn where candidates stand on the Second Amendment and to make their voices heard on Election Day. That includes Texas voters.
As Rep. Talarico continues to try and sell his anti-gun platform to voters in Texas, more of them will learn just how extreme that platform is and will reject it. NSSF will be there to help spread the word.
Don’t Risk Your Rights — #GUNVOTE!
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.