On Wednesday we broke the story of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s threat to sue the city of Austin and Travis County, of which Austin is the largest city. Both jurisdictions are pondering banning gun shows at city- and county-owned venues. At least two venues and shows would be impacted, the Saxet Trade Shows that exhibit twice a month at the Travis County Expo Center and Premiere Gun Shows. They exhibit at the North Austin Event Center. I’ve attended both. They tend to attract large crowds of customers to trade with the exhibitors, who sell everything from antique guns and swords to clothing, framed artwork and turkey jerky. These shows generate economic activity in the areas around the venues and in the venues themselves, and help sellers from around the region find congregated and ready buyers.
The city and county have leases with the companies that operate the shows, and are considering passing measures that would have the effect of canceling those leases. Texas AG Abbott took to his social networks to threaten a “double-barreled lawsuit” if they pass them. This earned him blowback in the media.
But Abbott says that not only does his threat stand, he points out that such measures have already been dealt with in the state legislature and in the courts. In short, he is confident of victory.
Abbott’s answer — there’s nothing cities and counties can do on a local level without facing a lawsuit.
“The county and cities can prohibit illegal conduct on their premises. They cannot, however, choose to allow in or exclude people based upon their philosophical belief. The Second Amendment is not a philosophical belief; it is a constitutional guarantee,” Abbott said.
And it’s a guarantee he said he will fight for, similar to the fight that happened with Houston.
“The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, federal court, was very clear. The City of Houston violated that Texas law because it tried to impose restrictions on gun shows in the City of Houston on city property. State law could not be more clear. The courts could not be more clear. We expect Travis County and the City of Austin to follow the law,” Abbott said.
It’s also worth pointing out that WFAA in Dallas ran a story that Abbott has decided to challenge Rick Perry in the 2014 Republican gubernatorial primary, if Perry opts to see a fourth full term in office. Perry was able to win primary challenges in 2006 and 2010 by running to the right of Carole Strayhorn and Kay Bailey Hutchison; he could do it because Strayhorn worked with Democrats in the Texas Legislature in 2005 to attack Perry and Hutchison had to defend 16 years serving in Washington when she challenged the governor.
By taking actions like this and being proactive against those who wish Texas was more like Washington, New York or California (yes, there really are people in Austin who think that way) Abbott’s making sure early that Perry doesn’t get to his right anywhere near as easily before next year’s primary.
You make it sound like Carol Keeton Strayhorn Rylander was some kind of conservative. She is not. She only ran as a Republican because she thought if she jumped the aisle, she could win. She was wrong. Texans knew she was the same Democrat she had always been.
As to Kay Bailey; her own voting record is what put the final nail in her coffin. Most conservative Texans had had enough of her, and are more than happy to see her leave the marble halls of the U.S. Senate.
If Rick Perry decides to run again, and why not when he is governing the most successful state in the Union, Greg Abbott will not run against him. Perry and Abbott have made a dynamic team, suing the hell out of the Obama administration’s various agencies, like the EPA, and winning. Like Smith and Wesson, when you have a winning team, why change?
It seems to me that Cities are not sovereign but creatures of state government. States have devolved sovereignty from the people. Cities do not. Now, it is good for states to limit interference in local affairs to the maximum extent possible, but at the end of the day there is no such thing as intra-state federalism, or at least not yet, if ever.
Well, his first mistake is in expecting liberals to believe laws apply to them. Those things only apply to conservatives….
Ordinarily, I am no fan of AGs who see the job as a stopover on the way to the governor’s mansion.
For Abbott, I will make a most definite exception.
Reading these few comments is further evidence of the ignorance of the right-wing. The first point is where Zane says Texas is “the most successful state in the Union” – how about a little proof on that. Do we have the lowest unemployment, highest per capita income, lowest cost education with highest outcomes, etc. Further, how about how much money TX gets from the Federal government to pay it’s bills – like the $35B a few years ago from the Stimulus that was used to balance the budget?
I find it so informative that all you states rights people uniformly praise states rights because it is closer to the people and can thus represent the people better – BUT somehow even though cities are even closer to the people than states, well the cities should be constrained and browbeat to insure they conform to the states desires. HYPOCRITS.