Well, this is good for a laugh.
When she was on the Fort Worth, TX city council, Democrat gov candidate Wendy Davis tried to kick gun shows off of municipal property. As recently as September 2013, Davis told Jay Root of the Texas Tribune that she would sign legislation restricting gun shows and closing the so-called “gun show loophole.” That “loophole” allows individual sellers to sell their firearms without having to get any government permission. Anti-gun activists have long sought to close that “loophole” without much success. Davis’ efforts on the Fort Worth council also failed, but they’re very similar to what the Democrat-controlled Travis County commission is attempting to do to the Saxet gun show right now. Anti-gun sentiment runs deep among the Democrats, and where they have control, they usually get up to no good.
Fast forward and Davis’ campaign is in a tailspin after revelations that she embellished the origins story that was central to her campaign for governor. Wendy Davis needs a game-changer, or at least a subject-changer. And surprise! Wendy Davis is now in favor of open carry.
Sure she is. She also supports ranchers, except when she’s voting against stiffer penalties for cattle theft. The senator who filibustered against a reasonable bill on abortion is also “pro-life.”
Davis has said she supports expanding gun rights in Texas. But in a statement to The Associated Press, she said that includes open-carry — a position that puts her at odds with her own party but could keep her from alienating gun rights advocates in a deeply conservative a state where the Second Amendment is sacrosanct.
Well, it would put her at odds with her own party if anyone believed her. Few will.
It would be useful positioning, though. If anyone believed Wendy Davis.
“There is little or no public safety justification for open carry,” said Emmanuel Garcia, spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party.
Kellye Burke, who leads the Texas Chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, also opposes Davis’ position. She said the open carry of firearms, whether rifles or pistols, “is meant to be a sign of intimidation. It’s not about protection.”
“I don’t think people are aware of it. They just haven’t seen it yet. People are completely shocked how strange and lawless it looks to have that kind of firepower in our daily life,” Burke said.
A more honest name for that group would be “Some Moms Who Don’t Know Anything About Guns or the Second Amendment Demand Even More Government,” but that’s neither here nor there. Most Texas moms and dads are not on board with the anti-gun agenda.
About 13 states allow open carry, with several more considered “friendly” to it. Those states don’t look lawless, but gun Democrat-dominated control havens like Chicago and Washington, D.C. do. Texas isn’t an open carry state yet, but should be. The GOP frontrunner for governor, Attorney General Greg Abbott, is for open carry. All the GOP candidates for lieutenant governor are on the record favoring open carry.
Davis is trying to defuse an issue before it becomes even more of a problem for her, and may be trying to raise her bottom-feeding F score from the National Rifle Association. But the reality is, her new position just creates new questions about her credibility. It raises the question of whether she can be believed on anything. Six months ago Wendy Davis wanted to do what the radical Travis County Democrats are doing. Now she wants Texans to believe that she’s for open carry?
There is good news here, for gun rights advocates. Attacking the Second Amendment is a dead end in Texas. The Democrats in Texas know they cannot run an honest anti-gun radical for governor. They can run a dishonest one, though.
Update: “Flummoxed” isn’t a word one generally wants to see associated with the top of their party ticket. But Davis’ extreme makeover on guns has her running mate thus:
While the position essentially mirrors the stance on open-carry taken by her likely Republican opponent, Attorney General Greg Abbott, it puts at her odds with statements from her own Texas Democratic Party and her fellow senator, Leticia Van De Putte of San Antonio, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.
Van De Putte looked flummoxed Thursday morning in a Texas Tribune interview when asked about the revelation — reported overnight by The Associated Press — that Davis wanted to allow Texans to carry firearms in public.
“The discussions that I have had with the law enforcement back home, they think that open carry does not make their job any easier and I’m with them,” Van De Putte said. “This is one where Wendy and I are on a different page.”
More: Wendy Davis’ Shocking ‘Conversion’ on Guns Exposes Anti-Gun Group’s Rank Hypocrisy
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