TEXAS SENATE LEADERSHIP IS NOT LISTENING TO TEXANS

    Republican Senators & State Representatives ran on pledges of lower taxes, less government, monument protection, honoring the 2nd amendment and more. The Republican Party of Texas urged the Senators & House Republican Caucuses to adopt the these legislative priorities as their own... Election Integrity, Religious Freedom, Abolition of Abortion, Constitutional Carry, Monument Protection, School Choice for All, Ban Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying. Despite all of this, we sit here watching & waiting as 2 big issues are stalled in the Senate, Monument Protection & Constitutional Carry. Don't get us wrong, a lot of Republican Senators and House Rep's were listening to the people. When it came to Monument Protection, State Rep Bryan Slayton filed HB2571 (great bill), State Reps Hefner, White, Metcalf, Bell & Cecil authored HB2713 (another great bill), State Reps Anderson, Bell, Keith, Biederman, Cain, Dean, Harris, Leman, Middleton, Oliverson, Paul, Rogers, Slaton, Stawson, Smith, Spiller, Swanson, Tinderholt & Vasut co-authored HB2713. State Rep Kyle Biedermann authored a Monument Protection Bill & several Alamo Bills that were extremely important to our Texas History. In the Senate, Senator Creighton, along with Sen. Bettencourt, Buckingham, Campbell, Hall, Hughes, Kolkhorst, Paxton, Perry, Schwertner & Springer authored & filed SB1416 (again another great bill) that would protect Texas History. So as you can see the majority of Republican Senators & State Representatives were listening to the people of Texas, for that we say thank you. 

During the 87th legislative session This Is Texas Freedom Force has logged in 193 hours at the capitol trying to gather support a monument protection bill, testifying in committees on history bills & testifying on pro second amendment bills like constitutional carry. This will be the third legislative session that TITFF has tried to pass a monument protection bill. During the 85th legislative session Gov. Abbott refused to add Sen. Creighton's bill on the special session. During the 86th legislative session our monument protection bill (authored by Sen Creighton) passed the Senate Floor but was never read in the House, thus never passed the House. Now in the 87th legislative session, after the BLM & Antifa vandalized monuments across the state in 2020, liberal city councils removed a record number of monuments across the state in 2020, after TITFF had to physically defend the Alamo from 5,000 rioters & looters in 2020, and with a Republican controlled House & Senate, one would think this year we would see a monument protection bill passed. That's were Sen. Birdwell & LT Gov Dan Patrick come in. 

​This Is Texas Freedom Force confirmed today (April 23, 2021), after 2 weeks of suspicion and digging, that Lt Gov Dan Patrick is standing in between Texans and their Monument Protection Bill. As time passed in the 87th Legislative Session TITFF began to see there was a problem with our supported bill SB1416. TITFF directors and members were watching the Texas Legislator Online like a hawk, waiting for our bill to go to committee. Each week passed and SB1416 was not added to the Natural Resources & Economic Development Committee's hearing schedule. On April 1, 2021, TITFF started a campaign to email Sen Birdwell's office (Sen Birdwell is the committee chair for the Natural Resources & Economic Development Committee), to apply pressure to him in hopes he would schedule the hearing. On April 16, 2021, TITFF Directors walked into Sen Birdwell's office to have a face to face meeting with him and ask him why is he stalling on SB1416 and not allowing it to be heard in committee. Sen Birdwell was not in the office that day but TITFF directors did meet with Sen Birdwell's Legislative Director HW Dickey. Mr. Dickey assured the TITFF directors that Sen Birdwell supports the Monument Protection Bill and that he would get us a answer on why Sen. Birdwell was sitting on the bill no later than April 18, 2021. That following Monday TITFF had received no response from Sen. Birdwell's office. Finally on April 23, 2021 TITFF received a reply from Sen. Birdwell's office. The excuse on why the bill had not been given a committee hearing date was "Senate Leadership wants Sen Birdwell to not give SB1416 a committee hearing date". This confirmed our suspicions that LT Gov. Dan Patrick is stopping SB1416, a bill that has 11 coauthors, from being heard in committee. There are only 18 Republican Senators in the Senate and the bill would only need 18 Republican votes to pass. Seeing how 3/4ths the Senate has coauthored the bill, and the companion bill in the House has 23 coauthors, that means that the chances of the bill passing are extremely high. The only thing standing in Texans way is Senator Birdwell & LT Gov. Dan Patrick. How can 2 men stop 11 senators from doing the will of Texans? (In 2020 97.3% of conservative Texans voted to protect our Texas Monuments.)

Oh, but it doesn't end there. Pro 2A organizations like Open Carry Texas, NRA, National Rifle Association, Texas State Rifle, Association Gun Owners of America, National Association of Gun Rights, Lone Star Gun Rights, Firearms Policy Coalition, and more have been working for years to get constitutional carry passed. This Is Texas Freedom Force decided to lend our help in committee during the 86th legislator and this session (87th legislator) TITFF has spent 32.5 hours testifying on Constitutional Carry and other pro 2A bills. State legislators were listening. State Rep Kyle Biedermann filed HB1238, State Rep Hefner filed HB2900, State Rep filed HB1911, State Rep Steve Toth filed HB112, State Rep Cain filed HB336, Senator Springer filed HB299 & HB304 while he was in the House, his bills died when he became a Senator but he refiled the bills in the Senate, and State Rep Shaefer filed HB1927. The Texas House passed HB1927 with strong support. Everything looked great until LT Gov Dan Patrick entered the arena.

LT Gov. Dan Patrick had been quiet this session, but no sooner than HB1927 passed the House he responded by saying....

 If we have the votes to pass a permitless carry bill off the senate floor, I will move it. At this point we don't have the votes on the floor to move it. I plan to meet with law enforcement who oppose permitless carry and with the NRA and GOA, who support it, to see if we can find a path that a majority of senators will vote for."  ​ LT Gov. Dan Patrick

Rachel Malone, Texas Director of Gun Owners of America, quickly replied to Dan Patrick by saying....

​If the Senate is convinced that the people of Texas will not be satisfied unless Constitutional Carry passes this year, the Senate can find the votes for Constitutional Carry. We look forward to discussing with Lt. Gov. Patrick the best path forward to repealing the license requirement so that legal gun owners do not have to apply for a permit to simply carry a handgun. And we urge all Texans to contact your State Senators to be sure they know that their constituents want them to prioritize this policy."  Rachel Malone

Rumors started to swirl in the capitol and across Texas. Is Dan Patrick trying to kill constitutional carry? The Texas Senate is controlled by Dan Patrick, he dictates what goes to committee and for a vote and what doesn't. It seems that the rumors of Dan Patrick ginned up opposition from fringe police chiefs to justify his opposition to the idea of Texans defending themselves without government permission. This isn't the first time we have heard this from him. He said the same thing when Open Carry passed in Texas. So once again LT. Gov. Dan Patrick is skirting the will of the people and letting his own ideas get in front of Texans. Open Carry Texas's Legislative Director Richard Briscoe said...

Have HB1927 heard and pass it as received in the Senate"    Richard Briscoe

We all know Texans are fed up with Gov. Abbott and some of things he has done over the past years. Texans were frustrated that Gov Abbott didn't step in during the 3 year fight to save the Alamo Cenotaph. Then Abbott applied the covid shutdown and mask restrictions, most Texans said they won't vote for him. Even former State Rep Jonathan Stickland said, "There will be a conservative alternative to Abbott next election."  LT. Gov. Dan Patrick is not far behind Abbott. Texans were not happy that Patrick waited to the 11th hour to help save the Alamo Cenotaph, despite calls for help for over 3 years. Then you add the fact that Patrick is essentially blocking Constitutional Carry HB1927 & the Monument Protection Bill SB1416, he may be on the chopping block next. 

TITFF's President Brandon Burkhart told Sen. Birdwell's Legislative Director......

Abbott is already on the chopping block, Patrick may find himself there soon enough, so our opinion and advise to Sen Birdwell is give SB1416 a hearing date, ignore what the Senate Leader is telling you, do the will of the people and let the chips fall where they may. If a monument protection bill isn't passed this session then not only will Patrick most likely be on the chopping block, but Sen. Birdwell might find himself in the same position." 

Ultimately Sen Birdwell is holding all the power. He can go ahead and give SB1416 a hearing date, despite what Patrick says. 97.3% of all conservative Texans said they wanted our monuments protected. The Republican Party set Monument Protection as a priority. What more is needed to get this done? In 2020 Texans watched as TITFF ran to the defense of monuments across the state, sometimes dealing with mobs of a few hundred terrorist, other times the mobs numbered in the thousands. This situation could be handled once and for all if either SB1416 or HB2713 is passed in the House and Senate.

Texans, we strongly encourage you to write Sen Birdwell a email at Brian.Birdwell@Senate.Texas.gov or call his office at 512-462-0122. Tell Sen. Birdwell to do what is right by the people and give SB1416 a committee date hearing.

Also contact LT Gov. Dan Patrick at 512-463-5342 or 512-463-0001. Tell Dan Patrick the people of Texas voiced their opinion and stop standing in the way of Texas passing a monument protection bill & constitutional carry.