Sunday I wrote up a diary based on multiple reports from Alternet that covered the shooting in Allen, Texas. There was one article in particular that deserves more attention, so I’m excerpting that part of the diary and posting it here with some editing and additions. Note that the debate took place several says before the Allen shooting.
So what’s the reflex Republican answer to events like this mass shooting? Brandon Gage at Alternet reports in Texas it’s proposing laws to prevent towns or counties from passing any bills that might in any way interfere with the Second Amendment. State Representative Carrie Isaac (R-Dripping Springs) during a last Thursday debate was taken to task by State Representative Jarvis Johnson (D-Houston) over a proposal to prevent the “Californication” of Texas. For a reader exercise, compare and contrast the respective bios at their legislative web pages.
Chron explained on Friday that "House Bill 3137 stops a municipality from instituting regulations surrounding the transfer, possession, wearing, carrying, ownership, storage, transportation, licensing, or registration of firearms, air guns, knives, ammunition, or firearm-related gun supplies or accessories. At the same time, the bill prohibits local governments from requiring gun owners to get liability insurance for damages resulting from negligent or willful acts involving firearms."
The outlet also noted that "according to a February report by Reuters, the San Jose bill passed in January 2022 with an ordinance requiring gun owners to obtain liability insurance to cover negligence or accidents from using firearms. The San Jose bill also requires gun owners to pay a yearly fee to gun violence prevention organizations the city manager picks. Due to pending litigation, the bill hasn't been enforced in the city yet."
Johnson subjected Isaac to a series of questions about what her bill would do. He walked her step by step through what she was actually trying to do with this bill.
"What does your bill specifically do?" Johnson asked Isaac.
"It will not allow municipalities to require insurance on firearms," Isaac replied.
"So otherwise, other words, does your bill prohibit mayors, city councils, and county commissioners from legally governing themselves when it comes to guns?" Johnson wondered.
"They do not have this right," Isaac declared.
"They don't have the right to do what?" Johnson followed up.
"To infringe upon our second amendment," Isaac said.
"Who — you mean again, cities, mayors," Johnson clarified.
"Correct," Isaac confirmed.
"Do mayors, city councils, and county commissioners have a right to pass laws that protect the citizens of their community?" Johnson posited.
"As long as it doesn't infringe on our constitutional rights," Isaac responded as her comrades began surrounding her.
"The constitutional right to do what?" Johnson pressed.
"To protect ourselves with our Second Amendment," Isaac proclaimed.
"From what?" Johnson continued.
"From a tyrannical government," Isaac reiterated.
Isaac has a deer-in-the-headlights look at this point. Her Republican colleagues have come down to cluster around her and feed her responses to Johnson’s questions. After several more exchanges it came down to this:
"Is there a city in Texas?" Johnson asked more forcefully. [that has regulations like San Jose.]
At this point, Isaac was being fed answers.
"Answer every question. Keep saying what you want us say," Isaac was told.
"Um, no, there is not, and that's the, and this still will prevent that from happening here in Texas," Isaac insisted.
"So then that means we're legislating nothing?" Johnson pointed out.
"We're preventing it from happening here in Texas," Isaac shot back.
"So it hasn't happened yet," Johnson said.
"That's correct," Isaac agreed.
"So, again, we're legislating nothing," Johnson added.
"Don't California my Texas," Isaac snapped.
"Are we legislating nothing?" Johnson asked one last time, albeit in vain. "So we're legislating nothing."
emphasis added
READ THE WHOLE THING: it’s part and parcel of the GOP effort to make sure the voters of the blue communities of the state of Texas are rendered powerless. (Also see what’s happening to the Capital of the State of Mississippi.)
There’s a video of the exchange between Johnson and Isaac, all except the part in Italics in the block quote above.
I suspect it will be seen differently depending on the inclinations of the viewer, a la Rashomon. From one viewpoint, it could be taken as an uppity black man from a crime-ridden democratic hellhole city harassing a white woman just trying to defend the ‘real’ Texas. Her colleagues are rushing to her rescue from this abuse.
Or, you could see it as a black man calmly and with dignity peeling back the layers of hypocrisy and privilege to reveal an anti-democratic exercise of actual government tyranny by Republicans, through a woman who is little more than a puppet backed up by a white mob.
YMMV.
Here’s what the tweeted video of the exchange looks like.
Again, here’s the further exchange that got cut off the video
"So then that means we're legislating nothing?" Johnson pointed out.
"We're preventing it from happening here in Texas," Isaac shot back.
"So it hasn't happened yet," Johnson said.
"That's correct," Isaac agreed.
"So, again, we're legislating nothing," Johnson added.
"Don't California my Texas," Isaac snapped.
"Are we legislating nothing?" Johnson asked one last time, albeit in vain. "So we're legislating nothing."
The New York Times sums it up with this:
The drumbeat of mass murder has fueled a new openness to gun regulation among some Texans, but it has done little to reshape the political realities in the State Capitol.
HOUSTON — After months of pleading for more gun control measures, a Democrat who represents Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children died in a mass shooting, was told by the Republican leader of the State Senate to stop bringing up gun legislation or be barred from speaking at all.
In the State House, Republican members talked and joked among themselves as another Democrat, Representative Jarvis Johnson of Houston, rose to discuss gun control. “This is not a joke — this is real,” he shouted from the lectern at his colleagues on Friday. “Children every day are dying.”
It was only hours later that gunfire again ripped apart the daily life of people in Texas. This time the violence erupted at a popular shopping center in the Dallas suburb of Allen, where a 33-year-old gunman armed with what officials said was an AR-15-style rifle swiftly killed eight people and wounded at least seven others, including at least one child, before a police officer fatally shot him on Saturday.
The killings came just over a week after a mass shooting in rural San Jacinto County, north of Houston, where five people living together were killed by a neighbor after they asked him to stop shooting his gun in his front yard. And they occurred a little less than a year after the massacre at Uvalde, where two teachers also died.
If you are so inclined, send Alternet some love for their work on this. Like other information sources trying to fight the good fight, they can use the cash.
There are a number of posts about the Allen, TX shooting and other Texas incidents. Here are some links.