For the second time, State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, will try to get a constitutional carry bill through the Texas Legislature.
Strickland says the fee for the license makes it more difficult for Texans who can't afford it to protect themselves.
NBC 5 political reporter Julie Fine spoke to Stickland about person-to-person gun sales, and whether this would make it easier for a criminal to get a gun without a background check, and carry it openly.
"I think they could be doing that already. The notion that criminals are all of a sudden going to obey a law or pay a fee or do things the right way is ludicrous," said Stickland.
Fine also asked him about someone using a gun who didn't have training in a CHL class.
"Anybody that has been through the licensing process right now knows that if you go there and take a couple of hours at a course where you are sitting down, that is not even the real training that you need anyways. The idea that that somehow keeps us safer is a farce," said Stickland.
"The state minimum requirements for the current CHL is not going to turn someone who is a bad shot, for instance, into a good shot after a couple of hours," he added.
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But in order for this bill to make it to the floor of the Texas House, it must get out of committee. It did not last time, and State Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, does not expect it to this time either.
"I just don't think there's an appetite for it in the House, and I think it is dead on arrival," said Anchia.
"Well, I mean certainly the timing with what's going on nationally is very, very bad," he added. "I mean, nobody wants unlicensed carry right now. Even NRA members are concerned about unlicensed carry since we'd be going back to the Wild West, where people didn't have to pass background checks, didn't have to have any sort of licensed to carry, and could just have guns everywhere. And in this particular political climate I don't think that's a winner."
NBC 5 reached out to the National Rifle Association, and so far we have not heard back.
