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Texas to allow handguns to be carried without a license or training

The measure comes as Joe Biden has just denounced an “epidemic” of deadly shootings in the country and promised new measures. But at the local level, things do not necessarily evolve in the same direction. Texas governor to sign new law further limiting restrictions on carrying guns in public, reports Tuesday, May 25 The Guardian. This text abolishes certain prerequisites for the purchase and possession of a weapon in the State, in particular the need to have a license, to be trained, or even the obligation to declare one’s criminal record.

Federal rules for certain types of guns will continue to apply and businesses will still be able to ban guns on their premises, but in principle anyone over the age of 21 will be able to purchase and carry a gun on the streets. In detail, the ban on being armed when one has been convicted of certain crimes and offenses remains, and the penalties for offenders are even reinforced. But the a priori control of these antecedents is removed, which worries the opponents of this text.

Victory for the NRA

Some have cited the memory of the El Paso Walmart shooting in August 2019 that left 23 people dead. “The state promised to ‘take seriously the issue of gun regulation’ after the shooting. […] I haven’t heard it since, ”denounced Democratic leader Joe Moody.

But the Republican-majority Texas parliament, backed by the National Rifle Association (NRA, the powerful American gun lobby), has promoted a measure that should allow citizens to better defend themselves. “A right subject to a tax or government authorization is not a right”, for its part defended the NRA.

Shootings left 12 people dead and 50 injured in the United States over the weekend of May 22 and 23, according to US police and press. The wave of shootings claimed victims in New Jersey, South Carolina, Georgia, Ohio and Minnesota. The governor has said he will sign the law even if he does not approve it.


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