Guns On Campus Likely Dead For Session, House Sources Say

After the controversial “campus carry” measure stalled repeatedly in the Senate, state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, had finally attached the proposal as an amendment to a must-pass fiscal matters bill. When that bill reached the House late Thursday, state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, was ready with a point of order, a parliamentary tactic lawmakers frequently use to stall measures they oppose.

By correctly noting that the gun amendment was not pertinent to the rest of the bill, Villarreal knocked the entire bill back to the Senate, where the amendment will likely be stripped.

“Here’s a novel idea. Let’s give students financial aid instead of firearms,” Villarreal said.

With just ten days left in the session, multiple House sources said they believed the measure was officially dead.

“I hope that’s not the case but it’s looking pretty bleak right now,” said state Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, one of the lead authors of the measure in the House.

It was the second time in two days that a proposal backed by nearly every Republican in the Republican-dominated Legislature was dealt an apparent fatal blow. On Wednesday, a Senate panel opted against a ban on so-called sanctuary cities, which critics say provide safe haven to illegal immigrants across Texas. In both cases, the measures found trouble in the Senate where 21 Senators in the 31-member chamber must agree to bring a bill up for debate.