The Gun Grab, Part 2

TEXAS BIG CITY MAYORS

 

 

After our very own Senator John Cornyn aided and abetted the U.S. Senate in passing the gun control legislation called the “Safer Communities Act,” Texas mayors immediately jumped on the bandwagon. These “Big City Mayors” from our state’s 13 largest cities, penned a letter asking Gov. Abbott to call a special session of the legislature.

 

Claiming that “most Texans want common sense reform,” they proscribe the people’s will with the following list of demands, the very ones cited in the Federal bill:

 

• Require universal background checks for gun purchases
• Increase the age to purchase assault weapons in Texas to 21
• Pass Red Flag laws to identify threats before shootings
• Significant increase in mental health support funding
• Train and properly resource school safety officers

 

That these proposals merely parrot federal legislation is suspect in itself. It sets us up to take federal funding for programs that will bind us to federal policies, whether they are a fit for our communities or not.

 

Specifically, red flag laws have no place in a state that intends to abide by the Constitution. You cannot subvert due process and still color within the lines of our founding document.

 

Further, if 18 year olds can vote and go to war to die for this country, they can buy assault weapons. The same standards of accountability and responsibility apply. If we do not think these standards well reasoned, then we should be consistent and raise the voting age and age of military service. You are either an adult at 18 or you are not. It is not a matter of expediency for the purpose of building a Democratic voting bloc.

 

Finally, the increase in mental health support funding is entirely likely to be a further boon to the pharmaceutical companies, whose psychiatric drugs have long been their bread and butter, at least til COVID came along to overflow their coffers. These drugs have been implicated in over 98% of mass shootings. What we call mental health services in this country are a joke perpetrated upon us by these companies, whose SSRI’s are known to induce aggression and violence. What I find likely to happen is that this funding will open the floodgates to subsidized medication for our school aged children. I cannot imagine a worse outcome in the name of protecting them.

 

The anti-gun reaction of the Big City Mayors is just that—a reaction, rather than a reasoned response. Responsiveness might include actually looking at the role psychiatric drugs are documented as playing in these shooting events, and redefining how we address mental health issues in our youth.  And certainly, “hardening” our schools against violence by providing training and effective security, and an end to the “gun free zone,” another word for shooting gallery.

 

Yes, Mayors, I do believe we can address these difficult issues, but it will take the very difficult work of research, debate, critical thinking, creative problem solving and true bi-partisan cooperation. Railroading your constituents with the posture of bi-partisanship will not solve the problem, but merely contribute to the further shredding of the Constitution which not only enshrines the right to due process, but whose Second Amendment clearly and unequivocally states, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The Founders meant it, and so do we.

 

We call on Mayor Guajardo to reconsider her signature on this Big City Mayors document, no doubt made in the heat of the moment, and to walk back her decision in the cooler light of reason. We invite you, rather, to engage with citizens to solve the many problems that beset us, including those of gang activity, crime, drugs, and domestic violence.

 

We seek substantive solutions rather than those born of expedient political posturing. It is not, Madame Mayor, about catching the nearest way. It is about the very difficult but noble work of thoughtful governance within the framework of the Constitution.

 

CALLS TO ACTION:

 

Call, email or write a letter and drop it off at the Mayor’s office. Let her know that what works in Dallas or Austin will not work here. We do not want Federal money that subsidizes the subversion of our Constitution. We want substantive solutions to the problems that face us. That is the true meaning of bipartisanship. We can do better than Texas’ big cities, and that is the beauty of Corpus Christi, a city that can think for itself.

 

Email: paulette.guajardo@cctexas.com

 

Phone: 361.826.3105

 

City Hall

1201 Leopard St.

 P.O. Box 9277

Corpus Christi, TX 78401

 

Attend City Council Meetings

 

Attend a City Council meeting and sign up to speak for 3 minutes about this issue. Let our City Council members and the Mayor know that we are not Dallas, Austin or Houston, and that Corpus Christians insist that the letter and law of the Constitution be honored in our city. Assert that we can do better than the big cities that simply follow the Federal playbook. We can think for ourselves and solve our own problems, without relying on the federal funds that will dictate the outcomes of this debate and undermine the very foundations of our freedoms.

 

CITY COUNCIL MEETING SCHEDULE:

(All meetings held at City Hall)

 

JUNE 28TH   11:30

 

JULY 19TH   11:30

 

JULY 26TH   11:30