Texas: Action Needed - Employer Parking Lot Bill

[Charles Cotton]

HB1301 - Employer parking lots.

The House version of the employer parking lot bill (HB1301) is up for a public hearing today (3/23/09) in the House Public Safety Committee. This committee has nine members and Representatives Caraway (C), Rodriquez (D) and Burnam (F) are guaranteed "no" votes. Vice-Chairman Frost (A+) is a co-author on HB1301 as is Rep. Joe Driver (A+), so they obviously will support the bill. Rep. Phil King (A+) should be a "yes" vote and I suspect Chairman Merritt (A) will support us.

This means Representatives Hubert Vo (A-) and freshman Tryon Lewis (C+) could well be swing votes. Please contact these members of the committee and very politely ask them to support HB1301. You might remind them that HB1301 has 37 joint authors and co-authors. Get their fax numbers and follow up your call with a fax. (I don't have fax numbers.) Here are the "talking points" on HB1301"

• 
  SB 730/HB1301 do not prevent an employer from keeping guns out of the workplace; it only applies to locked cars in the parking lot;
  
  SB 730/HB1301 provide employers immunity from civil liability for any injury or damage that may result from storage of firearms in locked vehicles, unless the employer is grossly negligent.
  
  SB 730/HB1301 allow employers to prohibit firearms in a parking area, if the parking lot is not accessible to the general public and the employer provides alternative parking for employees. Or the employer can opt to provide a place to lock up an unloaded firearm. This provision is especially useful to the petrochemical industry and any other business needing to protect sensitive areas.
  
  SB 730/HB1301 would not apply to company-owned vehicles, nor would it allow storage of firearms in vehicles parked on property where the possession of firearms is prohibited under state or federal law.

HB410 - Repeal of duty to show CHL.

A public hearing on this bill was held on March 9th, but Chairman Merritt (A) has not brought this bill up for a vote. Other bills have been brought up for a vote. Please contact his office and politely ask him to bring this bill up for a vote. It has 30 joint and co-authors and 300,000+ CHLs deserve to have a vote on this bill.

Please respond to this call to action folks; don't just assume others will do so. Our strength is in numbers and we need a response. DO NOT REFERENCE TSRA OR NRA!

Thanks,
Chas.

 

[K3]

I wonder if this thread should be in 'Activism'?

 

[Charles Cotton]

There is good reason to believe that Representative Brian McCall, Chairman of the House Calendars Committee, has tagged SB730 (employer parking lot bill) and will not let it out of Calendars Committee. In the alternative, he can let out of the committee so late that SB730 will have no chance of getting to the House Floor before time runs out. This is precisely what the Calendars Committee did to our parking lot bill last session.

We need to flood Chairman McCall's office with calls and faxes and tell him we want SB730 to be set on the House General Calendar now! It's fine to let him know that you understand that letting it out too late to be heard is just another way of killing the bill.

I'm so tired of this garbage.

Chas.

Chairman Brian McCall (512) 463-0594

 

[jfrey]

McCall needs to go! This is apparently the same tactic that was used on the "campus carry" bill. Just sit on it long enough so you get your way, one way or another. This politikin in Austin has to be cleaned up. Too much power in too few hands is hurting the rest of us.

Thanks Charles for keeping us up to speed on these issues.

 

[3pairs12]

Chaiman of the Calender Committees office got me nowhere. I did get the number for comittee office though. 512 463 0758.

 

[blue06van]

+1

Chaiman of the Calender Committees office got me nowhere. I did get the number for comittee office though. 512 463 0758

comittee office though. 512 463 0758 was given bs that they had hundreds and hundreds of bills to consider

 

[3pairs12]

Same here they were kind of arrogant and somehow need reminded that they are our elected officals and serve us not vice versa.

 

[dogtown tom]

Charles Cotton There is good reason to believe that Representative Brian McCall, Chairman of the House Calendars Committee, has tagged SB730 (employer parking lot bill) and will not let it out of Calendars Committee. In the alternative, he can let out of the committee so late that SB730 will have no chance of getting to the House Floor before time runs out. This is precisely what the Calendars Committee did to our parking lot bill last session.

We need to flood Chairman McCall's office with calls and faxes and tell him we want SB730 to be set on the House General Calendar now! It's fine to let him know that you understand that letting it out too late to be heard is just another way of killing the bill.

I'm so tired of this garbage.

Chas.

Chairman Brian McCall (512) 463-0594

I just called Brian McCall's office to express my displeasure with this and was told that he did not tag SB730. The young lady that I spoke with said she didn't know where the rumor started.

 

[reidry]

Best of luck. We got it passed in Florida, but alas, the DoD Contractors got an exception so I'm still out of luck.

Ryan

 

[Javelin]

Give him a call and let him know. Tomorrow morning/afternoon. Hell they are seemingly there until 7pm!

But please be polite and just state why you support being able to be armed and not allow businesses to disarm law abiding citizens just because they have a parking lot.

Many companies have it built in that their employees cannot be armed *ever* and that means to and from work. Employers are in no position to disarm their employees off the clock.

 

[Greybeard]

Quote: "I just called Brian McCall's office to express my displeasure with this and was told that he did not tag SB730. The young lady that I spoke with said she didn't know where the rumor started."

OK, fine. How 'bout he make his intentions clear by getting SB730 on the Calender immediately!

All Texans here, PLEASE light him up in Austin now as it's do or die time for our two primary pieces of legislation!!! If we don't get 'em passed soon, we won't get another shot at 'em until 2011. A real good place to stay as current as practical for many: http://www.texasshooting.com/TexasCHL_Forum/viewforum.php?f=92&sid=b9dee8c6f32d55e2b78b920bab9a5abe

 

[Charles Cotton]

We need everyone to call Rep. Brian McCall, Chairman of the House Calendars Committee and politely but strongly tell him that you want both SB730 (employer parking lots) and SB1164 (campus carry) set on the House MAJOR Calendar, not the General Calendar.

Tell him you are aware that:
1. SB730 - parking lots has been in the calendars committee for two weeks and a day;
2. You have watched other bills going into Calendars then being set to the Floor within 2 to 3 days;
3. That the Calendars Committee pulled the same stunt with the employer's parking lot bill last session;
4. That you know putting a bill on the House General Calendar is a move designed to kill the bill.

Then call House Speaker Joe Straus and tell him that you are very disappointed that important NRA and TSRA bills (campus and parking lots) are clearly being stalled by the Republican leadership for the second session in a row.

Both of these men need to hear from a whole bunch of people. As always, be polite but firm.

Chas.

Here is the official NRA email alert:

URGENT: HELP NEEDED FROM TEXAS NRA MEMBERS ON SENATE BILL 730!

The Texas Legislature is entering its last 10 days of session, and the Texas House has not voted on one single significant pro-Second Amendment issue the entire session. That means that NRA's top legislative priority – Senate Bill 730, a bill that would allow employees to lawfully store firearms in their locked motor vehicles while parked at work -- may die this session. Not because SB 730 doesn't have the votes, but because the House won't be given a chance to vote on it.

This bill passed the Senate unanimously back on March 25! It enjoys strong, bi-partisan support among House members. But the House Calendars Committee has thus-far refused to set SB 730 for a vote by the full House. Powerful business and industry lobbyists are pulling out all the stops to keep this bill bottled up in Calendars, because they know it has a good shot at passing if it gets to the House floor. In 2007, the House Calendars Committee pulled the same trick - and finally scheduled that session's employee/parking lot bill so late and so far down on the House Calendar that it had no hope of coming up for a vote before the consideration deadline. < STRONG>Unless you take the following actions, the same thing may happen to SB 730 in the 2009 session:

* Contact House Calendars Committee Chairman Brian McCall's (R-66) office TODAY at (512) 463-0758 and urge him to set SB 730 on the Major State Calendar so that the bill has a chance to be voted on by the full House before its too late. Major State Calendar bills are the first to be considered each legislative day, and it's the only way to guarantee that SB 730 actually has a shot at a vote before the consideration deadline.

* Contact Speaker Joe Straus' (R-121) office TODAY at (512) 463-1000 and urge him to do everything he can to ensure that SB 730 is placed on the Major State Calendar and voted on by the full House before next week's deadline.

 

[Greybeard]

In trying the numbers above, Rep. McCall's 512-4630758 mailbox was full and Speaker Straus' number was busy. I went to their respective web pages and looked up the following to try as well - call them pronto please if unable to get through on the others.

Rep. Brian McCall: 512-463-0594 (Austin) Fax: 512-463-5896
972-881-0890 (Plano) Fax: 972-422-9061

Speaker Joe Straus: Austin Fax: 512-463-0675
San Antonio Office Phone: 210-828-4411 Another Fax: 512-463-1064

Edited to add: I was able to get my message through to a lady at McCall's 512-463-0594 number. She suggested I contact other committee members as well. I was also able to speake with a lady at Straus' 210-829-4411 number - and let her know many of us are quite displeased with the Republican "stall ball" to date on these two issues.

 

[Greybeard]

' Seeing reports elsewhere of full voice mail boxes and/or no answer. When I did get to speak with McCall's aide at the 512-463-0594 number earlier today, she mentioned "2,000 phone calls".

Let's not let up. While phone calls and faxes are much more difficult to ignore, as a last resort (or in addition to!), if all else fails, you can also e-mail.

Brian McCall http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist66/mccall.php

Joe Straus http://www.house.state.tx.us/speaker/welcome.htm