Texas Gun Control

There have always been those who disagree with the way that our national, state and local governments are run. One such disagreement centers around the opinion that state legislators often spend their time focusing on issue that are not as pertinent as other situations facing their governing jurisdictions and the people affected by such issues. The Texas State Senate has been spending their time debating a new gun control law. According to the article “Bothersome racket is just Texas Legislature firing blanks” which was published in the Editorial section of the Austin-American Statesman on Saturday March 21, 2009, the State Senate is simply wasting their time on the issue.

The article seeks to illuminate light on the Senate’s decision to debate legislature that would allow employees to carry firearms with them in their vehicles to their place of employment. Employers are concerned that such legislation would make it more difficult for them to keep their businesses and employees safe. While this is an interesting debate and a tricky piece of gun control legislation, myself as well as the authors of the article believe that there are much more pressing issues at hand.

The authors put their concerns, which echo my own, into a concrete argument by stating that a “governance discussion” about gun control “is a time-consuming luxury that Texas legislators facing economic crisis can ill afford.” Simply put it is not a pertinent issue to spend time debating upon when our economy, both locally and nation-wide is struggling and Americans are in need of help and assurance. It is not acceptable for our tax dollars and our elected officials’ time to be spent analyzing a very minute piece of a gun control issue which is insignificant in terms of how many Texans will be affected by the outcome.

Our government needs to be focusing on how to reverse the downward spiral that our economy is taking in order to restore the public’s faith in government. Us as Americans need help with an economy that is forcing us to change the way we live. Unemployment rates are phenomenally high while the dollar is losing its strength by the day. It does not put the minds of Texans at ease to learn that the people we hve elected to help us are spending time with tedious issues when so much more could be done to help turn the economic situation in our state around.

Journalist sheild law

Many different laws affect how crimes are tried in court in Texas. When new laws are proposed that will have an impact on how court cases are able to be tried they are often heavily scrutinized. Over the past few years one such proposed law that deals with the confidentiality of sources has been placed in front of the Texas State Senate and House to be debated and voted on. The law being proposed would give Texas reporters more options when dealing with information given to them by confidential sources. The new law would allow “whistle blowers" to come forward,without giving up their right to remain anonymous “and to protect news organizations from being used as an alternate to investigation by prosecutors.” In an article published in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram this issue is discussed and points made by both sides of the argument are given. The article is unbiased and gives an honest and informative look at the issue and how it is being addressed. The article can be found on the Web at http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/1234450.html and is titled “Texas House committee looks at journalist shield law.” While the law is still in the process of being debated and voted on, this article gives the reader the most recent and accurate information on the issue available.