Categories
Texas gun restrictions are being revisited as new legislative leaders try to find common ground between Democrats and Republicans.
Lawmakers are expected to discuss the state’s controversial gun law, which allows licensed firearms dealers to refuse to sell firearms to people on a no-fly list, and the state Supreme Court’s landmark ruling allowing people with severe mental illnesses to sue gun manufacturers.
Texas’ law requires guns to be registered, though only in limited circumstances.
The gun law has caused major legal problems for gun manufacturers, with several gun-rights groups calling for it to be overturned.
Lawmaker Rick Perry said the Texas law “has put our citizens at risk”.
The Republican-controlled state legislature is expected to debate a bill that would amend the state constitution to allow people with mental illnesses or other special needs to sue firearms makers.
The bill would give people with such disabilities the right to sue manufacturers who refuse to register their guns, and require a court to rule on the case before they can seek damages.
Under current law, people who have a mental illness or other disability cannot sue gun makers because they have no right to possess firearms.
The issue has become a key issue in the US presidential election and in the 2016 presidential race, with Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, claiming the state of Texas had made it harder for Americans with mental health problems to obtain firearms.
“You don’t have to be mentally ill to have a problem with a gun,” Trump said in June 2016.
“Texas has been making it harder than anybody else.
I think it’s been a disaster.”
