Texas lawmakers are already planning for the possibility of stricter gun regulations.

Republican Rep. Steve Toth is in the process of filing a bill dubbed the “Firearms Protection Act,” which aims to make any federal law banning semi-automatic firearms or limiting the size of gun magazines unenforceable within the state’s boundaries.

“We’re not trying to do anything radical and crazy,” Rep. Toth said. “We’re just trying to preserve, protect and defend our rights.”

The legislation also calls for the criminal prosecution of any federal official who might come into the state to enforce stricter gun regulations, should President Obama take executive action.

“Maybe, just maybe, this will wind its way through the courts and we will be able to challenge executive orders, which are being abused right now.” Rep. Toth said.

In Tuesday night’s show, we also looked at the impact of one omission in the House budget proposal — that of funding for statewide school testing.

“We did some things in the introduced bill that we wanted to start the discussion,” Rep. Jim Pitts explained.

That discussion is just what many education groups were looking for. Holly Eaton with the Texas Classroom Teachers Association says that, while it may be a little item in the overall scheme of things, it’s hugely important to some.

“We test more than even the federal law requires,” Eaton said. “So we could at least scale down the number of tests required of a student to take.” 

Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples has a hard-nosed assessment of where things stand when it comes to Texas’ water woes: “Texas has a water crisis. It is not imaginary, it is very real.”

He’s pointing to voluntary conservation as a significant part of a multi-tiered solution.

“Water conservation is really the least expensive method of obtaining new water. And 26-million Texans times a few drops saved by each really adds up,” Staples said.  

We also heard from Democratic strategist Glenn Smith and Republican Strategist Ted Delisi, on everything from new campaign finance numbers to gun control.

Click the image below to watch tonight’s entire episode online.

 

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