A clip of Texas politician James Talarico talking guns made the rounds recently, and it’s a textbook example of an argument anyone who cares about Second Amendment rights in Texas has heard a hundred times. So instead of dunking on one politician, let me take the argument itself apart. I’m Lance Rankin, owner of Western Sport, an FFL in Roanoke, Texas, and this is opinion from a guy who sells firearms to law-abiding Texans for a living.
Everything before the “but” is throat-clearing
The formula is always the same: “I support the Second Amendment, but we need common sense regulations.” Listen for the “but.” Everything in front of it is decoration. The actual position is whatever comes after, and it’s usually a list of things you’d need government permission to do with a right you supposedly already have.
The crowded-theater comparison doesn’t work
The favorite supporting argument is the First Amendment analogy: you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater, so surely guns can be regulated too. It sounds reasonable for about ten seconds.
Here’s the problem. Speech restrictions punish harmful acts after they happen. Nobody makes you pass a background check before you’re allowed to open your mouth, and you don’t register your opinions with the federal government. Most proposed gun laws work the opposite way: they demand advance permission before you can exercise the right at all. If we regulated speech the way these folks want to regulate guns, you’d need a license and a waiting period to start a blog. A rifle in my safe at home also isn’t the equivalent of a false panic in a packed theater. One is quiet possession of property; the other is an act that directly endangers people. The analogy compares a right to an abuse.
What “common sense” means for Second Amendment rights in Texas
Pin down the specifics and the usual list is storage mandates dictating how you keep your own property inside your own home, “universal” background checks that can turn a private transfer between family members into a crime, and age restrictions that carve legal adults out of a constitutional right. Notice that your garage full of gasoline, chemicals, and power tools attracts no federal storage mandate. The regulatory enthusiasm is oddly specific to the one item the Constitution names.
And the people burdened by all of it are, by definition, the people who follow laws. The customer standing at my counter filling out a 4473 and passing a NICS check is not the person these politicians say they’re worried about. The person they’re worried about skips my counter entirely.
“Compromise” that only moves one direction
The last move is to call each new restriction a reasonable middle path and anyone who objects an extremist. But notice the ratchet: gun owners are only ever asked to give, and the middle keeps moving. Giving up less than everything isn’t compromise. It’s just slower loss with better branding.
So when a candidate talks about Second Amendment rights in Texas or anywhere else, skip the mood music and ask two questions. What exactly would I need permission for that I don’t today? And who carries the compliance burden? The answers tell you everything the speech was written to hide.
That’s my read from behind the counter. If you’d rather exercise your Second Amendment rights in Texas than argue about them, the store is open, my guide to the best first gun in Texas is a decent starting point, and the Texas LTC writeup covers carrying legally. I’m at [email protected] or 817-393-4000.
Lance Rankin is the owner and Chief Gunsmith of Western Sport, a family-run Type 07 FFL and Class 3/SOT dealer in Roanoke, Texas, serving shooters since 2007. Born and raised in Texas with over 50 years of experience handling firearms, Lance purchased Western Sport in 2017 and turned his lifelong passion into his profession. He specializes in AR-15 and AR-10 platform rifles, manufactures Western Sport’s own AR-15 line under the Rankin Industries brand, and runs the shop’s in-house Cerakote coating operation. When he’s not behind the counter or the workbench, you’ll find him on his ranch deep into the night, hunting coyotes with an AR-15 and thermal optics. Lance holds an MBA and personally shoots and tests the products Western Sport sells.
