Gun bill sponsor: committee assignment 'orchestrated' to kill open carry

Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, addresses open carry activists gathered on the steps of the state Capitol in Austin on Monday, Jan. 26, 2015. The demonstrators support Rep. Jonathan Stickland's House Bill 195, which would legalize unlicensed open carry of handguns. less Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, addresses open carry activists gathered on the steps of the state Capitol in Austin on Monday, Jan. 26, 2015. The demonstrators support Rep. Jonathan Stickland's House Bill ... more Photo: Lauren McGaughy/Houston Chronicle Photo: Lauren McGaughy/Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Gun bill sponsor: committee assignment 'orchestrated' to kill open carry 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN - The debate over open carry has become personal, as two state lawmakers traded barbs over conspiracy theories and make predictions about the fate of gun bills in the House this session.

House Bill 195, legislation that would allow Texans to openly carry a handgun without the need for a license, was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety on Tuesday. That panel's vice chair, Rep. Poncho Nevárez, has been outspoken in his opposition to the bill, after he and his family received threats following a confrontation with open carry activists last month.

Now, the bill's sponsor is predicting his legislation will founder in committee, saying he believes Nevárez was "possibly" only appointed as vice chair as a means to kill open carry.

Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, said Tuesday "it would be difficult" for his bill to pass in the committee chaired by Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, and that sending it there "was definitely orchestrated" to kill the legislation.

"My path to success has always been forcing a vote on the issue," said Stickland, who has repeatedly pledged to add open carry on as an amendment to anything "that smells like a gun bill, looks like a gun bill, or anything else" that reaches the House floor.

"We're told we need to respect the process, but I can't respect the process if it doesn't allow all legislation to be heard."

Nevárez refused to predict how the committee would decide on the bill, only saying he would be a "nay" vote.

"He can think whatever he wants," Nevárez said of Stickland's theories about his appointment. "I think Stickland's shtick is wearing thin on a lot of people."

"I don't think anybody thinks that much of Rep. Stickland to try to hurt him," he added. "That bill was DOA the minute he put his name on it."

Since the first week of the session, Stickland and Nevárez have been at the center of an ever-increasingly contentious debate over whether and how to legalize the open carry of handguns, a practice that's been illegal in Texas for more than 125 years.

The rhetoric on both sides of the debate was ratcheted up soon after the session opened when Kory Watkins, head of the pro-gun group Open Carry Tarrant County, filmed the aforementioned confrontation in Nevárez's Capitol office. The representative now is accompanied by a security detail, and House lawmakers passed new rules allowing House offices to install panic buttons at the state's expense.

Then last week, Watkins posted a video to Facebook in which he repeatedly told lawmakers the punishment for going against the Constitution is death. Watkins, who later said he was not threatening anyone or advocating violence, believes requiring licenses to carry arms infringes on Texans' Second Amendment rights.

"He (Stickland) continues to - in my opinion - continues to motivate them (open carry activists), continues to put them in the position to threaten others, threaten me, and I'm not going to forget that," said Nevárez.

It's unclear when Stickland's bill will be heard in committee. On Thursday, a licensed open carry bill and other legislation to legalize concealed carry on college campuses will be heard in the Senate State Affairs Committee.