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The Texas House late Tuesday evening preliminarily passed a Senate bill that would prohibit governmental authorities from enforcing extreme risk protection orders, commonly known as red flag laws, unless the Legislature approved them.
Senate Bill 1362 would prevent judges and other local officials from seizing firearms in cases where criminal charges have not been filed or where a protective order is not in place under the Texas Family Code, said Republican Rep. Cole Hefner of Mt. Pleasant.
“I would be concerned with a rogue city judge, a county judge, a district judge,” Hefner, the House sponsor of the bill, said during a debate with Austin Democrat Erin Zwiener. “This is to make it clear that we’re not going to violate anyone’s right to bear arms.”
House members, in an 86-60 vote, approved the bill from Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, hours before the deadline to advance Senate bills in the lower chamber.
Red flag laws, which have existed in various U.S. states since 1999, typically allow family members or police to formally ask a judge to temporarily seize firearms from an individual who poses a risk to themselves or others.
Hefner said the legislation, which Hughes dubbed the “Anti Red-Flag Act,” was necessary to protect Texans from having their guns taken without due process.
Republican Rep. Wes Virdell, a gun rights advocate before he was elected last year, argued in favor of the bill. He cited an example of a Maryland man whom he said had his guns seized illegally by local law enforcement.
Democrats were near-unanimous in opposing the legislation.
Rep. Ana-Mariía Rodriíguez Ramos, D-Richardson, said red flag laws are broadly popular with liberals, moderates and conservatives.
“This bill puts lives at risk by stripping communities of common-sense tools available to stop violence before it happens,” she said. “And not only does it eliminate an option for a policy that we don’t even have in place in Texas, it criminalizes the people who try to use this approach.”
Though Republicans succeeded in passing SB 1362, debate on the bill ate up costly time ahead of the midnight deadline to pass Senate bills. Republicans defeated six proposed Democratic amendments to the bill, but the debate burned almost 90 minutes that could have been spent on other bills, many of them carried by conservative members.
The bill needs one more vote in the House before it goes back to the Senate.
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