The NRA Pushes Back on Texas's Day-One Gun Bills: 'Gun Grabbers Are Wasting No Time'
About 35 firearm-related bills were filed on prefiling's first day. By Tuesday the National Rifle Association had answered with a statement and a call for its members to get involved — the first organized resistance to a gun agenda filed into a Legislature whose House and governorship change hands in January.
AUSTIN — The first fight of the 90th Texas Legislature is underway two months before it convenes, and it is over guns. Lawmakers introduced approximately 35 firearm-related bills on Monday, the first day of prefiling, according to the National Rifle Association, and by Tuesday the organization had publicly criticized the proposals as restrictions on Second Amendment rights, USA TODAY reported. 'With control of the Texas House and the Governor's office changing hands in January, gun grabbers are wasting no time in previewing what to expect when the session opens,' the NRA wrote in its statement, urging members and gun-rights supporters to get involved in the legislative process and warning that more firearm proposals could arrive before January.
The bills drawing the fire, as catalogued from Texas Legislature records in USA TODAY's report: House Bill 173 would prohibit the transfer of certain semiautomatic rifles to certain recipients, create a criminal offense and increase a penalty; House Bill 576 would prohibit registered sex offenders from purchasing firearms; House Bill 613 would require background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System for private firearm transfers, with a criminal offense for violations; House Bill 218 would establish extreme-risk protective orders — red-flag orders — letting courts temporarily restrict firearm access under certain circumstances; House Bill 659 would require licensed dealers to report certain sales or transfers involving multiple firearms or magazines to law enforcement; and Senate Bill 80 would restrict certain transfers, purchases and possession of firearms the legislation classifies as assault weapons. Other proposals address storage, access by people under 21, and carrying in certain public places.
Filed is not passed, and the process ahead is long: when the Legislature convenes on Jan. 12, 2027, bills go to committees for hearings and changes, must pass both chambers in identical form, and then face a governor who can sign, allow or veto — with a two-thirds vote of both chambers needed to override. The politics are genuinely divided: Democrats will hold the House and the governor's office, Republicans the Senate. The NRA's early statement is best read as organizing, not obituary — it is telling its Texas members the session's gun fight will be real, and it starts now.
