4 days ago
Texas Wants to Make It Easier for People to Own Sawed-Off Shotguns
Texas is poised to make it easier for residents in the state to own short-barreled shotguns and rifles, rolling back yet another firearm regulation in a state that has experienced some of the deadliest mass shootings in the country in the last decade.
Texas Senate Bill 1596 would decriminalize short-barreled long guns, including sawed-off shotguns. Texas defines these weapons, which are currently illegal in the state, absent a federal permit, as 'a rifle with a barrel length of less than 16 inches or a shotgun with a barrel length of less than 18 inches, or any weapon made from a shotgun or rifle if, as altered, it has an overall length of less than 26 inches.'
Access to such weapons is typically restricted because shortened rifles and shotguns remain incredibly lethal, but are more concealable. Sawed-off shotguns, in particular, create a wide spray pattern, allowing a single shot to potentially maim or kill a crowd of victims. In 2018, the 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis used a short-barreled shotgun owned by his father to kill eight students and two teachers at Santa Fe High School.
Such weapons are designated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as Title II weapons Gun Control Act of 1968 — or weapons that require a federal registration in order to purchase and own. SB 1596 doesn't impact that national statute, rather, it creates an open conflict. It makes owning short-barreled weapons legal under state law, and leaves any enforcement of federal law to federal agents. (Progressive states have used a similar strategy to legalize marijuana, while the drug remains technically illegal under federal law.) SB 1956 was sent to Governor Greg Abbott (R) on June 1, and he is expected to sign it before June 22.
Despite a string of major mass shootings in the state — including the 2022 murder of 21 teachers and students a Robb Elementary School in Uvalde; the 2018 murder of 23 people by a mass shooter at a Walmart in El Paso; and the murder of 23 people attending church in Sutherland Springs in 2017 — Abbott and the Texas legislature have eagerly rolled back restrictions on deadly firearms.
The state has allowed residents to carry concealed firearms without a permit; decriminalized silencers; removed restrictions on the sale of guns and ammunition during a declared disaster or emergency; and proclaimed Texas a 'Second Amendment Sanctuary State' blocking state and local enforcement of federal level gun-control laws.
The effect is noticeable. A 2024 report by Giffords, a gun-safety group founded by former representative and assassination attempt survivor Gabby Giffords, found that gun deaths in Texas have increased by 63 percent since Abbott assumed office in 2014.
In April, after a slew of bills rolling back gun-control laws were introduced by the Texas legislature, Molly Bursey, of the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action said in a statement that 'putting more guns into dangerous hands, and in more sensitive places will only lead to one thing: more violence, more fear, more loss, and more mourning.'
More from Rolling Stone
'Forgiveness Is Complicated': One Woman's Journey Following the Mother Emanuel Shootings
Tesla Is Launching Robotaxis in Austin. Safety Advocates Are Concerned
Florida State Gunman Indicted for Murder Following Mass Shooting That Killed Two
Best of Rolling Stone
The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign
Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal
The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
