I guy I worked with who was from Austin (a seething pustule of liberalism) told me that there’s a strong and growing anti-gun movement in the larger cities in Texas.
Can this be true?
Last I was in Dallas, several years ago, I did notice a diminishing number of cowboy hats and pickup trucks, so maybe so.
Peace,
mangeorge
No.
Yes.
IRL, I live in Fort Worth, Texas.
Ask the Dixie Chicks.
Texas denies the existence of Those People.
Speaking in statistics, since I don’t live in Texas, it almost has to be possible.
According to this article,
Elsewhere I heard it was ‘every city with a population over 500,000 except for Dallas.’ Either way, that looks like confirmation that Austin, Houston and San Antonio. Thus, there are almost certainly a fair number of liberals in Texas.
If you look at this satellite photo(scroll a bit) that was made on election day in 2004, you can see that Texas had begun to mold toward liberalism already. The blue tip of Texas was ready to fall off at any time. There were other blue spots developing, probably around cities.
Notice, too, that other large areas had lost that special healthy bright red glow and were dimming. Some even bordered on becoming a sickly purple.
Clothahump, I can feel you trembling. Easy, fella. Don’t let Molly catch you.
BTW, mangeorge, I will never give up my Western boots. Never. But I’m a liberal and live in blue Nashville near the sequin mines. Hope you understand the difference.
IMHO, in the city of San Antonio, gun control didn’t seem to be a liberal/conservative issue as much as a “how can we keep people from shooting each other up every weekend?” public safety issue.
Starting in the early 90’s, the gang violence shootings, the random innocent bystander getting shot in driveby shootings, and the drunks shooting and killing each other outside of bars seemed to be a very frequent occurance. This kinda stuff was really worrying everybody, both Democrats and Republicans equally. I don’t remember being a liberal/conservative issue at all.
We used to have a lot of big gun shows in SA. I had a friend who was a competitive shooter and I would tag along. If I remember correctly, there was some loophole at the time that made it real easy to get a gun fast without regestering it or something like that. I think SA made some kind of ordinance that limited what they can do and now they are relatively infrequent.
There also used to be a great number of gun shops at the flea markets (that is where I bought my home defense gun). They used to do a hell of a business. I am not sure why, but they no longer have many of those either. In fact, I can think of a single flea market gun shop.
The good news is, the gangsters seem to be getting along a lot better with less shootings (I work with a fair amount of gangster kids), there are less innocent people getting caught in the crossfire (it seems judging from media coverage), and drunks outside of bars are just punching each other and stabbing each other like in the good ol’ days (it seems judging by media coverage).
Oops! I meant “I can’t think of a single flea market gun shop.”
The thing is, you can’t be a “Liberal” as if it were a party you officialy joined.
Traditionally (although nobody in the US knows it), a Liberal favored progressive change, but was skeptical of government. This skepticism made Liberals different from Socialists
Socialists favored progressive change, and worked toward it through parlamentary procedure.
Communists believed that this change could not be done by the people themselves, but had to be accomplished by a political elite, who had to take control by whatever means necessary.
In America, Liberalism is confused with Socialism. In places like Texas, Liberalism is confused with Communism. It’s like assuming the Archishop of Canterbury handles snakes and speaks in tongues since he’s a Christian.
I hear that phrase and picture something like this.
There seemed to be a “strong and growing” environmental movement. One of the instructors at the training I was there for was bemoaning that California had “sent” all these polluting industries to Texas. Hah!
What he was referring to was, during the 80’s (IIRC) Texas actively lured CA business to their fair state by promising lower taxes and less stringent environmental regulations.
At the time I was there Texas legislators were looking to CA for a model for emission regulation. I don’t know if they did indeed pass new laws, though.
But this was only in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. I don’t know about the rest of the state. I guess larger cities tend to be less conservative than rural areas.
Just to be clear, I’m not talking Republican vs Democrat here. Look at our great governor. He’s a republican, but a lot of conservatives don’t exactly support him. He did sign the anti-50 cal ban.
It’s more like assuming the Archishop of Canterbury isn’t a Christian because he doesn’t handle snakes or speak in tongues.
I think that’s the so-called “gun show loophole,” which was an issue in the last two elections.
There’s the problem… Austin is in its own little world, when it comes to liberal issues and the like, when compared to the rest of Texas, including, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.
Even the people who vote democrat are of a different stripe. I may be overgeneralizing here, but I’d be willing to bet the majority of democrat voters outside of Austin are likely minority, while in Austin, it’s more likely to be the organic food/hemp clothing crowd.
Personally I (33 year Texas resident in 3 different metro areas) would take anything that a liberal from Austin said about gun control trends, with a couple of huge grains of salt.
I’m not sure “anti-gun” can really define a Texas liberal. Many of the people in big cities in Texas grew up in the small towns of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisana. People may be liberal but not as rabidly anti-gun as liberals in large East and West coast cities.
I know I said anti-gun in the OP, but lets not say “rabidly anti-gun”. Let’s look at something more like pro “reasonable” gun control. Handgun registration and concealment laws for example.
I own guns, both long and short, but within ten minutes of talking to me you’d likely tag me as a liberal. Most of us liberals are not rabid about gun control.
Maybe if Americans would quit blowing each other away in such numbers, even fewer of us would be so rabid. As it is, more and more conservatives are leaning toward anti-gun.
Pro gun control does not equal anti-gun.
BTW; I also own a pickup truck, albeit a Honda Ridgeline pickup… 
Aha, a limo pickup you might say, confirming a stereotype.
mageorge
Are there liberals in Texas? Sure, and living in Austin, I see them far more often than most Texans.
But gun control is WAAAY down on the list of issues that Texas liberals concentrate on. Even here in Austin, where liberals invariably control city government, no serious measures have ever been taken to restrict gun ownership.
Dan did tonight, on 60 minutes.