Exclusive: 83% of Texas Sheriffs Support Constitutional Carry

In response to a survey conducted last month by the Texas Police Chiefs Association, which cited that 75% of Texas police chiefs were against open carry legislation, I thought it would be interesting to find out where Texas sheriffs stand on the same issues.

Spoiler Alert: Sheriff respondents were overwhelmingly in favor of both constitutional carry and open carry legislation.

You see, the main difference between your local police chief and your county sheriff is by whom they derive their power. Police chiefs are appointed (not elected), and are in large part unaccountable to the very people they claim to ‘serve and protect.’ Sheriffs on the other hand answer to, and are elected by the people for a term of four years, per Article 5, section 23 of the Texas constitution. Furthermore, in Texas, sheriffs and their deputies are considered ‘fully empowered’ peace officers with county-wide jurisdiction and may exercise their authority in unincorporated and incorporated areas of a county ^[1]. Sheriffs and their deputies also hold certain state-wide, warrantless arrest powers that grant them authority to arrest individuals for any criminal offense (except for certain traffic violations) committed within their presence or view ^[2]. Therefore, the opinion of your county sheriff on the topic of firearms should hold far greater weight in the court of public opinion than that of your local police chief. With the power structure between police chiefs and sheriffs clearly established, lets take a look at the numbers.

The most noteworthy data-point of the survey comes from question 2 of the exclusive BrettSanders.me survey. When asked, “Do you support constitutional carry legislation in Texas,” 83% of respondents answered in the affirmative. Wow, what a radical conclusion, that an elected officer of the law, sworn to uphold his/her oath to the Texas constitution, would support the idea of the citizenry bearing arms without government interference in accordance to the Texas constitution. The only alarming statistic from this question is that the ‘Yes’ votes don’t tally 100%, leaving roughly 17% of elected sheriffs who went on record advocating against their oath. Don’t worry, unlike the police chief survey, this survey was not conducted blind, all sheriff responses have been published for their constituents to see.

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The next major data-point is provided by question 4, the exact same question used by the police chief’s, “Do you think there should be open carry in Texas?” Of which, 60% of sheriff respondents answered in the affirmative. Again, this result should not surprise anyone who values the human right of self defense. When it comes to preserving your life from someone who might want to do you harm, your inherent right of self defense should not hinge on ones ability to hide their weapon of choice. Society does not mandate that Bibles be concealed at all times in order to appease someone who may not hold the same beliefs, and 60% of Texas sheriffs agree.

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In case you weren’t aware, Texas is just one of five states that ban the open carry of modern handguns; however, long rifles and shotguns are perfectly legal to openly carry without the need for a license. This ironic restriction is part of a law left over from the rather racist reconstruction period of Texas, enacted to limit the ability of freed slaves to carry firearms. In 1871 the Texas legislature first outlawed the carrying of pistols outside the home,

“If any person in this state shall carry on or about his person, saddle, or in his saddle-bags, any pistol … he shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred dollars,”

or around $2,000 today. The law was first passed by a Republican Legislature in order to have a mechanism to disarm Confederate sympathizers. Later, when the democrats gained power, instead of repealing the racist law, they doubled down and increased the fines and even made carrying a pistol an imprisonable offense. So to go on record and support open carry legislation that would bring Texas in line with 45 other states in the union is hardly considered groundbreaking. Nonetheless, it’s important to have the support of the sheriffs.

Now, before you run outside with your six-shooter and fire off some celebratory shots (note: never, ever, do this), you should be aware that the results of this survey were not all rainbows and unicorns. The Sheriffs provided a few head scratchers’ that will surely make any gun rights activist’s blood boil. So, without further ado, lets take a look at the bad.

Unbeknownst to the sheriffs, questions one and two both asked the same thing regarding support for constitutional carry, but in very different ways, which resulted in very different responses. Question 1 read:

Do you support lawful gun owners carrying firearms, openly or concealed, without a license?

The question defines constitutional carry, but doesn’t actually mention the term and the sheriffs overwhelmingly voted no, to the tune of 66%. However, question 2, which reads:

Do you support constitutional carry legislation in Texas?

scored a whopping 83% of responding sheriffs voting yes. This is definitely a head scratcher and begs the question, do sheriffs actually understand what the term ‘constitutional carry’ actually entails? Wikipedia defines constitutional carry as “a neologism for the legal carrying of handgun, either openly or concealed, without the requirement of a government permit.” One can only assume that the sheriffs wouldn’t profess their support for a term that they don’t fully understand, so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Moving on to question three, “Does the CHL infringe on ones unalienable right to bear arms?” A whopping 6 respondents or roughly 12% answered Yes. These men obviously understand the role of government in respect to firearms and deserve to be mentioned by name for presumably honoring their oaths– Charles Moody (San Patricio), Michael Pigg (Childress), Don Anderson (Freestoned), W. Estes (Irion), Michael Ray (Van Zandt), Edward Miller (Shackelford). The second amendment was written in order for the people to have a means to fight a tyrannical government should the need occur, and by relinquishing that unalienable right to the very institution the amendment was to protect against, is a perversion of freedom. Look no further than former Texas Governor Rick Perry to see how easy it is for government to revoke ones ‘right’ to bear arms.

Question 5 was also a mirror of the police chief’s survey, which read, “If open carry passes, should a CHL be required?” The sheriffs responded in the affirmative with 89% believing open carry of a handgun should require a license. At least the six sheriffs from question three were consistent and answered no.

Ladies and gentleman, for the biggest head scratcher of them all, the majority of sheriffs, 56% to be exact, believe that if open carry were to pass, those individuals who participate by openly carrying their firearms, should display some sort of identification on their person at all times. Where are we, Auschwitz? I wonder what the sheriffs have in mind for identification? Must we all wear our papers around our neck in order to protect ourselves with a firearm? The stupidity of this one runs deep, and i’m going to just end this article right now, for my own health.

The results of this survey were based on 54 respondents of the 254 sheriffs who were solicited for this survey, or 21% of Texas sheriffs. Comparatively, the police chief survey was based on 192 respondents of over 800 chiefs solicited, or less than 24% of Texas police chiefs.

Independent Firearms Survey for Texas Sheriffs

Click here to see individual Sheriff responses to the survey (excel format)