IMPROVEMENTS TO TEXAS CHL LAW SIGNED BY GOVERNOR

If you’re a Texas resident with a concealed handgun license (CHL), the process for renewing it is about to become significantly more convenient.

House Bill 48 passed both the Texas House of Representatives and Senate and was signed into law by Governor Perry. Under the former law, to renew their CHL a holder had to complete at least a four-hour long refresher course on proper gun usage and safety.  That was in addition to the minimum ten hours of instruction Texans are required to complete to initially obtain a CHL.

Now, thanks to HB 48, the class completion requirement for renewal has been eliminated. Instead, individuals will only have to apply online or through the mail, updating their eligibility information while paying a processing fee. HB 48 also mandates that those renewing their CHL must read a webpage or flyer about the legal use of deadly force in Texas before applying to renew.

Current active duty military and veterans honorably discharged continue to enjoy exemption from the CHL safety course requirements under the law.

“Accidental Exposure” of a concealed handgun by CHL holders is not longer a violation of the law.

Sec. 46.035. UNLAWFUL CARRYING OF HANDGUN BY LICENSE HOLDER. (a) A license holder commits an offense if the license holder carries a handgun on or about the license holder’s person under the authority of Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code, and intentionally fails to conceal the handgun…
(h) It is a defense to prosecution under Subsection (a) that the actor, at the time of the commission of the offense, displayed the handgun under circumstances in which the actor would have been justified in the use of deadly force under Chapter 9.

The Texas Legislature also passed a bill that allows students with handgun licenses to bring their guns on college campuses in Texas. However, the firearms must be concealed and locked in their cars.  Current law made it illegal to bring in weapons in cars on Texas college and university campuses.

The new law enables students with concealed handgun licenses to bring their firearms to a college and university campus, provided the weapons are left or stored in their cars in the parking lots. Neither public nor private universities can create a law prohibiting it.

In Texas, if you are a retired law enforcement officer and carry under the LEOSA, you are exempt from the same restrictions as active peace officers

“Keeping and bearing arms is not only a fundamental right; it is a fundamental duty upon which all liberty and sovereignty is based.”

Texas CHL Holders May Lock Gun in Vehicle on Company Parking Lot

In the days leading up to the election, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion about an employer’s ability to ban Texans with a Concealed Handgun License (CHL) from leaving a gun locked in their private vehicle in a company parking lot.  Attorney General Abbott has consistently supported Second Amendment civil rights and an individual’s right to self protection in Texas.

The opinion, requested by Texas State Senator Robert Deuell (R-Greenville) said that Section 30.06 of the Texas penal code, which allows employers to post notices on building entrances restricting handguns or other firearms being carried on the premises, does not supersede the state law that protects CHL holders.

Unfortunately, the opinion also states that Texas law currently does not specifically provide the employee whose rights have been violated, with a remedy against an adverse action taken against them. The opinion states that employees may seek relief by suing under the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act.

An employer’s ability to prohibit non-licensed employees from locking a firearm in their vehicle as provided for by the Texas penal code Section 46.02 , was not addressed in the opinion. This provision allows a law abiding person to carry a concealed firearm in their car if they are not gang members and they are not traveling for an unlawful purpose.

The Constitution shall never be construed … to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. – Samuel Adams

Springfield Armory XDs 3.3 is an AWESOME .45 CCW

As regular readers know, I am not fan of Springfield Armory or the XD series. I loathe the state of Illinois, which spawned Barack Hussein Obama via Kenya, and remains the only 100% NO CARRY state in America.

I’ve always felt that the Springfield Armory was using marketing similar to the Samsung Galaxy.  You know, Glocks and iPhones are for the old fogies. XD’s and Galaxies are for the under 40 crowd.

When the XDs .45 ACP was announced and demonstrated at the 2012 SHOT show, it had all the makings of a well marketed firearm but the bar was a set pretty high, with a lot of promise.  So called ‘pocket’ guns are getting a lot of attention from numerous manufacturers, and the recent offerings by S&W, Ruger, Kahr, Beretta & now Springfield Armory are definitely driving a competitiveve market place.

The XD comes out of Croatia, which is not exactly Austria, Switzerland or Germany.  I don’t know about the other XD models, but I can tell you that the XDs is awesome.  The XDs .45 ACP is going to fill a definite consumer demand for the large caliber CCW pistols, as the  Shield does for the the 9mm caliber.  Both have an ever growing concealed carrier consumer base.

We carried both the M&P Shield 9 and the XDs 3.3 to the range today. The Shield trigger is the best that I’ve found on a striker fired pistol.  I’ve only found one Shield owner who disagrees with me (and every published report that I have read on the Shield trigger).

Like the Shield, the XDs is in high demand.   Gun shops are not getting many and they are selling very fast.  I’ve called several local shops for months with no joy.  But I got lucky at the Fort Woth Gun Show on Saturday and purchased mine from S.A.W. one of the larger gun stores in the DFW area. S.A.W. had three at the Show and said it was the first time they had more than one to sell in months.

The fit, finish and function of the XDs are all top notch.  The XDs comes with 3 dot sights, the front being fiber optic.  The XDs leaves Croatia and arrives in the box with a red front insert.  Springfield Armory includes a spare red and green tube, with instructions on how to change the front inset.  The ergonomics of the gun are excellent.  The gun fits in average sized hands with a small 1911 type feel, but with no thumb safety to fumble with.  The checkering is very aggressiveve.  Talon Grips makes a rubberized version of their well known sandpaper grip, which Hickok45 prefers for this model.  I’m a fan of Talon Grips for polymer guns but not of their recent price increase, up 50% from $10 to $15.

The XDs trigger is different.  When dry firing the gun for the first few times, I thought ‘I overpaid for this thing’.  The trigger has a lot of take up, then abruptly becomes very heavy by striker fired gun standards, but then breaks consistently.  It’s not a heavy trigger pull, nowhere near double action revolver weight, but at first it seems surprising.  The trigger does not return until the slide cycles.  This is only a factor when dry firing.  

Today, I fired it with live ammo and for some reason the trigger made sense.  I find the trigger different, and comparable to the Beretta Nano, but far easier to manipulate precisely.  I made accurate shots from 15 to 50 feet.  

The XDs is almost the same size as the Shield.  It will fit in the same generic pocket holster.  I’ve ordered a kydex pocket holster from Alabama Hoslter Company.  Unfortunately it takes from 60-90 days to meet the high demand for Alabama holsters. I just received the Alabama kydex pocket holster for my Shield that I ordered in July.

For some of you, the XDs may be a little on the heavy side for pocket carry.  Compared to scandium J Frame S&W, the XDs is downright portly at about 21 ounces unloaded, the scandium 360 is right at 13 ounces.  The Beretta BU9 Nano is about 17 ounces. 

I don’t know about you, but I always carry a loaded gun. A loaded 5+1 XDs is 26.25 ounces. The Shield 8+1 weighs 24.25 ounces loaded, exactly 2 ounces less. I’ve ordered an extended 7 round magazine from Springfield Armory.  If you can’t get the job done with eight .45ACP rounds, I don’t think the one extra round in the Shield is the solution to your problem. Pistol fighting distance is typically less than 3 yards. That would typically leave you with five .45ACP rounds in your pistol after you’ve taken care of the job at hand.

The XDs gun will fit in 99% of the scenarios that the BU9, PF9 or Shield will fit due to the ergonomics on the XDS.  I’m the President of the KMA Club, being retired over four years. Cargo pants are my uniform and I always make sure they have deep pockets before I buy them on sale!

The XDs 3.3 is surprisingly easy to control.  Packing a .45 payload in the XDs is awesome. The XDs is surprisingly easy to control.  But you won’t forget that it’s a .45 caliber pistol.

‘Surprisingly easy to control’ doesn’t mean it’s like shooting my P238 .380 or 9mm Shield.  The XDS has a grip that people with medium, adult sized hands can effectively grip, allowing a little more control to be exerted over the gun than many of the pocket pistols. 

My biggest surprise was that there was hardly any muzzle blast.  The XDs sort of goes about putting rounds down range in kind of a business like manner.  I shot 220 rounds this afternoon. While I noticed that the XDs wasn’t a powder-puff Shield, my hand was fine at the end.

I’ve picked up lightweight handguns and thought to myself, Oh, this is going to hurt even before I pulled the trigger. I really expected the XDs to do more in the way of hand-mangling. In that, I was happily surprised. Don’t take that to mean it’s soft. It comes back quick, and you will know you’ve launched some serious hurt down range, but it’s nothing like a featherweight .357 or even an all stainless steel S&W Model 60 .38 revolver.  The XDs won’t make you wince. I really enjoyed sending those 230 grain .45 slugs down range. It’s a fun gun to shoot for sure.

The short barrel, while making the gun easy to pocket carry, does sacrifice some velocity.  But the .45 does its work not by speed, but rather by mass. You’ll lose some velocity with a barrel this short, but not so much that a bad guy will notice if he ends up on the receiving end of a 740 FPS 230 grain JHP.

My XDs had no feeding problems or malfunctions through 200 rounds of white box Winchester 230 grain FMJ and 20 rounds of Federal Premium 230 grain Hydra-Shok JHP.

If your idea of fashion is cargo shorts, a Hawaiian shirt and Crocs, the XDs .45 may be your perfect EDC pistol.  My current EDC is either my S&W 1911SC Series E .45 or my Sig P239 SAS loaded with .357sig ammo.  The XDs will primarily be my back up and home carry pistol. Why carry just one gun when you can carry two just as easily?

Update on Monday, October 22, 2012 at 9:50PM by Bonzer Wolf

YouTube XDs video by Guns and Dogs

Croatia Gifts America the Springfield Armory XDs 3.3

We went to the Fort Worth Gun Show at the Will Rogers Auditorium yesterday.  The show continues today. I had no intention of purchasing a firearm, but loaded up my pockets with cash just in case. 

Mrs. Wolf said that I had to make this post, eating crow, for bashing Springfield Armory, the only gun manufacturer based in the ONE state that bans all handgun carry outside of the home, Illinois.  I loathe the lame state of Illinois and have purposely avoided Springfield Armory firearms.

But the Croatians have come up with a must have sub compact .45ACP pistol in the Xds 3.3 model.  It’s the Big Boy version of the M&P Shield, manufactured in the gun hating state of Massachusetts.  But after Hickok45 pulled the trigger on the XDs, the Wolf had to jump on the bandwagon.

These are not easy to find, but are out there.  There were at least 4 available at the Gun Show yesterday.  If you want one now, they will set you back around $600.  If you are willing to wait until you can grab one at Academy Sports, you can scoop it up for about $50 less. 

As you can see, the XDs can’t be sold in California, so it’s a must have in Texas or any other free state.

The XDs is a single-stack compact pistol chambered in .45ACP.  The overall length is 6.3” with a slim width of only 1”.  Empty weight is a light 21.5 ounces, partially due to its light polymer frame construction.  Standard capacity is 5+1 rounds.  A new and welcome addition to the XDs pistol is the red fiber optic front sight.

One of the most exciting features of the XDs is the fact that it was designed around the .45ACP cartridge, which is arguably one of the best self-defense rounds available.

The XDs is equipped with the Ultra Safety Assurance Trigger System which is designed to prevent accidental discharges due to dropping or bumping the gun.  The trigger will not operate unless direct rearward pressure is applied to the face of the trigger.

All XD series pistols include a grip safety which only allows firing when the grip safety is depressed.

The XDs has a loaded chamber indicator: which is a notch that pops up on the slide when a round is seated in the chamber.

A new feature on the XDs is Fail-Safe Disassembly.  This feature will prevent manipulation of the takedown lever with a magazine in the pistol.  It also prevents the insertion of a magazine unless the lever is in the shooting position.  This will prevent an accidental discharge when disassembling the XD-S for cleaning, for those who foolishly fail to 100% follow the Four Rules of Gun Safety.

Springfield detailed the XDs grip by adding  a new “secure grip texture” to the “all terrain” style grip that is found on the XD(M). And just like the XD(M), the XD-S comes with different sized, interchangeable back straps.

We will shoot both the Shield 9 and XDs at the Range tomorrow and post a report. It’s Football Day in America and more importantly, MUST WIN day for the poorly managed and coached Dallas Cowboys.

Hang on Big Daddy!

iPads don’t not support FLASH so that is why you may not see a video here. Click here for Big Daddy’s XDs Video

Update on Sunday, October 21, 2012 at 10:19AM by Bonzer Wolf

TheArmoryChannel Unboxing of Springfield Armory XDs

iPads don’t not support FLASH so that is why you may not see a video here. Do directly to YouTube  or click on TheArmoryChannel get on your desktop/laptop to view embedded videos

Texas Concealed Carry License Holder Saves Life

A woman is in critical condition but alive after she was stabbed outside her child’s school in San Antonio on Tuesday morning.

Police say a bystander with a Texas Concealed Handgun License pulled his weapon and ordered Barron to drop the knife. Barron surrendered and was taken into custody by the bystander and a school district officer.

The attack happened around 10:00 a.m. Tuesday outside the Bonham Academy on St. Mary’s Street. Teresa Barron, 38, had just dropped off her child at the school when the child’s father showed up, and the two got into an argument. The child’s father, 38-year-old Roberto Barron then stabbed the woman several times in the upper body and neck area.

She was taken to San Antonio Military Medical Center, where she is recovering.

Barron was arrested for aggravated assault, and remains in jail on a $150,000 bond.

Of course, you won’t read about this in the main stream media.  Guns save lives every day in this country but the anti-gunners seldom report the incidents to the public.