Texas State Rifle Association.

Members waiting on the start of the Awards Banquet.


Folks like this turned the anti-gunners back. Over and over.


Codgerly enough for you? Don Benson with one of his National Match winning pistol shooting girls.


Business meeting today.


New Executive Director, Steve Hall.


Here's the kid we work for sitting in Hunter Education today. We are preserving his human rights.

38,000 members. Older. Codgerly in some respects. Established in 1918. Of the 38,000 less than 1000 do all the actual work. Volunteers except for a hired Executive Director and some staff plus Alice Tripp, our lobbiest in Austin. So, how has this small group of volunteers managed to educate, hold the hands of legislators, guide legislation, lobby, fight off bad bills and pass good bills and preserve and enlarge the 2nd Amendment rights of all Texans when most people have no clue that they even exist?

This session we have three bills: Campus Carry, (opposed by ALL university and college administrations), Parking lot storage at work, (opposed by all big business groups in the state), and Range Protection, (opposed by Texas Realtors by the tens of thousands.) When Texas gets open carry, it will because TSRA writes, advocates, sponsors, lobbys and guides the bill through the legislative process. Just because something is a human right or/AND a great idea doesn't mean it will ever be filed as a bill in the Texas legislature. People who are organized and co-ordinated have to do the work and guide it through.

These folks wrote and got passed the Texas CHL laws, though it took a decade. (Remember Ann Richards threatening to veto our right to carry?) They made it legal to have a loaded firearm in your car. They simplified the CHL qualifications several times, including fighting the DPS who was stealing the money made by the program. They send teams to the National Matches at Camp Perry every year and hold Championships in almost every shooting discipline.

No corporate dollars. In fact, MAJOR Texas corporations have opposed them with big money and lobbying efforts on every major piece of legislation. CLEAT, (Combined Law Enforcement), the Council of Governments, most mayors, and every LEO group is usually on the other side. Even the hospitals and firemen think we are fringe kooks.

It's a miracle of human rights, hardheadedness and grassroots advocacy. If you own firearms and DON'T belong to the TSRA, well....I just don't know what to say to you. We've saved your ass. Then we saved your ass again. We are saving the rights of future Texans not even born yet.