Bill Text: TX HB553 | 2013-2014 | 83rd Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to firearms and the preservation of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution; providing penalties.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 63-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-03-13 - Left pending in committee [HB553 Detail]
Download: Texas-2013-HB553-Introduced.html
By: Otto | H.B. No. 553 |
|
||
|
||
relating to firearms and the preservation of the Second Amendment | ||
to the United States Constitution; providing penalties. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. SECTION 1. (a) This Act shall be known as the "Second | ||
Amendment Preservation Act." | ||
(b) The Legislature of the State of Texas hereby finds: | ||
(1) Article IV, Clause 2 of the United States | ||
Constitution provides: "This Constitution, and the laws of the | ||
United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof . . . shall | ||
be the supreme law of the land." | ||
(2) The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, and 1799 -- that | ||
State's official response and opposition to the federal | ||
government's Alien & Sedition Acts, which criminalized speech | ||
critical of the federal government in a clear violation of the First | ||
Amendment -- were authored by Thomas Jefferson, and provide in | ||
part: | ||
Resolved, That the several states composing the United | ||
States of America, are not united on the principle of | ||
unlimited submission to their general government; but | ||
that by compact, under the style and title of a | ||
Constitution for the United States, and of amendments | ||
thereto, they constituted a general government for | ||
special purposes, delegated to that government certain | ||
definite powers, reserving, each state to itself the | ||
residuary mass of right to their own self-government; | ||
and that whensoever the general government assumes | ||
undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, | ||
void, and of no force: That to this compact each state | ||
acceded as a state, and is an integral party, its | ||
co-states forming as to itself, the other party: That | ||
the government created by this compact was not made the | ||
exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers | ||
delegated to itself; since that would have made its | ||
discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of | ||
its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact | ||
among parties having no common judge, each party has an | ||
equal right to judge for itself, as well of | ||
infractions, as of the mode and measure of redress. | ||
(1798) | ||
That the principle and construction contended by | ||
sundry of the state legislatures, that the general | ||
government is the exclusive judge of the extent of the | ||
powers delegated to it, stop nothing short of | ||
despotism, since the discretion of those who | ||
administer the government, and not the Constitution, | ||
would be the measure of their powers: That the several | ||
states who formed that instrument being sovereign and | ||
independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of | ||
its infraction, and that a nullification by those | ||
sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under | ||
color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy. | ||
(1799) | ||
(3) The Tenth Amendment to the United States | ||
Constitution provides: "The powers not delegated to the United | ||
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are | ||
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." | ||
(4) The Ninth Amendment to the United States | ||
Constitution provides: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of | ||
certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others | ||
retained by the people." | ||
(5) The Second Amendment to the United States | ||
Constitution provides: "A well-regulated militia being necessary | ||
to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and | ||
bear arms shall not be infringed." | ||
(6) That all federal acts, laws, executive orders, | ||
agency orders, and rules or regulations of all kinds with the | ||
purpose, intent, or effect of confiscating any firearm, banning any | ||
firearm, limiting the size of a magazine for any firearm, imposing | ||
any limit on the ammunition that may be purchased for any firearm, | ||
taxing any firearm or ammunition therefore, or requiring the | ||
registration of any firearm or ammunition therefore, infringes upon | ||
Texan's right to bear arms in direct violation of the Second | ||
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and therefore, | ||
any such law is not made in pursuance of the Constitution, is not | ||
authorized by the Constitution, and thus, is not the supreme law of | ||
the land, and consequently, is invalid in this State and shall be | ||
further considered null and void and of no effect in this State. | ||
SECTION 2. Chapter 46, Penal Code, is amended by adding | ||
Section 46.16 to read as follows: | ||
Sec. 46.16. Second Amendment Shall Remain Inviolate; | ||
Offences; Penalties. | ||
(a) A person who is a Peace Officer, State Officer, or State | ||
Employee commits an offense if the person, while acting under color | ||
of the person's office or employment, intentionally enforces or | ||
attempts to enforce any acts, laws, executive orders, agency | ||
orders, rules or regulations of any kind whatsoever of the United | ||
States government relating to confiscating any firearm, banning any | ||
firearm, limiting the size of a magazine for any firearm, imposing | ||
any limit on the ammunition that may be purchased for any firearm, | ||
taxing any firearm or ammunition therefore, or requiring the | ||
registration of any firearm or ammunition therefore. | ||
(b) A person who is a public servant commits an offense if | ||
the person, while acting under color of the person's office or | ||
employment, intentionally enforces or attempts to enforce any acts, | ||
laws, executive orders, agency orders, rules or regulations of any | ||
kind whatsoever of the United States government relating to | ||
confiscating any firearm, banning any firearm, limiting the size | ||
of a magazine for any firearm, imposing any limit on the ammunition | ||
that may be purchased for any firearm, taxing any firearm or | ||
ammunition therefore, or requiring the registration of any firearm | ||
or ammunition therefore. | ||
(c) For purposes of Subsections (a) and (b): | ||
(1) "Firearm" is defined at Penal Code §46.01; "Peace | ||
Officer" is defined at Government Code §614.001; and "State | ||
Officer" and "State Employee" are defined at Government Code § | ||
572.002. | ||
(2) "Public servant," includes an officer, employee, | ||
or agent of the United States; a branch, department, or agency of | ||
the United States; another person acting under a contract with a | ||
branch, department, or agency of the United States to provide a law | ||
enforcement or security service; or any other person acting under | ||
color of federal law. | ||
(3) A person acts under color of the person's office | ||
or employment if the person acts or purports to act in an official | ||
capacity or takes advantage of such actual or purported capacity. | ||
(4) It is a defense to prosecution for an offense | ||
under Subsection (b) that the person performed the act consistent | ||
with an explicit and applicable grant of federal statutory | ||
authority that is consistent with the United States Constitution. | ||
(d) An offense under Subsection (a) is a Class B | ||
misdemeanor punishable by confinement for a term not to exceed 180 | ||
days, a fine of not more than $5,000, or both the confinement and | ||
the fine. | ||
(e) An offense under Subsection (b) is a Class A misdemeanor | ||
punishable by confinement for a term not to exceed one year, a fine | ||
of not more than $10,000, or both the confinement and the fine. | ||
SECTION 3. (a) This section applies only to a prosecution | ||
of an offense under Section 46.16 Penal Code, as added by this Act, | ||
in which the defendant was, at the time of the alleged offense, | ||
acting under the color of federal law. | ||
(b) If the government of the United States, the defendant, | ||
or any other party challenges the validity of Section 46.16, Penal | ||
Code, as added by this Act, on any grounds including | ||
unconstitutionality, preemption, or sovereign immunity, the | ||
Attorney General of Texas with the consent of the appropriate local | ||
county or district attorney, as necessary, shall take any and all | ||
actions required on behalf of the State to defend the validity of | ||
the statute. | ||
SECTION 4. This Act shall be construed, as a matter of | ||
state law, to be enforceable up to but no further than the maximum | ||
possible extent consistent with federal constitutional | ||
requirements, even if that construction is not readily apparent, | ||
as such constructions are authorized only to the extent necessary | ||
to save the statute from judicial invalidation. | ||
SECTION 5. Every provision in this Act and every | ||
application of the provisions in this Act are severable from each | ||
other as a matter of state law. If any application of any provision | ||
in this Act to any person or group of persons or circumstances is | ||
found by a court to be invalid, the remainder of this Act and the | ||
application of the Act's provisions to all other persons and | ||
circumstances may not be affected. All constitutionally valid | ||
applications of this Act shall be severed from any applications | ||
that a court finds to be invalid, leaving the valid applications in | ||
force, because it is the legislature's intent and priority that the | ||
valid applications be allowed to stand alone. Even if a reviewing | ||
court finds a provision of this Act invalid in a large or | ||
substantial fraction of relevant cases, the remaining valid | ||
applications shall be severed and allowed to remain in force. | ||
SECTION 6. REPORT. The Texas Department of Public Safety | ||
shall immediately report to the governor, attorney general, and the | ||
legislature any attempt by the federal government to implement or | ||
enforce any law in violation of this Act through the Texas | ||
Department of Public Safety, or any another state or local law | ||
enforcement agency. | ||
SECTION 7. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives | ||
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as | ||
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this | ||
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this | ||
Act takes effect September 1, 2013. |