After the Waco Shootout, Texas Lawmakers Debate Gun Laws
ADAM CHANDLER
Authorities are still working to develop a clear picture of the bullet-riddled scene where nine members of biker gangs died in a shootout in Waco, Texas. Reports describe a chaotic fight that started in the bathroom of the bustling Twin Peaks restaurant, then escalated into a parking-lot brawl involving knives, brass knuckles, and guns. By Monday, 170 bikers had been arrested on murder-related charges and held with million-dollar bails. Autopsy reports released Tuesday indicated that all nine of the men killed were victims of gunshot wounds. As it happens, the gun fight coincides with the likely passage of a legislative initiative to loosen gun laws in Texas.
On Monday, deliberations over a bill that would allow for the open carrying of handguns in Texas went on as scheduled in the state’s Senate. Lawmakers offered support for the measure, which has already passed Texas House. “This bill does not have anything to do with what went on yesterday," a state senator remarked. This sentiment was echoed by others, including Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who told the AP on Monday: "The shootout occurred when we don't have open carry, so obviously the current laws didn't stop anything like that.”
Several witnesses who spoke to the bill on Monday did draw a connection between the open carry bill and Sunday’s bloodbath, the Texas Tribune reported. Austin Assistant Police Chief Troy Gay “told senators that the ‘chaotic situation’ in Waco could have been made much worse by the confusion an open carry law would bring to responding police officers.”
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http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/05/open-carry-laws-and-the-waco-shootout/393671/
= new reply since forum marked as read
The state house would have been the most frantic place on earth.
Instantly writing new gun laws 
