Important change in Texas CHL Law, section 411.171

Section 411.171 of the Texas Concealed Handgun Laws was amended in the 2009 session of the legislature, which brought up a question from a potential student with a sealed juvenile record. You can view the marked-up copy of the statutes posted on the DPS website, but it is not searchable, because it is basically a photocopy converted to PDF. You can’t even copy and paste from the document.

The change is in 411.171(4)(C), on the 8th page of the PDF document (numbered page 3 in the text), which now reads “['Convicted' does not include any adjudication of guilt] otherwise vacated, set aside, annulled, invalidated, voided, or sealed under any state or federal law.” Up until last September, a “sealed” conviction was not really “sealed” to the DPS.

The provision in 411.172(14), which was 411.172(13) in the previous revision, still states that a juvenile (“delinquent conduct”) felony-grade offense disqualifies a CHL applicant for 10 years. This seemed to me to be contradictory. This change in the law was not covered in the CHL Instructor renewal course that I attended in August of last year, so I sent an email to the DPS Legal section to inquire about this seeming contradiction. The answer I got from them is that if the juvenile conviction has been officially sealed, it does not count as a conviction under the new change of the law, so the change in 411.171 overrides 411.172(14). Since juvenile records are normally sealed, it appears to me that means 411.172(14) no longer has any real effect.

According to the DPS Legal section, if you have a juvenile conviction of any type, you still have to report the arrest on your application, but if it was sealed, you can submit a certified copy of the order that sealed the conviction, and it will not be considered as a conviction.

Is it time to buy a gun?

For me, it’s time to buy a gun pretty much anytime I can afford another one. In fact, I’m shopping for a couple of them right now. I want a .22LR semiauto and a .22LR DA revolver for demonstration use in the NRA Basic Pistol course. Maybe more than one of each. And eventually, I’d like to get a 9mm SA that has an available .22LR conversion kit so that I can afford to practice more with it.

But lately, I’ve been getting news from some unusual sources about the increased interest of the general public in buying guns. Any time the government makes some obvious move to restrict gun ownership, gun sales soar. Clinton’s gun ‘ban’ did more to boost gun sales than just about anything else he could have done. And one of the side-effects of the last presidential election was a run on guns and ammo — starting about a month before election day. At that time, I also experienced a sizable jump in demand for my CHL classes. During the last week of December 2008, I had over 100 students, which caused a temporary crisis when I ran short of official certificates (that problem has been eliminated now). The demand for CHL classes and the shortage of ammo persisted for several months (and ammo is still more expensive than it was in 2008), although by last April, the CHL class demand had returned to a more manageable level, and I even had some classes that did not sell out.

The demand for CHL classes is once again growing dramatically. All of a sudden, I’m scrambling to make arrangements for larger classes, and having to turn away potential students because of schedule and range limitations. I’ve started bringing in another instructor to handle the renewal students, which means that I don’t have to turn away so many initial applicants. Yet, there hasn’t been any specific governmental action that I can readily identify as being a cause for this.

Tuesday, I got a financial newsletter with the title “It’s Time to Buy a Gun.” Interestingly, the author also could not point to a particular triggering event. Here is what he had to say:

“But good times for gunmakers are almost always temporary. The boost in sales caused by political uncertainty never lasts more than a few months. That’s a big reason why gunmaker stocks – despite achieving high double-digit sales growth – haven’t really participated in the market rally over the past year. Stocks in the sector trade, on average, for only seven times earnings and 0.7 times sales.

“However, there’s something different happening this time. In the 22 years I’ve known my wife, not once, ever, has she even considered owning a gun… until now.”

He went on to advise a covered-call strategy for a gunmaker stock. Since I didn’t pay any money, I don’t know which gunmaker he is recommending.

Since there doesn’t appear to be an overt gun-grab in progress, I’m guessing that this is a general reaction to the economy, and a suspicion that our government is lying to us about the health of the banking system. Idle chat with other CHL instructors has included phrases like “stocking up on water and canned goods — and ammo, so I can keep the water and canned goods.” I don’t really think that rioting in the streets is going to happen in the very near future, but I can certainly see that having an emergency stash of distilled water and canned food is relatively cheap insurance in any case, and it’s better to have and not need than to need and not have. So, yes, I have several weeks’ worth of distilled water and canned/dry foods in the pantry. I use distilled water on a regular basis for my heated humidifier on my CPAP, and I remember clearly back when some idiot government bureaucrat said that everybody needed to stock up on distilled water, plastic sheeting, and duct tape right away — and I was unable to buy distilled water for nearly a month after that.

That’s my guess, anyway.

If you think you have a better explanation, please enlighten me in the comments.

Related post: What Kind of Gun Should I Buy?

My Marksmanship Epiphany

Epiphany (n): A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.

I wasn’t always a good shot.  I studied (and even taught) marksmanship in high school — I was in JROTC, and I tried out for the rifle team, and actually made it.  But I certainly wasn’t the best shot on the team.  In fact, I was usually the lowest scorer on the team in most matches.

Fortunately for my team, in a rifle match, you only had to count the top 5 scores (out of 6), so I was nearly always the “scratch man”.  Good enough to get on the team (just barely), but not good enough to really help them.

I could shoot really well in the prone and kneeling positions.  I would typically shoot 99/100 or 100/100 prone, and 95/100 or better in kneeling.  Respectable, but so could all the other team members.  I would then proceed to drop 30 or more points in the standing or “offhand” position, compared to 10 or fewer for the other team members.

I knew all the theory; BRASS (Breathe/Relax/Aim/Slack/Squeeze), natural point of aim, etc., but I just could not get my offhand score up into a decent range.  I tried a number of things.  I practiced nearly every day, coming in an hour before school started, and coming back to the range after school for an hour. I tried lifting weights and various other strength training exercises. All that helped, but not enough to move me out of “scratch” position.

During the very last match I ever shot with the Irvin HS Rifle Team, something happened that had a lasting effect on my marksmanship skills.  I went into the match with my usual 100/100 in prone, dropped only 2 in kneeling, and then… just by pure dumb luck, my first offhand shot was a scratch-bull.  I knew it when the shot went off; it felt dead on.  That did happen from time to time, so that wasn’t a Really Big Deal.

But then one of the coaches on the other team turned to his assistant coach, and said “I thought you said this Harkness character couldn’t shoot shit for offhand.”  Even with my hearing protection on, I heard it clearly.  That remark had a truly wonderful (in the original sense of the word) effect on me.  It was like a giant hand came out of the sky to steady my rifle.  The next shot was also a scratch bull, but this time, it wasn’t pure dumb luck; I simply COULD NOT MISS.  The next shot was a pinwheel, followed by another scratch bull.  I only dropped 4 points offhand that day, which moved me from “scratch man” to high scorer, and I finished with a 294/300, the highest I had ever shot, even counting practice sessions.

After the match, my coach came up to me, and asked, “What the HELL got into you, Harkness?”  I told him what had happened, whereupon he replied, “Shit.  I wish I’d thought of that two years ago.”

To this day, I can’t put the sights on target without hearing “I thought you said this Harkness character couldn’t shoot shit for offhand” in my mind.  And the effect has never worn off.

Where did the .380 ammo go?

You have probably noticed that .380 rounds are simply not available anywhere at any price, and if you carry a .380, you are probably wondering what happened.

Here is the explanation that I found. 9mm, .38 Special, .357, and .380 are all actually the same diameter, and use the same dies for loading. So the manufacturers typically run a particular type of ammo in a batch to simplify things, and periodically switch over to other rounds on a set schedule.

.380 is not as popular a round as the others, so the manufacturers tend to set aside only a few weeks out of the year to run their yearly stock of .380. 9mm is generally the most popular, so they run that type for longer periods than the others.

About 8 months ago, folks noticed that ammo was getting more expensive, and many of them started stocking up. In particular, a lot of .380 users all of a sudden started buying 10 or 20 times as much as they normally would — and the stock of .380 pretty much disappeared by the end of last year. Meanwhile, the demand for 9mm and .357 has been so strong that the manufacturers are putting almost all of their manufacturing time into those calibers, and selling everything they can make.

You would think that the manufacturers could simply ramp up production, but it’s not that simple, for safety, legal, and political reasons. Adding new machinery is expensive, and requires time for inspections and testing and licensing sign-offs. And the manufacturers are painfully aware that the current administration wants very badly to put them out of business — and with just one more Senate seat, that could happen virtually overnight. So they are just running flat-out with what they have.

You would also think that the manufacturers are deliriously happy about being able to sell every round they can pump out, but they are very much aware that the current hoarding and gouging is not beneficial to the long-term health of this industry.

Any rate, that’s what’s behind the current ridiculous shortages and high prices. I was lucky enough to get about a year’s supply of both .380 and 9mm for my own needs, but I have no idea what I’m going to do when I run out of my current stock. I have already pretty much quit carrying the .380.

Swine Flu Hysteria

20 Confirmed cases of Swine Flu across the US, and there is a National Emergency. Sometimes I wonder how this sort of thing grabs the headlines. The cynic in me says that this is for the purpose of distracting folks from noticing little things like Illinois Democrat Bobby Rush’s latest attempt to sneak in a “gun control” bill that would require national registration of all guns and gun owners, among other things. But it seems that no matter how cynical I get, I just can’t keep up.

But ohmygodthere’saswinefluepidemic!!!! I suppose we all need to panic and run around like headless chickens.

Here’s a little health tip: Wash your hands. Frequently. With warm, soapy water. That is absolutely the best, cheapest, most effective simple-minded way ever invented to curtail the spread of diseases like colds and flu.

Just do it. And maybe you can opt out of this particular national emergency.

Now, with that taken care of, check into ways that you can help Representative Rush become unemployed, won’t you? Thanks!

New Applicants Increase, Renewals Taper Off

Over the last 8 or 9 months, I have noticed that even as my new-applicant classes have been consistently full (and occasionally, I have to turn away potential students), my renewal classes have been getting smaller. There were two changes in the law that could affect this, one of which hasn’t really kicked in yet.

The change that is already having an effect is that after your 2nd renewal, you only have to get a new TR100 every 10 years (you still have to renew and pay the fee, but you only have to take a renewal class every other renewal).

The change that will kick in next year is the extension of the renewal period from 4 years to the current 5 years. I expect renewal classes to shrink substantially for a while after the last of the 4 year licenses come up for renewal, then slowly come back up over a period of several months.

I recall at the last instructor re-certification that there were a lot of grumbles about both of those changes, and speculation that it would reduce the incomes of CHL instructors. So far, I have not found that to be the case, since the surge in new applicants has more than made up for the lack of renewals.

And, fortunately, I don’t do CHL classes for a living.

DPS is SWAMPED

I have been hearing from my March and April students that they haven’t gotten their licenses yet. According to a local radio news story, the DPS is experiencing a tremendous surge in new applicants, up more than 40% over this time last year. One of my students called down there twice, and was told that they are just now getting around to opening the packets that arrived in late March.

OUCH! That means they’ve already busted the 60-day statutory requirement for giving an answer to the application! But it’s not their fault, and it’s not your fault (or my fault). They are simply overwhelmed by the unexpected workload.

I have also heard from some renewal students who have not received their renewal licenses in time. If you are up for renewal DO NOT PUT IT OFF, but get the application and course done as soon as you can.

One other little detail: After 7 years of having a fingerprint reject rate well under 1%, all of a sudden the DPS is rejecting a large portion of my ink-rolled fingerprints.  I am now urging all of my students to take advantage of the $10 digital fingerprinting service offered by the range where I teach. They’ve been pushing everybody to go digital for a while now.

There isn’t a whole lot I can do about it other than hope that our legislature approves some more funding for the horribly under-funded CHL program. In that regard, I don’t have any special pull with the legislature — you might help out by sending a (politely worded) request to your local legislator to please increase the funding for the DPS CHL program.