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In the wake of Sandy Hook and other gun tragedies, many state legislatures are passing stricter gun regulations. But not in Texas.

The Texas House took a step in the other direction Saturday afternoon, tentatively passing all but one of the 15 gun bills on its agenda. The message from the House was clear: the Legislature wants more Texans to pack heat.

Despite some controversy, all the bills were rushed along through voice votes so members could catch the last legs of the Kentucky Derby. (Speaker Joe Straus tweeted that he was drinking a mint julep at the podium.)

The bills would drop concealed handgun licensing (CHL) classes from 10 hours down to six, allow public schools to hire armed public-school marshals, and lower the CHL renewal fee for members of the international, national and state guard, and for state-employed correction officers.

One of the two more controversial bills, House Bill 1076, by Republican Rep. Steve Toth from the Woodlands, would criminalize any potential federal gun regulations in Texas.

He’s said House Bill 1076, a “Firearm Protection Act,” will prevent any state-funded entity, including schools, universities, and state employees from enforcing any federal orders or laws that impose a “prohibition, restriction or other regulation, such as capacity or size requirement or a background check” that does not already exist as a Texas state law.

Any agency that enforces federal law, instead of adhering to Texas’ own codes, will be cut off from state funding. Individuals could also get a Class A misdemeanor – the most serious misdemeanor in Texas, which means a $4,000 fine or a year of jail time.

On the House floor, Rep. Chris Turner, a Democrat from Grand Prairie, and a few other Democrats called out the bill as purely political. “This is a bill about saying that we’re making a political statement, that we don’t like President [Barack] Obama, that we don’t like what’s going on in Washington, and that we can go back home and say we took it to the president,” Turner said.

Eagle Pass Democrat Rep. Alfonso Nevárez said he’s all for Second Amendment rights, “but that’s just rhetoric … all we’re hearing about why it’s such a great bill is that it’s good for America, for Second Amendment rights. Great. But there’s a lot of great bills that we’ve passed today … on this one we really need to step back and look at it.”

Toth said that he and the bill’s other authors enlisted Attorney General Greg Abbott’s help in drafting the bill to “to make sure that we had something that would be air-tight.”

That’s all well and good, Nevárez said, but “the AG’s batting 1,000 right now when it comes to battling the federal government.”

When Toth asked for the help of Attorney General Abbott in drafting the bill, he also asked National Rifle Association and militia hall-of-famer Sheriff Richard Mack, former sheriff of Graham County, Arizona, to weigh in.

Mack told the Observer earlier this session that this bill is indeed about the message it sends out. “I think it’s a bold move,” Mack said. “It’s the right thing to do. [The bill] reinforces what we believe in Texas and in this country—that the bill of rights and the constitution are more important than political agenda,” he said. “It sends a strong statement to Washington and the local officials that the Second Amendment is still the supreme law of the land and that it is not to be trifled with.”

But as many legislators pointed out, HB 1076 would seem to violate the “Supremacy Clause.” The clause, or Article VI, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, mandates that in any conflict between federal and state law or constitutional rights, the federal law takes precedence.

Political posturing indeed.

On Saturday morning, the House showed just how far the criminal justice debate in Texas has come.

The House passed SB 213, the sunset bill for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The measure reauthorizes the agency with a few major changes, including an amendment to prioritize closure of certain private prisons.

That’s a remarkable development. Not long ago, many legislators wanted to build more prisons, especially privately operated prisons. But on Saturday an amendment by conservative Weatherford Republican Phil King will require the department to prioritize closing the most costly private prisons over less-expensive ones (in a “cost-benefit analysis,” as King put it).

Quite a few Republicans have embraced a smart-on-crime approach and believe that mass incarceration, especially of nonviolent offenders, is not only fiscally irresponsible, but doesn’t reduce crime. Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound), chair of the House Corrections Committee, said, “It is our intention here to be fiscally responsible. … I believe it is very important that we close at least two facilities, if not more.”

“Thankfully, it’s a good situation that we find ourselves in Texas, that crime is on the decline,” he said.

The sunset bill, authored by Rep. Walter T. “Four” Price (R-Amarillo), was approved by a voice vote and also encourages the department to establish a clear “re-entry” plan to transition inmates back into society.

The floor debate did include a few tense moments, including an exchange between Rep. Marisa Marquez (D-El Paso) and Price. Marquez’ amendment, which would have required the TDCJ to report how much it costs to hold inmates in solitary confinement, was defeated. Her amendment was to be the first discussed, but she withdrew it to consult with Price. After some negotiation, she brought it back onto the floor. “We have discussed the amendment in detail, and we have revised it,” Price said. But a few seconds later, he added: “I’m going to be voting no, but I want to leave this to the will of the House.”

Marquez explained that she wants the TDCJ to report how much the state pays per inmate so Texas can find a way to minimize the money spent on solitary. “But I don’t want to do that if we don’t have information,” she added. “So what this amendment does, is it looks for that information.”

After the amendment was defeated, Marquez told the Observer, “I should’ve called for a record vote” instead of a voice vote. “I think that would’ve changed a lot of people’s minds. I think many of the Republican leadership voted with me, as I could look up, because they could understand that we are in a financial crisis and that we’re looking at every different agency, asking them to cut.”

“We have an agency that has continued to be irresponsible in reporting those types of numbers and the cost per ad-seg inmate in our institutions,” she said.

In addition to Marquez’ financial qualms, there is strong evidence that keeping prisoners in solitary confinement for long periods of time can be destructive to the psyche.

Marquez continued, “I think it’s unfortunate that the…issues of mental health, medical care, probation and parole have not hit this floor this session.”

The Lead:
Lawmakers are giving up their Saturday—the first chamber weekend workday of the session—to debate a slew of controversial gun bills.

The gun day fun day festivities include legislation that would decrease the classroom hours required to get a concealed handgun license, allow licensed gun owners to bring guns onto higher education campuses, designate some public school workers as gun-carrying school marshals, and nullify any federal gun laws from being enforced in Texas. That’s just a few.

Many of the bills are expected to pass in the House, but may have difficulty getting ahead in the Senate according to the Dallas Morning News.

Yesterday’s Headlines:
1. The House voted yesterday to continue the Texas Economic Development Act, a program created in 2001 that allows school districts to offer property tax cuts to businesses. According to the Texas Tribune, critics of the program say it allows school districts to “pick winners in the marketplace and is not worth the resulting increase in jobs and investment.”

2. The Dallas Morning News reports the House tentatively approved a bill that would help the fight against the West Nile Virus by letting local health officials enter abandoned or uninhabited and foreclosed properties to treat standing water, where mosquitos breed. The bill still needs a two-thirds vote in the House on its final reading to become effective immediately.

3. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst announced on the Senate floor that, despite hours of closed-door negotiations, there weren’t enough votes on Friday to pass House Bill 5, the sweeping test reform bill championed by Sen. Dan Patrick that reduces standardized testing and changes graduation requirements. Dewhurst said later he intends to bring the bill up in the Senate on Monday, according to the Quorum Report (article subscription only).

Line of the Day:
“If he believes the answer to violent crime is not prosecuting felons and fugitives, not prosecuting gun crimes but going after the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens, I would like to invite the vice president to engage in an hour-long conversation and debate.” —U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s open invitation to Vice President Joe Biden at Friday’s NRA National Convention in Houston.

What We’re Watching Today:
1. Guns.

2. Before the gun show begins, the House is slated to hear a sunset bill that would keep the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and a few other law enforcement agencies, running for 12 more years. There are 27 pre-filed amendments to the bill that could change how the agencies run.

3. Two House committees are also working weekend overtime: Ways and Means and Corrections.