Introduction
The House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence has a great responsibility in researching legislative options under today’s charges. The Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute (TCCRI) takes great interest in any efforts to discuss legislation touching on fundamental rights such as the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
In public policy debates as contentious as those surrounding firearms, it is important to remind participants of the context in which these debates take place, and this testimony seeks to do that at the outset with a discussion of trends in violent crime and gun-related crime over the last quarter century.