Latest news with #HB1736
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pat Curry seeks to end daylight saving time in Texas
Austin, Tx (FOX44) – State Representative Pat Curry (R-Waco) filed House Bill 1736 (HB 1736) on to end daylight saving time in the state of Texas. This would allow Texans to remain on standard time year-round. 'Ending daylight saving time will simplify daily life for Texans.' said Representative Curry. He added that, 'DST was originally designed to save energy, but it is no longer necessary in today's world, and this is a priority of the RPT.' Key Provisions of HB 1736: The bill amends Section 312.016 of the Government Code to exempt Texas from the provisions of the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that first established DST. Under the new Subsection (d), the entire state, including regions using Central Standard Time and Mountain Standard Time, will no longer observe DST and will remain on standard time year-round. The changes will take effect on November 3, 2025, coinciding with the end of DST for this year. 'Staying on standard time year-round reduces health risks linked to time changes, such as disrupted sleep and increased traffic accidents,' Curry continued. 'This promotes a healthier and safer Texas.' HB 1736 will now move through the legislative process, where it will be considered before the Texas House of Representatives. If passed, Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proposed anti-gun violence center an asset, should be embraced
Signs are posted around Virginia's Capitol Square saying guns and explosives are banned in the area. (Photo by Graham Moomaw/Virginia Mercury) Efforts to create a state firearm violence intervention and prevention center, given the number of related killings and suicides in Virginia every year, are straightforward and innocuous. The center would be a positive step in getting at the roots of gun crimes around the state. It should help reduce the number of people killed and injured by guns. The legislation, sponsored by Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, would make the center the primary resource for research, best practices and other strategies to reduce gun violence in communities around Virginia, as the legislator envisions it. The center also would administer money and provide grants to local government agencies and organizations to do prevention. 'This is about research, this is about data, this is about resources so that we can address problems that are killing children, killing older people,' Price said, according to the Capital News Service at Virginia Commonwealth University. Goodness knows there's a huge need for something like this: Some 1,234 firearm deaths occurred in 2023 in the commonwealth, according to the Virginia Department of Health. The bulk of killings were suicides, at 59%, compared to homicides, at 39%. Gun violence costs Virginians more than $14.2 billion each year, according to Johns Hopkins University's Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Among the slayings: Earlier this month, a Chesapeake woman fatally shot herself after fatally shooting her three children. Chesapeake police said they'd been called to a residence for a welfare check. You would think gun-rights groups and most Republican legislators, who usually oppose any whiff of gun-control measures, might get behind this idea since it's designed to reduce shootings and slayings. And you'd be wrong. The House of Delegates passed HB1736 on mostly party lines, 54-45. Three Republicans joined the Democrats, who have a narrow majority in the chamber. The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee has offered substitute legislation. This concept should be an area for common ground. Gun-rights and gun-control supporters alike want fewer shootings, killings and injuries. People who survive shootings may suffer a lifetime of trauma, both physically and emotionally. Some opponents utter hackneyed arguments. They pronounce red herrings that have little to do with the issue. 'Why isn't all violence the problem?' Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, told me during an interview. When you separate violence into the categories of tools, he added, that's a concern. 'They are after gun rights,' Van Cleave contended. 'I know Price. … (Supporters') purpose is to find various avenues to restrict gun rights.' I couldn't reach Price by my deadline. She has tried in previous years to pass similar legislation. She's also spoken emotionally about comments from constituents whose loved ones were killed in gun-related incidents. 'There are certain visuals I will never be able to get out of my head — mothers and fathers weeping at having lost their children,' Price said in 2022. Let me be clear: Guns are the major problem with violence in this country, so much so that crimes not involving guns tend to be the exception. Nor are firearms going away, given the overall culture, the Second Amendment and an industry that stokes fear to drive sales. In 2023, more than 76% of homicides in the United States were committed with firearms. That figure had ballooned in 2021, during the pandemic. Still, the 2023 statistic was significantly higher than in 2014, at 63.6%. In recent years, firearms deaths supplanted other causes in killing more children ages 1 to 17 nationwide. Seventy-five in that age group were killed in Virginia in 2022. Of course the focus should be on guns. They are at the center of much of the death and grief that occur daily in Virginia and elsewhere. This doesn't even capture when firearms are wielded in robberies, or when someone is threatened but uninjured. The number of handguns, rifles and shotguns owned by civilians in America is estimated at roughly 430 million, far outpacing the population of 341 million in the United States. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, just signed an executive order titled, 'Protecting Second Amendment Rights.' It calls, in part, for the U.S. attorney general to 'examine all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies to assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens.' The executive order also demanded a review of reports issued by the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention — as if reducing mayhem deserves scrutiny. Virginia ranked third in registered firearms among the states in 2021, according to Texas and Florida, first and second, respectively, have much larger populations. Obviously, there's no shortage of gun enthusiasts in the state. When my son and I patronized a gun range in Virginia Beach over the Christmas holidays, for example, we faced a roughly 45-minute wait just to use a lane. Against this backdrop, Price's bill would help research ways to lower the bloodshed in Virginia. It has the support of the Center for Gun Violence Solutions, which has backed similar efforts in other states. The Johns Hopkins center views gun violence as a public health emergency. It also does nonpartisan research. The Virginia institution 'would be a hub for best practices and coordinate information-sharing' between community-based groups and others, Lori Haas, advocacy manager at the Johns Hopkins center, told me. Haas formerly was the Virginia organizer for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. 'We need a concerted effort to reduce gun violence specifically,' Haas added. A spokesman for Gov. Glenn Youngkin didn't return my messages about whether the governor would sign the bill if it reached his desk. He should, even though last year Youngkin vetoed 30 bills he said 'would punish law-abiding gun owners.' Price's bill doesn't. The goal is to lower gun-related homicides and injuries, using evidence-based data. Its passage would increase safety around the state. 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