The state of Texas was going to be another Virginia. Anti-gunners were convinced they could flip the state blue just like they had in the Old Dominion State. They were convinced they could throw enough money to turn the state into a Democratic stronghold.

Well…that failed miserably.

However, it’s baffling how some in the media seem convinced that the gambit won. After all, anti-gunners have filed an unprecedented number of gun control bills despite having their posteriors handed to them in the election.

Now, a media outlet has a story about those bills headlined, “Prepare for a (Legislative) Gun Battle in Texas Next Year.”

If by battle, they mean, “Three cub scouts with rocks taking on the 75th Ranger Regiment,” then sure, it’ll be a battle.

The National Rifle Association has called the pre-filings for legislation in the Texas Congress next year a “record amount of gun control.” There are also a slew of bills aiming to increase gun rights in the state.

On the control side, there are at least sixteen gun control bills that have already been filed, most of them incredibly minor in scope and sensible in conception. Both Rep. Diego Bernal (D-San Antonio) and Ron Reynolds (D-Missouri City) have filed congruent bills looking to close the “gun show loophole.” HBs 52 and 245 would make it a criminal act to sell firearms at gun shows without complying with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. This is a very uncontroversial proposal that is supported by 96 percent of Americans nationwide.

Of course, that’s because most of those Americans have been lied to for years and actually think dealers at gun shows don’t have to do perform background checks. They do, though.

Instead, this law would target the individuals who simply try to sell a few of their personally-owned firearms at a gun show rather than trying to use other potential avenues. That’s it.

Then again, they’ve got bills trying to change that, too.

Rep. Lina Ortega’s (D-El Paso) HB 118 would ban all private gun transfers unless they were from close family members. This is a sore spot in Texas as [Scumbag’s name redacted] used a private sale to evade a background check that would have prevented him owning the guns he used to kill and wound 29 people in Odessa and Midland in 2019.

It should be noted that while polling suggests broad support for this kind of thing, it keeps being voted down when it shows up on the ballot. Maybe that’s because people support the idea of it, but when they get down into the nuts and bolts of it, they realize that it inhibits people from giving gifts, making loans of firearms to another, and a whole host of other things.

Eventually, though, the report does seem to acknowledge that just because they’re filed doesn’t mean they’ll become law.

How much traction any of these bills will get in the January session as the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis continue to rage is anyone’s guess. However, as the 2022 election cycle slowly starts to get moving, it’s likely that these bills will become rallying cries for bases on both sides of the gun debate. Whether they become law or not, they have already become fodder for propaganda rhetoric.

Only, it’s not anyone’s guess. The anti-gunners got the proverbial mudhole stomped in their butts in Texas, in part because of the anti-gun rhetoric and push by anti-gunners. Texans love their guns, after all, and aren’t likely to take too kindly to folks in the cities trying to take them away.

A lot of bills got filed, but this isn’t a fight. It’s set up to become a political massacre.