Texas State Sen. Roland Guiterrez is an odd duck. He’s apparently a rabid anti-gunner in a state that loves its guns.

The same state that just passed constitutional carry not that long ago, I might add, yet he thinks he can get gun control through the legislature.

Or, he’s just grandstanding, which is more likely.

Still, he’s not done trying to cram his anti-gun agenda down Texas lawmakers’ throats. In fact, he’s introduced still more of it.

On Tuesday, State Sen. Roland Gutierrez proposed more legislation aimed at reducing gun deaths.

Gutierrez spoke at the Capitol on Tuesday afternoon alongside family members of Robb Elementary School shooting victims. This is Gutierrez’s fourth set of bills filed in response to the tragic school shooting in Uvalde that resulted in the deaths of 19 students and two teachers.

Tuesday’s bills included the following:

• Senate Bill 1737: would make expanding and fragmenting bullets illegal
• Senate Bill 1736: would require that gun show vendors and promoters conduct background checks before completing the sale of any gun, with exceptions for firearm sales to peace officers and those who are licensed to carry. Gun show owners would also be required to maintain sales records, and promoters would be required to provide notice of the gun show to local law enforcement a month in advance
• Senate Bill 1740: would require guns and ammo in a vehicle to be stored in a locking container, hidden from plain site; would also make storing unsecured guns or ammunitions in an unattended car or boat a misdemeanor; would require sign postings for firearms dealers
• Senate Bill 1738: would require any law enforcement officer in a child-involved shooting to be immediately placed under administrative leave/suspension; would also trigger an automatic independent law enforcement investigation and would make it so that the officer may be terminated, suspended or disciplined if use of force was unjustified or the officer failed to intervene to prevent the child’s death
• Senate Bill 1739: would make it so that anyone convicted of murdering students or employees at schools would face life without parole

Well…most of those suck and none of them are particularly great.

Let’s break them down one by one.

• Senate Bill 1737: would make expanding and fragmenting bullets illegal

This is popular among the gun control crowd, which is evidence that they really don’t know what they’re talking about.

See, they have this perception that the only reason to use expanding or fragmenting ammunition is to do as much damage to a human body as possible. While such ammo does do that, there’s a reason that’s desirable. After all, the chances of stopping a bad guy with fewer shots are much higher with such ammo than with standard FMJ rounds.

Further, there’s also a significantly reduced risk of overpenetration, which means that there’s less chance of a bullet leaving the bad guy and accidentally going into someone else.

• Senate Bill 1736: would require that gun show vendors and promoters conduct background checks before completing the sale of any gun, with exceptions for firearm sales to peace officers and those who are licensed to carry. Gun show owners would also be required to maintain sales records, and promoters would be required to provide notice of the gun show to local law enforcement a month in advance

Most “vendors” you see at gun shows are FFL holders. They already conduct background checks. You can try and force promoters to conduct them, but since most non-vendor sales at gun shows take place between two parties, they can just step outside to conduct their transition and there’s nothing the state can really do about it.

As for records, how? How are they supposed to maintain records for sales carried out by licensed vendors who have to keep their own records?

• Senate Bill 1740: would require guns and ammo in a vehicle to be stored in a locking container, hidden from plain site; would also make storing unsecured guns or ammunitions in an unattended car or boat a misdemeanor; would require sign postings for firearms dealers

This is another popular one with the gun control crowd, but they never seem to get that this becomes more of an issue because of off-limits locations more than anything else.

Further, this will simply discourage people from reporting stolen guns, which means that when police find that gun on someone’s person, they won’t know it was stolen in the first place. If that individual isn’t a convicted felon, then there won’t be a charge.

In other words, the Law of Unintended Consequences is a thing.

• Senate Bill 1738: would require any law enforcement officer in a child-involved shooting to be immediately placed under administrative leave/suspension; would also trigger an automatic independent law enforcement investigation and would make it so that the officer may be terminated, suspended or disciplined if use of force was unjustified or the officer failed to intervene to prevent the child’s death

There are aspects of this that don’t sound too horrible, but the problem here is that it starts off by treating every such shooting as if they’re the same, as if they’re universally questionable. That’s simply not true.

My question to Guitterez is how does it make sense to do everything in your power to weaken our ability to respond to violent crime via gun control only to also make police jumpier about how to do theirs?

• Senate Bill 1739: would make it so that anyone convicted of murdering students or employees at schools would face life without parole

This is the only one that doesn’t completely suck.

However, it’s also useless.

School shooters aren’t deterred by penalties from what we’ve seen. In fact, many don’t plan on surviving the encounter. If that’s the case, then just how is life without parole much of a deterrent?

So there you have it, a bunch of gun control proposals and not a thing that would actually do a damn bit of good. Par for the course, really.