THUMB AWARD HOLDING A SMOKING GUN

Thumbs Down to most of Dallas’ state legislators (Reps. Fred Agnich. Bill Blanton. Bill Ceverha. Bill Hammond, Anita Hill, Patricia Hill. Lee Jackson. Rav Keller, Gwyn

Shea, Carlyle Smith and Steve VVolens; and Sens. Chet Edwards, Ike Harris, John Leedom and Ted Lyon) who voted for one of the most absurd creations ever to come out of Austin-and that’s saying something. These stalwarts passed Senate Bill 1187, which took away the rights of Texas cities to make any kind of gun control laws. If you’re thinking, “But wait, we don’t have any gun control anyway,” you’re on the right track. It’s a classic case of timid politicians unwilling to stand up to a powerful lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA), which has been in a panic ever since the duly elected officials of Morton Grove, Ill., voted to ban handguns in their city. The NRA irrationally views even mild gun control-including gun registration and waiting periods-as the road to serfdom, and they’ve been pressuring state legislatures to pass preemptive laws like this one ever since Morton Grove. (After all, it’s easier to intimidate one state legislature than hundreds of city councils.) Since exactly one city in Texas-Wichita Falls-has anything like a tough gun ordinance, the new law fixes something that was never broken. The law passed because the NRA wanted it to pass, and in Texas that’s about all it takes. Only Dallas Reps. David Cain, Al Granoff, Sam Hudson, Jesse Oliver and Paul Ragsdale joined Sen. Oscar Mauzy in opposing the bill. The real irony is that most of those who laid down for the NRA like to call themselves conservatives and parrot the line about returning power to the local level and keeping Big Government off our backs. Next time you see one of these “conservatives,” you might ask him or her to explain the deep-seated philosophical basis of that vote. But don’t say “NRA” too loudly. You might scare them.