Of course, Cheaper Than Dirt! sells products all across the country, but because we’re based in Texas, we do keep a lookout for items from our home state, such as Texas Law Shield’s new Texas Gun Law: Armed And Educated, a 333-page heavyweight tome that gets into the nitty-gritty of Lone Star State gun laws. If you own a gun in Texas, it’s a must-read.
Written by attorneys Kirk Evans, Edwin Walker, Michele Byington, and Darren Rice, this $29.95 bible of deadly force rules illustrates the complex areas of self defense in a variety of different situations and with a variety of different tools — guns certainly, but also knives, clubs, and tasers.
Co-author Evans said, “After talking to gun owners all over the state, we found that one area where they weren’t sufficiently prepared is knowledge of the law. It’s our mission to change that.” The book is organized into fourteen chapters and two appendices, and it’s full of examples that show how the law applies in real life. Written by experienced attorneys in easy-to-understand language, it clears up gun-law myths and misconceptions many Texas gun owners believe are true.
One that stuck out to me was this: There is a common misunderstanding that there exists a law that if you are legally justified in using your gun that you can’t be sued. This is just not the case. If a person has the filing fee, anyone can sue anyone else in the State of Texas. Co-author Walker said, “As lawyers representing more than 100,000 Texas gun owners, we’ve seen time and time again that a good gun owner can end up in serious legal trouble. We’ve seen members go to jail for breaking laws they didn’t know existed. We’ve seen members get arrested for laws that don’t exist.” I had a big dog charge me recently, but it wound up peeling off and barking at me. Still, I wondered that if it had kept coming, could I have used my knife or Airweight against it? Texas Gun Law: Armed And Educated said: Texas has no general self-defense or defense of others statute that deals with all animals. There exist statutes that justify conduct against certain specific “dangerous wild animals” and ones for protection of domestic animals, crops, and livestock, but no justification for protecting people against animal attacks. For example, if a dog is attacking you, and you have to shoot the dog, there exists no provision of the Texas Penal Code that specifically justifies the use of deadly force. In this situation, persons will be forced to rely on a general defense called “justification by necessity.” Elsewhere, I enjoyed the clean explanation of my federal right to keep and bear arms, the discussion of where folks can carry and transport firearms without a CHL, a detailed explanation of NFA items, and more.
Click here to read more about the book. There are six free excerpts on the order page, which themselves are worth reading.
Mr. McGee and JP:
Thanks for the comments. To address both of your points:
1. We are attempting to publish a separate, state-specific book for all 50 states. Six different states are in the drafting phase right now with the help of local attorneys.
2. Despite the incredible reception we have had for the book (we are already in our second publication run), I can attest that education was the primary motivation for the book as opposed to profit. The authors are staunch Second Amendment supporters who invested substantial time in this project.
Thanks again for your comments.
Kirk Evans
Someone needs to write a book for each of the different states and there gun laws. Each state is so different on gun laws. For some of us. It’s hard to find all the gun laws for each of the state’s. Or to fully understand them.
I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, the authors wrote this book for their own financial interest, not because there was some mandate or proposed social interest for it. While that’s fine, the only way people are going to get something like this for their own state is if someone takes the same interest as these people did.
Here in MN the closest thing I’ve found to this is a book by Michael Martin called “Minnesota Permit to Carry a Firearm Fundamentals.”