Speaker Dennis Bonnen and Chairman Poncho Nevarez (D–Eagle Pass) were by far the two biggest blocks to constitutional carry in the Texas House this past session.

It looks like neither one of them is coming back.

Bonnen is leaving after being disgraced by his, well, disgraceful behavior.

After killing the constitutional carry bill by sending it to Nevarez, Bonnen tried to pin the bill’s failure on gun rights activists through lies and deceit. But his devious ways caught up to him and he won’t be running again.

Nevarez seems to have been found in possession of over two grams of cocaine recently.

He was chairman of the committee that heard most of the gun bills, and was anything but fair to our witnesses. He openly voiced opposition to constitutional carry. He refused to set a hearing for that bill.

I have two responses here.

First, I am seeing statements from Democrat leadership along the lines of sympathy for Nevarez as he goes through this “difficult time” of healing from his addiction.

Those statements fail to acknowledge the grief, pain, and tyranny he has brought to others through his selfishness and arrogance as a legislator.

Isn’t that worse?

Will there be a statement of sympathy for that?

Second, I am seeing a lot of folks glad that Nevarez and Bonnen won’t be back. Me too, but just because you get rid of one person doesn’t mean everything’s better. A ton of folks worked so hard to get rid of Straus. He left and we got Bonnen.

Thankfully we at least figured out you don’t have to deal with the person as long as we dealt with Straus before you expose their corruption and get them out.

But removal is not the end goal.

Liberty is.

To achieve that goal, we need to replace the tyrannicos with people who faithfully stand for liberty and repeal infringements.

And that involves not just getting them into a seat, but staying with them, providing them support and accountability, walking them through as counselors so they don’t get caught up in political games.

It’s work. It is so much tiresome, tedious work.

Liberty doesn’t come cheap, y’all.

I can’t help but think of so many who have paid such a high price because they believed it was worth it to fight for Liberty.

I hope there are enough of us, too, who believe hard enough that it’s worth the fight.

This is a commentary submitted and published with the author’s permission. If you wish to submit a commentary to Texas Scorecard, please submit your article to submission@texasscorecard.com.

Rachel Malone

Malone is Texas Director of Gun Owners of America. A nationally-certified firearms instructor, she passionately promotes the right to keep and bear arms in legislation, training, and public perception, and is dedicated to training others to safeguard liberty and justice for all.

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