AUSTIN - The Texas House approved rules Wednesday to be able to install panic buttons and eject hostile members of the public from their offices, after a confrontation between lawmakers and open carry advocates visiting the Capitol on the opening day of the 2015 session.

"I think that public servants and members of the public ought to feel safe and secure when they come to the Capitol," said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, who sponsored an amendment to add the safety measures to the house housekeeping rules. "That being said, it came to my attention there was some disagreement as to whether members have to accommodate individuals or groups that are acting in a threatening or belligerent manner."

On Tuesday, around 15 to 20 members of the group Open Carry Tarrant County visited several lawmaker offices urging them to support House Bill 195, which seeks to undo Texas' 125-year ban on the open carry of handguns. Several House members, including Democrats Poncho Nevarez of Eagle Pass and Celia Israel of Austin, said the group hassled them or their staff.

In a video posted to Facebook by Kory Watkins, the gun group's leader, on Tuesday, open carry activists can be heard calling Nevarez "a tyrant to the Constitution" and telling him he "won't be here very long, bro."

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/House-approves-panic-buttons-in-wake-of-open-6015078.php

These guys are out performance-arting The Onion.

Threatening a lawmaker while carrying around guns... in order to persuade lawmakers to change a gun law? Theater of the Absurd in the literal sense.

If only the American people had a Panic Button for every time these conservative asshats gain control of our country.

Ah yesss...the fuckwads that WANT the government to come for them!

I swear to Koresh...we have some of the biggest wastes of life here in Texas. Some of them group together to become gargantuan wastes of life!

My how PROUD shitstain must be (in the picture) holding his USSR/Chinese firearm! What? American guns not good enough fer ya!

I HATE gun humpers with a passion. They seem to have a collective IQ of 3.

Legislative approval has been instrumental in forming the open carry movement.

So I can't get very upset when open carry goons show up at the legislators' offices, acting like the knuckle-draggers they are. I got your panic button, guys.....