Texas rolls out welcome mat for NY gun owners
New Yorkers who believe their Second Amendment Rights are being violated may have a home in the Lone Star State
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," January 22, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: There could be a stampede to Texas -- that is, if Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has his way. He's trying to lure New Yorkers, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott posting on Facebook, "Move to Texas, where you keep your guns." So why is he trying to lure New Yorkers to Texas?
Attorney General Abbott joins us. Good evening, sir.
GREG ABBOTT, TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good evening, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, this story has gotten somewhat complicated in the last few hours. I mean, what started this is I guess the Newtown shooting, Governor Cuomo's gun control measures and the newspaper in New York publishing names, then your Facebook telling New Yorkers to move there, and then, of course, today, the shooting in your state.
You know, it's gotten so complicated, so ugly. Your thoughts about this tonight?
ABBOTT: Well, several things. First, our hearts and our prayers go out to the families of those who were shot today at a college just north of Houston. And the same thing goes with regard to the shooting that took place in Connecticut.
No parent believes that schools should be in a way that a child could get shot at school. And when a parent drops a child off at school, they expect to be able to pick up that child that very same day.
At the same time, we need to make sure that amidst this debate we remain calm and address the problems appropriately, but at the same time, we can use this debate to look at the broader issues nationally, which was the purpose of me taking out that ad in New York because the point there was to show the contrast between big government in New York and limited government in Texas.
In New York, you have higher taxes, more government, more regulation, and yet less liberty, and importantly, fewer jobs. And now the governor is trying to constrict people's liberty even more. Whereas in Texas, we have lower taxes, less government, fewer regulations, more jobs and more liberty.
And so the point is to point out to our fellow Americans that there are different philosophies in this country. And if you look at the competing large states, you will see that Texas provides one political and philosophical point of view, where states like New York and California provide another. And it's Texas that is creating the jobs.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, you know, what's interesting about this -- I walked in today and I stopped at Bret Baier's office, and he looked rather grim. And I said, "What's wrong with you?" He said, "Another school shooting." And I said, "Not a grade school." And he said, "No." And I -- and I thought -- you know, we've gotten so numb to this that I thought, like, you know, oh, you know, as long -- you know, college wasn't as bad as grade school, which is just so sick and twisted. They're all horrible.
And even college kids are young people, you know, but we have so many of these that, you know, that it's all across the radar screen that, you know, it's very difficult, and now we're all fighting about everything in the nation, about, you know, how to sort of stop this.
ABBOTT: Right. And Greta, the most important point here, and that is if our goal is to keep schools safe, we need to keep that in mind and not get misled into trying to come up with some false solutions that would provide a false sense of security.
The easy example is what happened in Houston. First for your viewers, so everyone knows, this wasn't a shooter who broke out at this college in Houston. This was apparently gang-related, and it was one attacker on another, and there was a bystander who was injured in the process. So this was not a school shooting like what you saw in Connecticut, but obviously, all shootings in school are bad.
But you need to understand also in Texas right now, the time the shooting took place, there is a law that prohibits guns on campus. So once again, the only person on campus with a gun was a law-breaker.
And so we need to be cautious about how we go about the process of considering guns, remembering, also, look at -- look at Columbine. Columbine shooting took place at the time when there was an assault weapon ban. The shooting that took place in Connecticut, guns were prohibited where the school took place, and even President Obama's staff admitted in a story that showed up in Politico that the president's proposals to crack down on gun crime would not have solved the problem or prevented the problem in Connecticut.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, my heart goes out to the people in your state today, at that -- at that college. Let me turn around the question. Are you going to run for governor of the state of Texas as a Republican, and are you going to challenge Governor Perry?
ABBOTT: Greta, as you might imagine from the issues we're facing this very day, from the issues that we're seeing come out of Washington this month, and from the issues we're addressing in our state legislature right now, we don't have time to focus on politics. Politics will take care of itself later on. Right now, we need to take care of the business of the people of the state of Texas, as well as this country.
VAN SUSTEREN: I saw some reference, though, that you told donors that you were thinking about it, just, I mean, in the last two weeks, so it can't be -- so I mean -- so I mean, you've got to sort of look to the future. You've got to plan. So is it on your radar screen?
ABBOTT: Well, again, we're in a legislative session right now that will end at the end of May, and politics can play out after that time. Right now, we need to work on keeping Texans safe, working on these challenges the country is facing and taking care of the business of the people of the state of Texas.
VAN SUSTEREN: Attorney General, thank you. And I note that there wasn't a yes, but there was not a no, as well. So I guess it's stay tuned. Thank you, sir.
ABBOTT: Thank you, Greta.
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