BELLEVUE, WA – Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a staunch defender of gun rights in the Lone Star State, is being recognized by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms as the Legislator of the Year for 2021.

Gov. Abbott earlier this year signed several pieces of gun rights legislation into law, including HB 1927, which allows anyone 21 years old or older who can legally possess a firearm in Texas to carry a handgun in public without a permit. With his signature, Texas became the 20th state in the nation to allow “constitutional carry” by law-abiding citizens. 

In addition, Gov. Abbott also signed legislation barring government contracts with entities that discriminate against the firearm industry, another bill preventing hotels from implementing restrictive gun policies, and legislation prohibiting state and local governments from enforcing new federal gun rules. Another bill removed firearm suppressors from the list of prohibited weapons in the Texas Penal Code.

“Gov. Greg Abbott has significantly advanced the cause of Second Amendment rights this year,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “His strong support for Texas gun owners is widely known across the nation, and the Lone Star State is experiencing an influx of new residents from as far away as the Northwest, Northeast and California who are escaping increasingly restrictive gun laws to live in a state where liberty is not just a word, but a way of life.”

Before he was elected governor in 2014, Abbott was the longest-serving attorney general in Texas history. A native Texan, Gov. Abbot was born in Wichita Falls and raised in Duncanville, southwest from Dallas. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1981 with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He went on to earn his Juris Doctor degree at Vanderbilt University Law School in Nashville, Tenn. He previously served as a State District Judge in Harris County, and as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, initially appointed by then-Gov. George Bush. He and his wife, Cecilia have a daughter, Audrey.