I-35 is the quickest way out of there, Cal...

I guess I should have expected this, coming as it does from a big-city academic, but even so I still have to shake my head...

The biggest liability for (Houston Mayor Bill) White is his past membership in a New York-based gun control group. White says he resigned after finding its positions too restrictive, but his participation in Mayors Against Illegal Guns riled up those who live to preserve Texas' pro-gun culture.
"Anywhere in the civilized world you would be able to make the argument that everybody should be able to be against illegal guns. But we're not in the civilized word. We're in Texas," said Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson.

You'd think Cal Jillson would have done his research -- because if he had, he'd have seen that it isn't nearly as simple as "be(ing) against illegal guns." If he'd done his research he'd know that the group in question advocated banning importation of certain guns and ammunition because they were allegedly "non-sporting," without actually defining the term. Not that it would ultimately have mattered, because either way the group would never have stopped there; it would have basically said such was "a good first step, but we must do more!" And we all know that "more" would have included things like semi-auto rifle bans and onerous licensing and registration schemes. I thought it was funny how Jillson didn't really say anything about White himself resigning because he found MAIG's positions too restrictive. Maybe Jillson thought it was a purely political move, but at any rate, if he thinks Texas is "not in the civilized world," it's worth asking why he's still here.