Current Texas law does not allow me or any other CHL holder to carry their piece at a place of higher education. It looks like the Texas house has decided to do something (anything) about it.
The Houston chronicle reports
House Bill 972 would allow students, faculty and staff of a public college or university who are licensed to carry concealed handguns to bring them into classrooms. However, a provision in the bill would allow schools to opt-out of the mandate if they consider input from students, staff and faculty, which wasn’t included in the Senate’s version.
What’s that? It looks like any university can neuter the provisions of the bill once it becomes law. And it still has an uphill battle in the senate.
Full text of the bill can be found here.
ftp://ftp.legis.state.tx.us/bills/83R/billtext/html/house_bills/HB00900_HB00999/HB00972I.htm
Watch this space. Well keep our Texan readers up to date.
Texas, the next California.
not a chance there, boss
I wouldn’t be so sure. Liberals are making some serious inroads.
All the more reason to fight for your freedoms wherever you are.
So far, with a few of exceptions, my favorite Californians are the ones that drive straight through and out of Arizona when looking for a new home.
down here liberals are taken for a “Texas Jog” (liberal tied to a rope, tied to a bumper of a moving pick up)…get it?
I must be one of the few optimistic people in texas. I know that its possible, in every sense of tge word. LIKELY, however, is a different matter. There are just enough anti gun folk to be a threat, but not enough for them to effectively carry it out.
Holy crap, why is the option to opt out such a bad thing???? At the very least, it is a step in the right direction. What Mr. Kee didnt mention is our House passed its own version of the firearms freedom act.
Texas IS all its cracked up to be, in my opinion.
At least try to lighten up.
No! Colorado is the next California….Texas is the next Colorado.
@ Benny “Holy crap, why is the option to opt out such a bad thing?”
because its either a Right or its NOT.
Jwm, I really hope that isn’t the case! I have heard some worrying things from there recently, but overall they seem far more sane than most places. Can’t wait to get down there.
Interesting this should come up now. At the school I go to, we were shown a presentation on what to do if we’re ever faced with an “active shooter” (as opposed to a passive one, I guess). We’re supposed to run, or hide. If the shooter enters the room we’re cowering in, we are supposed to, “take out” the shooter. That’s right. We’re expected to take down a person armed with a rifle or pistol or shotgun with… textbooks.
You actually packin (a textbook)?
Was it UNT? I saw flyers everywhere saying just that.
“We’re supposed to run, or hide”
Isn’t that exactly what people have already done? It hasn’t worked out too well so far and in essence they’re telling you to do exactly what every dead person in a mass shooting has done. Brilliant.
It is. And it hasn’t.
In Texas, open carry of a textbook is illegal.
In ny, that would be against the law if the book had assault features or more than 7 pages
So WTF does open carry stand so far?
I still can’t believes that Texas, of all states, doesn’t allow open carry.
hells bells move to Wyoming I had at least 3 open carries at work today (pizza hut) one well I had a track team in eating and the coach strikes up a conversation with one of the guys about hunting. If you want everyday gun culture this is the place
I’d move there in a heartbeat, but I’d need some kind of scraper to remove the ice from my b@lls every winter.
Is that better than unsticking your naughty bits from the side of your leg in the CA summer?
I visited my buddy in Wyoming once, and I f<cking loved it. I would live there in a heartbeat. Now that I think about it, I've said that about a lot of places recently. But, I will stay in CA until one day my lady sees the light and decides we need to GTFO. I'm just working to hasten the approach of aforementioned day.
I considered WY, but there isn’t a whole lot of work in my field there. TX has plenty of work, plenty of things to do, and IMO is the most likely/viable candidate for secession in the lower 48.
Been that way since the 1860s and really didn’t have anything to do with liberals and was selectively enforced, kind of like Florida’s open carry. Both restrictions were pushed for by folks who, shall we say, kept their evening attire in the linen closet and liked to dress up for Halloween a lot.
There is an open carry bill that could still be voted on! Contact your representative and senator!
I’m far more concerned with HB 700 (open carry). It’s not looking so good right now.
It’s a little sad that in a blue state (PA) I have more freedom with a firearm than they do in Texas.
CCW costs 20 bucks, requires no training course and is good for 5 years. Open carry is permitted anywhere except for the obvious places.
Yeah, Texas isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s a fine enough place, but I think the phrase “everything’s bigger in Texas” was coined to describe Texas’ exaggerated sense of its own magnificence.
There are several states with more firearms freedom, plenty of wide-open spaces, cities where liberal still means live-and-let-live, and better climate to boot.
I tell you one thing, in the states I’m familiar with — Washington, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah — nobody would put up with a $200+ fee just to apply for a concealed-carry license.
True that. I’m from and live in Texas and I have to clarify to friends living outside of this state that it isn’t what they think it is. They really do assume that everybody does have a pistol on their hip, we have zero gun laws, and open carry is the norm.
Constitutional carry states. No money, no registration and no one but you knows you carry just like it was meant to be.
Also people like to say “Go to Texas! No income tax!” They fail to mention higher sales taxes, higher property taxes, higher vehicle registration fees, which all add up to a higher cost of living.
I was thinking about moving out there. Now I”m not so sure.
One of them “heat to go” cloths, Ralph. I think you’d need something between the cloth and the Balzac, however.
“everything’s bigger in Texas” was coined to describe Texas’ exaggerated sense of its own magnificence.
Which was why I never stopped in Red River, NM. Wall-to-wall Texans talking about how great Texas is. In New Mexico. I mean, if it’s so great, what are they doing in New Mexico?
I am a born and raised New Mexican and I completely understand what you are saying. I rented a room once in Red River that was decorated with Texas flags, sheets, and shower curtains. Lame!!!. They love Texas so much yet when they want to vacation they come to New Mexico. Unless you really love the heat and flat land Texas blows. New Mexico is a red state and we have more gun rights than Texas! HAHA
Don’t skip over Kentucky. The CC laws are quite magnificent and reasonably cheap, Open carry is perfectly legal in all but the obvious places, and in many instances you can carry concealed without a permit (own property, car, business).
The parking lot storage law has real teeth so employers who even suggest violating your civil right to protect yourself to-and-from work are subject to real legal penalties.
You can drive to the school and pick up your kid in the parking lot without disarming for the whole trip.
The statewide pre-emption law also has teeth so the libs in Lexington and Louisville can be fined for attempting to violate their citizen’s civil rights.
Kentucky is also a reasonable day’s drive back to your former east coast home to visit your relatives. Heck, we even wear shoes these days.
Next time you see a Toyota Camry, know that it was built by Kentukians who had an employee parking lot full of hardware.
P.S. also in Kentucky, those goofy little “No Guns” sign on a private business do not carry “force of law”. I’ve pointed that out to a few naive business owners and after looking it up for themselves they realized how foolish it was and took the sign off the door. They might as well have had a sign on the door that says “No Coloreds Allowed”. The law here does not protect a business from violating a customer’s civil rights.
That’s democracy, I suppose. Hard to argue against it, as much as I or anyone else would want to.
I’m not sure if it’s democracy in any sense of the word. Sounds like a school’s administration can do whatever it wants as long as it holds a meeting about the issue.
What is the point of this law if universities can opt out? We all know that virtually all of them will.
If anything, it’s an incremental step. An episode of mass violence upon students and faculty at a college that “opted out” would almost certainly result in a new law forbidding colleges in Texas from banning concealed carry. My condolences go out in advance to the future grieving parents and children of the slain – some of whom could have survived if the gun control crowd could uncross its eyes long enough to see what’s wrong with the idea of preventing violence by “opting out” of it.
If you attend a unversity that opts out but the state law makes it legal for you to carry and in the off chance you are “detained” for carrying on campus, now you only have to worry about what the Dean passes down for punishment vice seeing how hard the DA is going to hammer down on you. I’d rather take my chances of campus PD finding out I carry against something more serious or being caught off guard and being limited to my knife and whatever shoes I decided to wear that day.
The way it works in Tennessee is that bars, retail shops, malls, etc. can post, on an individual basis, “No Guns Allowed” and the citizen must comply. That goes for pubic places too. If the library committee wants to prohibit people from bringing guns in, they can.
It’s about property rights which, are equally important as gun rights. Are they not?
Private business give up certain rights when invite people into their location. If you can’t discriminate against skin color, why should they be able to do so against someone exercising a constitutional right?
But we aren’t talking about private businesses, many colleges use tax payer money to fund at least a portion of their operation. We the tax payers should have some say in the operation of the school. If they don’t like it stop accepting the tax payer money, pay back any money the state gave them for capital projects, and pay taxes like every other business.
Perhaps using the same “baby-steps” strategy that anti’s so frequently use will get us where we need to be. Sure there will be some institutions that opt-out but after a few years of experience with the schools that don’t the TX politicians (& more of the gen pop) will then take the next step…
Sometimes it’s better to accept a hamburger rather than go hungry because it’s not filet mignon.
Texas is the most anti-gun “pro gun” state in the union. Influx of hispanics, liberals, and the home base of Neoconus Americanus. Many blue states are much more pro gun than Texas, such as Maine for Vermont. You don’t even need a permit to open carry in most states. It’s banned completely in Texas. In most states gun buster signs don’t have the force of law but they do in Texas. Even “printing” is illegal in Texas, a very freedom unfriendly state.
@ AecDuck
I know the feeling. At least HB 1304 is alive.