Any handgun law specialists here?

[whitetailtrail]

Thanks for all the info guys, I should have made it clear it won't be on my body or loaded when it's in my Jeep. Won't take it out of the case until I'm getting ready to walk to my stand from the Jeep.


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Perfectly legal for you to have it loaded, one in the chamber and concealed in your vehicle at 18 traveling wherever you go. Grocery store, gas station, lease, girlfriends house, etc., all legal.

[Hammerdown15]

https://forum.texaslawshield.com/index.php?topic=2044.0

Texas Law Shield says you're good. You are just as entitled to carry a gun as someone over 21. I often thought you couldn't "possess" a handgun under 21 but after reading about it, I was wrong.


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[whitetailtrail]

https://forum.texaslawshield.com/index.php?topic=2044.0

Texas Law Shield says you're good. You are just as entitled to carry a gun as someone over 21. I often thought you couldn't "possess" a handgun under 21 but after reading about it, I was wrong.


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Hell, he can buy one in a private sale from an individual on here if he would like.

[TacticalCowboy]

TVC nailed it, several times. As did Justin

[Mike D]

An unloaded handgun that is in a secured location is just as illegal as one that is fully loaded and ready to go.



Translation: There is only one loaded firearm law in TX (and it isn't strictly handguns) and that is with criminal negligence, allows a child to have access to a "readily dischargeable" firearm......with a child being 16 or under. Even then there are defenses to the law.



Otherwise, loaded or unloaded are the same. If a person is breaking the UCW law, it doesn't matter if the handgun is loaded or if there is ammo in the glove box and the gun on the seat. The gun is what is illegal, not the ammo. Other states have different laws on loaded, being locked away, etc.



An open view (not in a holster under an LTC) handgun is a crime in a vehicle whether loaded or not. A handgun not in plain view is legal whether loaded or not. Again, the location and weapon are the illegal factors, not the ammo.

Listen to this guy he has it right.

That other guy doesn't have a clue!


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[Mike D]

An open view (not in a holster under an LTC) handgun is a crime in a vehicle whether loaded or not. A handgun not in plain view is legal whether loaded or not. Again, the location and weapon are the illegal factors, not the ammo.

Can you quote the law on this part? Not refuting it I would just like to see it in black in white.[/QUOTE]



You can't quote something that doesn't exist.


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[Mike D]

Any handgun law specialists here?

Last thing, call the AGs office. I didn't hear this from them I know this, this is part of what I do for a living. I'm guessing you don't deal with this. He can't have it on his body, it must be hidden from view, and read TVCs post do whatever you need to do to be happy, I'm not going to go waste my time digging to make you happy, I know he can't have it unless it is hidden from view and as far as unloaded that was my advice to make his traffic stop easier. Again, he is using it at the ranch why does he need it loaded on his body? Excersising his second amendment? If that's what your upset about go make a YouTube video and look it up. I'm done talking about it

You said concealed and secured, now you're crawfishing and saying not on his body. The law states concealed from plain view. That can be as easy as sitting in the seat covered by a towel, shirt , book whatever. As long as it's concealed from plain view it is legal as long as you aren't in the commission of a crime above a class c misdemeanor, part of a known gang, convicted felon or otherwise prohibited, etc...


OP listen to TVC. His answer is dead on correct.

The guy I am quoting; the fact that he says he "does this for a living" and is spouting incorrect information is worrisome.

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[mastercraftka]

Still no links to the actual laws!

[Mike D]

Still no links to the actual laws!

There are the laws posted multiple times in the thread.

All you need is the statute number and your best friend Google.


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[JustinJ]

Still no links to the actual laws!

I've literally posted the law multiple times. If you have a law that prove your point please post it. I can't post as law that make something legal because as TVC said, laws make things illegal, not legal.

[JustinJ]

You said concealed and secured, now you're crawfishing and saying not on his body. The law states concealed from plain view. That can be as easy as sitting in the seat covered by a towel, shirt , book whatever. As long as it's concealed from plain view it is legal as long as you aren't in the commission of a crime above a class c misdemeanor, part of a known gang, convicted felon or otherwise prohibited, etc...


OP listen to TVC. His answer is dead on correct.

The guy I am quoting; the fact that he says he "does this for a living" and is spouting incorrect information is worrisome.

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Agreed

[JustinJ]

Here's a link the the law if you'd like to read it yourself, but I copied and pasted the law as it is written .

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.u.../htm/PE.46.htm

[Archivaldo]

This is an almost insanely long read but anyway.....

A guy asked me a few days ago on another website in a private message about having a handgun in a vehicle, if it mattered if it was loaded and if it was legal under the "Castle Doctrine" because your car is an extension of your home (not again....). A friend had told him that he had to be traveling and not magazine in the handguns, etc.

This was my long winded answer for your amusement or if you feel like tearing it apart. I am reprinting it with the permission of the author... me.

********

The "extension of home" is not actually wrong but is mostly unfounded in law. It is that "castle doctrine" concept that people like to say but has little basis other than the "concept". What that means is technically you can call it anything you wish however there are no words in TX law that back it up. A man's home is his castle is the meaning of castle doctrine. That is actually (or likely) from a speech in front of the British Parliament in the mid 1700's by William Pitt. He said something like no matter how ragged, no matter how much the wind blows through it, now matter how much the roof leaks... none of the King's men have the right to cross your threshold. That led to (in my opinion) the saying that no matter how humble, a man's home is "his" castle just as if he was the king. There is no "extension" to your car in the law but people simply love to spit that out.

So much for the history lesson.....

Now to factual TX law... and maybe a little more history. For around 100 years, TX law has said that you cannot have a handgun in public. There were exemptions (defenses) written into the law such as it was okay if you were "traveling". The only problem is that traveling was never defined in the law (and still is not today) which is strange because there are dozens of definitions in the Penal Code. A few years after TX got concealed carry by license signed by Governor George Bush, the legislature wanted to extend it to vehicle even without a CHL. They came up with the legal term that you were "presumed" (which is defined) to be traveling if you were simply in your car. If you drove one block, you were "traveling". That is lawyers for you instead of simply defining traveling, they put a presumption of traveling.

In that law (I believe around 2001) it said to be legal to carry in your vehicle (under presumption of traveling), you had to be committing no crime other than a misdemeanor traffic citation like speeding, the gun was concealed, you had the right to have a gun (not a convicted felon) and you were not in a criminal street gang (blood, crips, Latin Kings, etc.). That seemed good enough and now people could carry in their vehicle as long as it was concealed and they were not committing another crime such as in possession of marijuana, DWI, etc. But.... the Harris County DA and others didn't like the law... so they in my opinion they tried to break the law by simply telling cops not to go by it and still arrest people. How could he get away with that? By saying that while he had to comply with state law on prosecutions/trials, he said that he needed to determine if you were a Blood or a Crip. That means, arrest everyone, inconvenience the heck out of them, tow their vehicle and if the next day he determined that the person was not a Blood or Crip, he would simply let them go as not being gang members and drop the charges. Meanwhile, you went to the county jail, your car was towed at a great expense, you were horribly inconvenienced and now you have an arrest record... but he didn't prosecute. None or maybe very few cops backed him up on it but the state legislators were probably appalled at the obvious attempt to get around state law.

So..... they acted fairly quickly in a future legislative session.

They changed the law which is what they should have written in the first place. The law now says (and this finally answers your question) matter-of-factly, you can have your handgun lawfully in two places. Those two places are in your vehicle and in your home. NOW..... the prohibitions of it in your car still carry the has to be concealed, still can't be a gang member and still can't be committing a crime other than a minor traffic citation. The biggest change was that now it was simply legal in your car without having to prove "traveling". For a lawful arrest, in my opinion the police need to show that you are a gang member or committing another crime or it wasn't concealed. The "traveling" part was simply removed from that part of the law (but not another) and the law says your home or your car are legal under UCW 46.02.

I believe that is where some people came up with the "This is an extension of your home" concept. In fact it is not an extension. It is was an extension, how come it has to be concealed? It doesn't in your home. Even in your home if you possessed marijuana, you aren't Unlawfully Carrying a Weapon as you would be if you were in your car. Even a member of a criminal street gang can have a gun in his home but now his car. Where then is the "extension"? If a vehicle is an extension of your home, why a different set of rules for the vehicle?

Think I have a pet peeve with the terms "castle doctrine" and "extension of your home"??

So for the legal and short answer I believe you are looking for........

In your car is legal (for the owner or operator.. NOT a passenger unless with a license to carry) with absolutely no other permit required for the average person meaning if you're not a gang member, you aren't a convicted felon, you aren't committing another crime. The average person can can carry a concealed the handgun in a vehicle. That's it.

Of course if your buddy is in your car with a handgun under the seat and a cop stops you and somehow lawfully looks under the seat to find it (like with your consent or you tell him its there is he questions you), you can simply claim the gun is yours.

Also note... a knife over 5.5" is illegal to carry in the public under UCW 46.02. Also a dagger which generally is a double edged knife or one that is pointed and designed for the purpose of stabbing people, etc., and also illegal is a "club". Those are not illegal to own (unlike Prohibited Weapons PC 46.05) but they are illegal to carry in the public. The illegal knife and the club are also legal in a car just as your home (the law lists handgun, illegal knife and club all as illegally "carried" weapons... they are all equal under the UCW law). That means legal to own but not have in public unless they are used in a common pursuit such as a butcher knife at a cookout, a fillet knife while fishing, a Bowie knife while hunting, etc. The reason I bring them up is that in a car, they are legal but do not have to be concealed and they do not become illegal if committing another crime as is the law for a handgun. Only the handgun has to be concealed so they are all in the same category but the handgun has those special exceptions of requiring it to be hidden and no other crime being committed.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot this part. TX basically has no laws on how the handgun is carried. Magazine in a pistol, one in the chamber, revolver loaded? It doesn't matter. In fact an openly carried and completely empty handgun is illegal in your car but a concealed and fulled loaded, ready to rock and roll Glock with 17 rounds is legal. The loaded and unloaded part (often misstated by "knowledgeable" at the gun counter) is not true. The only TX law on whether a gun is loaded is making a "readily dischargeable" firearms accessible to a child which is someone 16 or under. That law is that you can't leave a loaded firearm (rifle, shotgun or handgun) within access of a child that you are not supervising. Nothing else mentions loaded or unloaded in the Penal Code.

So... to make it short again, a concealed handgun in a vehicle is legal for the owner or person that is operating it (such as you loan it to your nephew) if you aren't committing crimes other than speeding, running a red light, etc.

Whew.........

PS: A rifle or shotgun are legal whether concealed or not. There is nothing that says they are legal, the law on Unlawful Carrying Weapons simply doesn't mention them. A lot of people often ask to show them where something is legal and typically the answer is, laws tell you what is illegal, not what is legal. I can't find any law that says it is legal to wear blue jeans and green sneakers but it is legal (but maybe shouldn't be.....).

I just hope you have plenty time to read all this valuable information...
Good info but man... Time is money...

[TacticalCowboy]

I just hope you have plenty time to read all this valuable information...
Good info but man... Time is money...

You've got plenty of time if you're just goofing around on TBH.

[mastercraftka]

I've literally posted the law multiple times. If you have a law that prove your point please post it. I can't post as law that make something legal because as TVC said, laws make things illegal, not legal.

Your right laws tell you what you can't do not what you can do! Just too many people here posting it is like their opinion and not fact. Seeing the code is more helpful. So if the law doesn't say specifically what you can't do then it is legal. But that doesn't mean a person can be more restrictive of themselves.

There is the law and there is the way cops (which are good people my best friend is one) interpret the law.

Ya think the long read on some of these posts are a bit laborious. I do hope the OP got the info in all this somewhere.