HB 910 in Effect on January 1, 2016

Monday, December 21, 2015 9:52:00 AM

We have received some questions lately about HB 910. Well … the questions don’t ask specifically about HB 910. I’m guessing most out there don’t recognize HB 910 by its bill number, but the questions we are getting are about what HB 910 will allow after its January 1, 2016 effective date.

Any guesses what HB 910 is?

The caption of the bill might help, “relating to the authority of a person who is licensed to carry a handgun to openly carry a holstered handgun.” This is what is more colloquially deemed the “open carry bill” that passed during the 2015 Texas Legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Abbott on June 13, 2015. Prior to HB 910’s passage, Texas was one of six states that specifically prohibited the display of unconcealed handguns.

The law change is fairly simple. The bill basically went into every statute that previously applied to concealed handgun licenses and removed the word “concealed.” Meaning that everywhere a person previously could take their concealed handgun if they had a concealed handgun license they now can take their gun concealed or carried openly.

The questions we receive fall into two categories – employers and private property owners

Employers

The new law only changes the previous statute about employers and concealed handguns by removing the word concealed. The law remains that both public and private employers have the right to prohibit persons who are licensed to carry from carrying a handgun on the premises of the business. If your business previously had a policy on concealed handguns, you will be interested in looking at those policies to see if you deem it necessary to make any changes related to carrying handguns openly in a holster.

Private Property Owners

Property owners have the right to prohibit license holders from openly carrying a handgun just as they have the right to prohibit license holders from carrying concealed guns. The provisions of 30.06 and 30.07 of the Texas Penal Code make it a criminal trespass if a person carries a concealed gun or openly carries a gun on property where the owner has not consented and the owner has provided proper notice that entry onto the property with a concealed or holstered handgun is prohibited.

The law says that in order to prohibit a license holder from carrying a gun on the owner’s property the owner or someone with apparent authority to act for the owner must provide notice of the prohibition to the person by oral or written communication.

If written communication is used to provide notice of the prohibition to carry a concealed handgun, then the notice must be word-for-word the following:

“Pursuant to Section 30.06, Penal Code (trespass by license holder with a concealed handgun), a person licensed under Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code (handgun licensing law), may not enter this property with a concealed handgun."

A sign may be used to provide notice of the prohibition provided that the sign:

  1. Includes the language quoted above word-for-word in both English and Spanish;
  2. Appears in contrasting colors with block letters at least one inch in height; and
  3. Is displayed in a conspicuous manner clearly visible to the public.

To also prohibit license holders from carrying handguns openly, the owner of the property or someone with apparent authority to act for the owner must provide notice of the prohibition to the person by oral or written communication. If written communication is used to provide the notice the following language must be used word-for-word:

”Pursuant to Section 30.07, Penal Code (trespass by license holder with an openly carried handgun), a person licensed under Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code (handgun licensing law), may not enter this property with a handgun that is carried openly"

Similar to the concealed handgun notice, if a sign is used then it must:

  1. Include the language described above word-for-word in both English and Spanish;
  2. Appear in contrasting colors with block letters at least one inch in height; and
  3. Be displayed in a conspicuous manner clearly visible to the public at each entrance to the property.

While similar, there is a distinction in the specific language that must be used and for an open carry sign it must be visible to the public at each entrance to the property.

If a property owner wanted to prohibit both open carry and concealed handguns, they would need to display both signs with the specific language provided in statute. The notices should not be combined or merged together, they must be separate.

The current law does not provide for a statutory Spanish translation of the notice and DPS does not provide a Spanish translation. A property owner would need to provide the notice(s) in Spanish to be compliant with the law.

If the property owner chooses to prohibit concealed and/or open carry in the community manager’s office or retail office and not the entire property, then the property owner should post notices at the entrance to the offices and not at the entrance to the entire property.

For more on this issue, visit the DPS webpage. 

General Concealed Handgun now Open Carry Provisions

The existing provisions related to conceal handguns still apply. After January 1, 2016 those same provisions will also apply to license holders choosing to carry their handgun openly in a holster. Generally, persons with a license cannot carry, after January 1, either concealed or in a holster, their handgun in the following places:

  1. A liquor store or bar – the law lists places licensed under specific sections of the Alcoholic Beverage Code, but basically is any place that derives more than 51 percent of its income from the sale or service of alcoholic beverages;
  2. a high school, collegiate, or professional sporting event or interscholastic event;
  3. a correctional facility;
  4. a hospital*;
  5. a nursing facility*;
  6. an amusement park;
  7. a church, synagogue, or other established place of religious worship*;
  8. when the license holder is intoxicated;
  9. at any meeting of a governmental entity;*
  10. a school or educational institution, any grounds or building on which an activity sponsored by a school or educational institution is being conducted, or a passenger transportation vehicle of a school or educational institution, whether the school or educational institution is public or private, unless pursuant to written regulations or written authorization of the institution+;
  11. a polling place on the day of an election or while early voting is in progress;
  12. any government court or offices utilized by the court, unless pursuant to written regulations or written authorization of the court;
  13. a racetrack;
  14. a secured area of an airport; or
  15. within 1,000 feet of premises the location of which is designated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a place of execution on a day that a sentence of death is set to be imposed and the person received notice that: (A) going within 1,000 feet of the premises with a weapon listed under this subsection was prohibited; or (B) possessing a weapon listed under this subsection within 1,000 feet of the premises was prohibited.

+There are additional changes coming in August of 2016 dealing with schools and higher education, commonly called “campus carry” but those are beyond the scope of this article.

*A prohibition to carry on these premises is only allowed if a person was given effective notice by the owner of the property or someone with apparent authority to act for the owner provides oral or written communication of the prohibition.

Properly licensed persons after January 1 will always be allowed to carry their handgun concealed or openly on property owned or leased by a governmental entity so long as the premises are not one of the specifically prohibited government owned premises (see above).
For additional information or questions, contact the TMHA office.