Texas Passes NRA Backed Open Carry Legislation

Open Carry Suit
Texas Passes NRA Backed Open Carry Legislation
National Rifle Association
National Rifle Association

FAIRFAX, Va. –-(Ammoland.com)- The National Rifle Association claims another victory for the law-abiding gun owners of Texas with the passage of House Bill 910.

This landmark open-carry legislation, now headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk for his expected signature, will bring the total number of states recognizing the right of open-carry to 44.

“The NRA is proud to have played a leading role in the passage of Texas open carry legislation” said NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris Cox.

“The passage of this common sense law expands law abiding citizens’ right to exercise their constitutional freedoms and affirms Texans’ long tradition of supporting the Second Amendment.”

“On behalf of the NRA’s 5 million members, I want to thank bill sponsors Rep. Larry Phillips & Sen. Craig Estes for their tenacious fight to pass this important bill, as well as Senate and House leadership for getting this measure across the goal line.”

The NRA-backed legislation removes the requirement for Concealed Handgun Licensees (CHLs) to keep their handguns concealed by giving them the option of carrying their firearm either wholly or partially visible in a belt or shoulder holster.

After 20 years of of law-abiding and responsible behavior, Texas CHLs are more than capable of accepting this new level of freedom.

Passed on the final days of the 2015 Texas legislative session, HB 910 requires permit holders to be at least 21 years of age and a resident of Texas for at least six months. As of January 1, 2015, more than 800,000 Texans held concealed carry licenses.

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Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen’s group. More than five million members strong, NRA continues to uphold the Second Amendment and advocates enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the armed services. Follow the NRA on social at Facebook.com/NationalRifleAssociation and Twitter @NRA.

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harp1034

I live in Texas. Texas is not as pro gun as you might think. In order for open carry to pass the legislators had to give in this time. Half a loaf is better than none at all. We will be back for the rest of that loaf next. A little at a time.

Jim

You are exactly right. These guys mouth a lot to get elected, then start compromising immediately. Whom do you trust? The speaker of the house in Texas legislature is a dim….. what does that tell you. It’s a compromise by the repubs to give the dims a “voice”….. the dims are always complaining about not having power to stop all this stuff, so the repubs give them a questionable character to move their agends, and this so-called “open carry” is not open carry at all. They decided early that Constitutional open carry was not what they wanted and used tactics… Read more »

Rand

We don’t need a Permit/License to open carry in Kentucky, shame on Texas legislators for giving into the police demands.

TEX

I agree ! They should had held their ground on that issue and not given into police demands to ID open carry without probable cause. I really think I will continue to carry concealed most the time anyway.

CoosaTotah

Now, let me see if I have got this correctly. You must be approved by the government, have a permit from the government, to carry a handgun openly, or concealed? Even though the Second Amendment specifically protects and states the individual God given unalienable “Right” “shall not be infringed”! You can not carry a handgun AT ALL in Texas without a permit that you must pay a fee for! That is not just an infringement, that is a violation of a “Right”. What part of “God given”, “unalienable” and “shall not be infringed” is it that these people do not… Read more »

Dan from Copperas Cove

I don’t care who gets the credit concerning anything progun. I am just super pleased that the bill finally passed. Sometimes the people of the gun are their own worst enemies. We have to stand together against the Demoncrats, or we sure will lose the fight, with infighting and bickering. NRA wants the credit, fine. OCT wants the credit fine. Heck tell me your name and I will give you the credit, I personally don’t care. I support any and all progun groups, I for one remember the times where one couldn’t carry a pistol in any manner in Texas… Read more »

RE Hafner

It took an effort of ALL pro gun rights organizations to make this victory possible, people have no idea the effort expended.

RE Hafner

And the anti NRA loons blow hot air as
usual.

RICARDO RODRIGUEZ

Lets stop the grand standing, it took a lot of courage for our legislator’s to put their name on the vote and our governor to sign. Lets get out and make our cities cleaner and help the needy. We are blessed to live in our country no matter how cynical it can get at times……….

don baker

This passed despite the hysterical wailing and lies from constitution hating democrats.

175jfs

The NRA tried to sink open carry with their cute comments back in June 2014.

This was a grass roots effort by Open Carry Texas and Texas Carry. The NRA

deserves NONE OF THE CREDIT. We haven’t forgotten, and have long memories.

175jfs

The NRA tried to sink open carry with their cute comments back in June 2014. This was a grass roots effort by Open Carry Texas and Texas Carry. The NRA deserves NONE OF THE CREDIT. We haven’t forgotten, and have long memories.

mikrat

You still need a STATE Permission Slip. People don’t even know what real freedom is anymore and beg for privileges from a corporation posing as government.

“…of accepting this new level of freedom.” – LMAO!!! What freedom? Not even the holy NRA knows what its talking about. This a privilege that YOU had to wait for the GOV to tell you its OK to exercise.

Not only does the GOV not understand “Shall No Be Infringed”, but neither it seems do the people who continually spew the words.

Johnny

Relax dude! One battle at a time!

mikrat

Relax? Really? – Relaxing, being Polite and trusting the criminals in office to protect you is what has put this country in the crap hole its in. And that goes for both the Republitards and the Democraps.

How long do you want us to relax for? Another 145 years?

Bill

Texas has a reputation of being more gun friendly than other places but 12 states have no-permit carry laws and Texas isn’t one of them. It’s really surprising that we are more restrictive than 12 other states. The lawmakers should realize that criminals that carry guns are going to carry regardless of the laws. The only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. There should be more good guys with guns!

Dave from San Antonio

Well…it’s only about a century late in coming.
Another plus…it gave “Moms Demand” and the lies they tell another sound defeat. Hopefully…they will just leave Texas, for good.

TEX

The NRA likes to take credit for everything that passes as far a pro-gun legislation is concerned. The TSRA and GOA were the main players in this legislation passage. Sen.Craig Estes spearheaded this along with Lt Gov. Dan Patrick who never quit on his commitment to get open carry passed during this session. The NRA were the ones that criticized open carry advocates as strange and scary,then Cox retracted the statement because a couple thousand members cut up their membership cards and sent them back in pieces. Now,they want to take credit for this ? Unreal !

Walker

Now you want to take all the credit for the hard work of Texans. Where were you all in the past 2 sessions? Now this is suddenly a ‘nra backed bill’ after we had done all the work. All you cared about was campus carry. So you are deceiving no one but yourselves.

Walker

I want to thank all the REAL pro-gun groups for making this happen and everyone that worked from the beginning to we Texans can have this. See we can progress our 2nd amendment rights without the NRA. Congrats everyone.

Jason

If the bill was “NRA backed”, why didn’t they send any correspondence to their members asking for donations? When we don’t care what happens in another state, we really have no right to complain when anti-gun legislation shows up in our own state.

TerriLynn

I am an NRA member and a Texan, never got a single letter re: open carry or campus carry from the NRA.