Info You Need As Permitless Carry in Texas Starts Sept 1st

Beginning on Wed, Sept 1st anyone in Texas who owns a gun legally but does not have a handgun license can carry it in public without a permit.

Texas joins 19 other states with what supporters call "constitutional carry" laws.

This new law does not change eligibility for gun ownership. Anyone who wants to own a handgun in Texas, must be at least 21 years old and can not have served a sentence for a felony or family violence within the last five years. The new law actually adds some safeguards to not being able to carry as they have expanded the list of misdemeanors to including assault causing bodily injury, deadly conduct, terroristic threat, and disorderly conduct with a firearm.

The elimination of training requirements worries some in law enforcement. In license-to-carry classes, applicants learn basic gun laws and things like conflict resolution, proper firearm storage, and they have to demonstrate basic shooting proficiency.

Douglas Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, said officers receive hundreds of hours of weapons training, and accidents still happen.

Griffith was quoted as saying..."We want our citizens be properly trained and at least know what they can and can not do with that weapon," he said. "There's certain things that you do as a citizen just by brandishing that weapon that can cause you to be charged criminally."

.To Charles Cotton, first vice president at the National Rifle Association, which lobbied for permitless carry in Texas and other states, the new law simply gives Texans a right granted by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution but said everyone who wants to carry a gun should get training.

Cotton said..."I don't want you to survive the attack on your life but not the legal aftermath," he said. "So yes, I think they should learn the law and they should learn not only how to make a gun go off but how to actually use a gun in self-defense, and those are two different things."

Texans have had the right to carry a gun in public since 1995, when then-Gov. George W. Bush signed concealed carry into law and adjustments have been made over the years since. But as of Sept. 1st anyone who can legally own a firearm can carry it in a holster in public, for the first time since Reconstruction.

For more information, click here.

There are a lot of people that have strong feelings for and against this new law. Please leave a comment as to how you feel about it.

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