Texas House deals blow to open carry
Amendment is rejected, but open carry still likely to pass
Legislators refuse to OK a provision to bar police from questioning someone for toting a handgun.
AUSTIN — The Texas House dealt a blow to open carry Wednesday, refusing to sign off on a controversial provision that would bar police officers from detaining or questioning someone solely for visibly toting a handgun.
Lawmakers acknowledged that while it landed, the blow was glancing at best. “I have no doubt that at the end of the day there will be an open carry bill passed in the 84th session,” said bill sponsor Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman.
In the waning days of the session, lawmakers will have to hash out a compromise not just on open carry of handguns. The House and Senate are even further apart on a bill to allow concealed handguns on college campuses, and must find agreement before the session ends Monday or the bill dies.
Phillips added he supported the bill regardless of whether it included the so-called “no stop” amendment added in the Senate by Dallas Republican Don Huffines.
“It’ll pass with the language in there, without the language in there,” Phillips said.
The House had the chance Wednesday to give the open carry of handguns measure, House Bill 910, final approval and send it to the desk of Gov. Greg Abbott, who has pledged to sign it into law. Instead, the lower chamber voted 63-79 to disagree with the Huffines amend--
ment, sending the bill to a conference committee.
Should the committee fail to come to agreement, the bill would come back to the House for a second attempt to get the membership to concur with the Senate version.
Rep. Poncho Nevarez, the only Democrat of the House’s conferees, said he thinks there’s little he and other open carry opponents can do because the bill itself enjoys universal support among Republicans. If the 10-member conference committee fails to come to an agreement, he said, the House will accept the Huffines amendment.
“I wish it was a death knell, but I know differently,” said Nevarez, D-Eagle Pass.
House Bill 910 would allow those with concealed carry licenses to openly tote their handguns in a shoulder or hip holster. Texas, one of six states with an outright open carry ban, already allows gun owners to openly carry their long arms like rifles and shotguns without any licensing requirements.
Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, who proposed the amendment in the House, said the “no-stop” provision was necessary to deter police officers from profiling those who open carry based on race. “If we’re going to have (open carry), I’m going to make sure it applies to the people I represent and the people who look like me the same as it does to everybody,” said Dutton, who is black.
Police organizations, however, rejoiced at the prospect that the amendment could be stripped from the bill. Holding a news conference earlier Wednesday, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the amendment “basically handcuffs law enforcement” and puts officers and the community at risk.
Kevin Lawrence, executive director of the Texas Municipal Police Association, called it “a game changer.”
Also Wednesday, the state House gave final approval to Senate Bill 11, which would expand where concealed handgun license holders can bring their weapons on college campuses to include nearly all buildings and dormitories on both public and private schools.
The lower chamber passed such a watereddown version of the original bill that it is unlikely the Senate will agree with its changes, triggering yet another conference committee. Unlike open carry, however, opponents of campus carry think they have a chance of killing the bill this session.
“The House bill and the Senate bill are miles apart. And there are only a few days remaining to bring a conference committee together and work out differences,” said Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie. “When you have differences that substantial, to me anyway, it’s not clear that we’ll be able to overcome those differences.”
The House version of Senate Bill 11 differs from the upper chamber’s in two important ways: it would require not just public but also private institutions of higher education to implement the legislation and also allows boards of re- gents to create gun-free zones on their campuses.
Bill sponsor Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, opposed attempts to include such amendments to his legislation when it was debated in the Senate.
The mandate that private universities also implement campus carry could be especially problematic for Senate Republicans, who argue self-defense is a “God-given” right but that it cannot interfere with private property rights.
Four private Texas universities — Baylor, Southern Methodist, St. Mary’s and Trinity — told the Chronicle on Friday they continue to support their right to ban guns on their campuses.
“We have said all along that we do not support, in general, the presence of guns on our campus,” said Baylor spokesperson Lori Fogleman. “Aside from that, it would be premature for us to comment while our elected officials continue their discussions on this issue.”