Bill would bar guns from state psychiatric hospitals

A 2015 measure banned facilities from posting ‘no guns’ signs.

One year after state psychiatric hospitals began letting people carry guns on their campuses, a Republican legislator is pushing a bill that reverses course.

House Bill 14, filed by state Rep. Andrew Murr, R-Junction, outlaws firearms at the state’s 10 mental health hospitals, which provide care for people with severe ill- nesses such as depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

“No one wants a gun to fall into the hands of a mentally ill patient who could pose a danger to himself or herself, fellow patients, visitors or staff,” Murr said.

For decades, the Department of State Health Services had banned guns at the psychiatric hospitals. No one — visitors, delivery people and such — could bring firearms anywhere on hospital property. Even local law enforcement officers, who were permitted to bring their weapons into the

A long-standing law prohibits firearms in statelicensed general and specialty hospitals.

facilities, regularly locked up their guns before entering Austin State Hospital out of an abundance of caution.

But in 2015, a new law created penalties for local government entities that posted “no guns” signs on public buildings without specific authority to do so. That law forced the Department of State Health Services, which runs the hospitals, to review its own policies, and officials realized that they couldn’t legally mandate gun-free campuses.

A long-standing law prohibits firearms in state-licensed general and specialty hospitals. But the prohibition doesn’t include the 10 psychiatric hospitals because they aren’t licensed by the state.

So in January 2016, the psychiatric hospitals had to start letting guns on campus.

Since then, one Terrell State Hospital guest who was openly carrying a gun was asked to leave the firearm in his vehicle, which he did, said Carrie Williams, spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees the hospitals.

Two other gun-related situations had nothing to do with the new policy of allowing guns of campus, Williams said.

In one case, a Rusk State Hospital employee — who, per hospital workplace rules, wasn’t allowed to have a firearm on campus — brought a gun on campus and left it unattended in a patient area, Williams said.

A patient found it, notified staffers and the gun was secured, she said. The employee was fired.

In a second case, a North Texas State Hospital patient sneaked through admissions with a gun hidden in her waistband, but she turned it over to the security staff without a problem, Williams said.

“Patient safety is what we care about, first and foremost,” she said. “We’ve been asking visitors to leave firearms in their cars, out of sight and away from patients, and this has gone smoothly. We’re chiefly interested in whether any situation could help or hurt a patient’s progress in treatment.”

Murr’s bill — which he says has the support of Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus — would let hospitals return to their old ways.

“Texas has historically restricted weapons in these facilities, and this bill would remedy an unintended consequence of a bill passed two years ago,” he said.

Murr said he worked on the bill with the National Rifle Association and the Texas State Rifle Association.

“In some cases, these individuals have been accused of serious and heinous crimes,” said Murr, whose district includes Kerrville State Hospital. “We should ensure that we continue to practice the policies previously used by state mental health hospitals to properly safeguard and protect their employees, visitors and patients.”