Alphecca

I wish NYC would have a minor civil rights victory.

As a Texan, I applaud the Harris County Attorney. As an American, I'd like this phrase, "you have to point out the law to the lawmakers." to be applicable to all 535 members of the United States Congress.

Great post.

Unfortunately the Harris County sheriff and DA have both stated that they will continue to arrest those traveling through their jurisdiction with firearms in their vehicles. Texas state law prohibits them from doing so and has specifically addressed the issue to state that when traveling a firearm carried in the vehicle is legal no level of government may interfere or levy penalties for such.

Harris county basically said "Fuck you, we are going to continue to arrest and confiscate." All this after they were made fully aware of the law.

"Unfortunately the Harris County sheriff and DA have both stated that they will continue to arrest those traveling through their jurisdiction with firearms in their vehicles."

Then the State Police need to arrest them and prosecute them for violating the Law. I have always maintained that these people need the full weight of the law brought to bear on them when they overstep their bounds and authority.

Trader

My city (in Alabama) tried that stunt a few years ago. The mostly-Democratic council tried to ban handguns on "city property". I remember people asking "does that include streets and sidewalks as well?" It wasn't until AG Bill Pryor slapped them on the hand, and informed them they couldn't pass an ordinance that circumvented state law, that they gave up on the notion.

Straightarrow,

Unfortunately, the law on car carry (of handguns) isn't as clear-cut as it should be. Not that the Mr Rosenthal (Harris County DA) isn't being an ass with his take on things, given the *intent* of the legislature, but they left too much wiggle room for the anti-gunners.

The problem is that instead of standing up and clearly declaring that car carry is OK like many other states do, they came in sideways by creating a sort-of definition for "traveling." Texas law states that it's an offense to carry a handgun "on or about" your person with certain exceptions. One of those was while "traveling." Unfortunately, the law never defined the meaning of traveling, so it was up to each judge to determine if the person was traveling or not in each case. There was some case law on the topic and a lot of disinformation floating around among gun owners (i.e. some people would declare categorically that certain things would constitute traveling).

Anyway, the recent change to the law stated that you were "presumed" to be traveling if you met a set of criteria that were spelled out. This is a nasty little loophole that lets people like the Harris County DA drive right through it and harass law-abiding gun owners. Since it didn't state that it was a direct exemption to the prohibition against carrying a handgun, you could potentially still be arrested and have to go to court. I don't see how they could get a conviction, but you'd still have to go through the ordeal of the trial (and the expense). Ultimately, that would serve as a huge deterrent to people who would otherwise take advantage of the new law.

Also, with regards to parks, it's interesting that the law specifically forbids *cities* from posting parks off-limits to CHL-holders (Local Government Code, Section 229.001). It doesn't make such an explicit prohibition against county governments, but I'd argue that Local Government Code, Section 235.043, would disallow the county from posting its parks:

This subchapter does not authorize the commissioners court to regulate the transfer, ownership, possession, or transportation of firearms and does not authorize the court to require the registration of firearms.

The article in the post noted that governments are prevented from banning concealed carry unless the state has already prohibited it. After the concealed carry law was passed in 1995, it didn't take long for the local governments to start looking for ways to circumvent the concealed carry law. They got an opinion from the state AG that they could post government property as off limits under section 30.06 of the penal code (given that they were considered to be the "owners" of the property). It required a legislative fix to undo this damage, so in 2003 the law was changed (30.06(e) was added) to make it explicit that local governments could not post public buildings against concealed carry.

Since Mr. Rosenthal is on record with his statements it should be fairly simple for someone he's attacked to go after him on Federal Civil Rights charges.

Not that I have any intention of being the test case on this, of course, but if pushed I will push back.

My comment Mr.Turner, was in respect to Harris county's position after the state legislature made a clarification. However, I find no comfort in having to define what is is. The definition of traveling is pretty simple unless you are stationary.

We have an ex-president who lost his license to practice law over this very issue. The same fate would be appropriate for the Harris County DA.