Texas' New Proposed Gun Law -- Making it Safer on the Texas Waters

All the crime along the Texas/Mexico border has been interfering with the fishing on the Texas Lakes that are located in that area. This would be Lake Fork and Lake Amistad. With this in mind, two bills have been presented to the Texas Legislature that are intended to help Texans protect their lives and their property when they are out on the water as well as when they are in the process of getting to their boat and when they are leaving their boat to get back into their tow vehicle. These two bills are HB25 and HB77 are amendments to the Texas Penal Code 46.02.

HB25, proposed by Representative Ryan Guillen (D-Rio Grande City), and HB77, proposed by Representative Dan Flynn amends subsection (a), (a-1) and adds subsection (a-3) of Texas Penal Code 46.02. Subsection (a) states that it is not illegal for someone to carry or have a "handgun, illegal knife, or club" on property that they own or they have control over. The change would come in the next line (2) which goes on to say that it is not illegal for someone to have these weapons inside a motor vehicle they own or control or to carry them to their vehicle. The proposed change would include watercraft and would read "motor vehicle or watercraft".

The next change to Texas Penal Code 46.02 would be to subsection (a-1) and states that it is illegal for someone to carry a handgun in their motor vehicle, whether they own it or are just in control of it if the handgun is out where it can easily been seen or if the person is participating in a criminal act that is not a Class C misdemeanor that involves "a violation of a law or ordinance regulating traffic". The change to this subsection would add boating so that it pertains to watercraft.

Subsection (a-3) defines "watercraft" as it is used in the Penal Code and says that it includes "any boat, motorboat, vessel, or personal watercraft." It also states that it does not include "seaplanes on water, used or capable of being used for transportation on water."

Section 2 of the proposed bills state that 46.02 will not apply to someone who is legally hunting, fishing or some other "sporting activity" on the property where they are participating in a sporting activity or if they are traveling to the property from their "residence, motor vehicle or watercraft, as long as the weapon they have is commonly used for the type of sporting activity that they are participating in.

These two bills would, in a nutshell, include the person's watercraft to be considered the same as a motor vehicle and it would make it legal for the citizen to carry a loaded firearm in the watercraft as "an extension of the citizen's right to self-defense in his own home." These two bills would also make it legal for the citizen to carry their firearm back and forth from the boat and to the boat from their tow vehicle.

At this time these bills have been referred to the Texas Criminal Jurisprudence for review, so they have only been filed, but have a lot more steps to go before they are law. Will this these changes help the citizens of Texas? That may be the real question

　

　 http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/82R/billtext/pdf/HB00025I.pdf#navpanes=0 http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/82R/billtext/pdf/HB00077I.pdf#navpanes=0