85 replies to this topic

[Arcqueid]

There is no open carry in Texas. Say for the law enforcement people and long guns, but most cities have laws against that as well. Also the other questions you had. You must qualify with your weapon at three ranges. I think it was 3 meters 9 and 15 I believe. I don't need a CHL so that part isn't clear. Also all the documentation is filled out there. If any thing else is needed you can get further information from the gun club. Most classes are an eight hour class. you must learn the rules of the CHL. like your not a cop you can't use the firearm for any thing other than self deffence and so on. Texas has very strict vedulanty laws. Texas is one of the few states with out cittizains arrest. Also where hand how you can carry. How to store the weapon and basic safety of fire arms. The gun club will probably ask that you take advanced classes aswell. I whould at least take basic close quaters combat training so you have some idea of what and how threats are handled with in 9 meters. lets face it any thing futher than that you should make an effort to evade or avoid. If I mispelled or said some thing not correct please feel free to correct me. Also there is a web site for the CHL. It has lots of good info.https://txapps.texas.gov/txapp/txdps/chl/. It has a pdf with every thing you need to know. Cheers

[SakuranoSenshi]

Arcqueid, on 23 August 2012 - 01:00 AM, said:

There is no open carry in Texas. Say for the law enforcement people and long guns, but most cities have laws against that as well.

I think you mean 'save for' (I am sure it's a typo) and that's right but you're wrong on the cities with laws against anything else, it is pre-empted at the state level. You can walk around with your long guns and you cannot be hassled for it unless you make a nuisance of yourself. In practice you're going to get a lot of attention if you stroll around HEB with a lever-action over your shoulder while making the milk run but you're perfectly legal to do so (though HEB can also, perfectly legally, ask you to get the hell out of their store). Cities, towns and so on can pass laws about discharge of firearms, however, so it's illegal (excepting self-defence which cannot be interfered with in this way) to discharge a firearm in San Antonio city limits, as a private citizen unless otherwise permitted (such as at a range).

I had no question about the qualification as such, since the ranges are spelt out, unless you have any firsthand experience of doing it you want to share? I have trouble visualizing distances but they sound easy enough for me (I'm quite a decent pistol shot but a much more disappointing rifle shot). I can teach the close quarters and martial arts stuff, though I am rusty so I wouldn't dare nowadays, in reality :-P

I've been all over the DPS site but for whatever reason, even though I must have read it, I didn't get the order straight in my head until someone spelt it out above and then it clicked. So, later this morning I shall be calling my range and checking dates for late September - anniversary of my arrival, you see. Plan is for my wife and I to take the class together; she has changed position from being slightly scared of firearms and nervous at the idea of me buying a pistol to talking about what gun she should buy for her concealed carry.

Thanks for your time!

P.S. You're wrong about the "citizen's arrest thing" though I suspect I know why. Any citizen can make an arrest of someone committing a felony or an offence against the peace. However, most crimes are not felonies or technically 'offences against the peace' and you especially cannot attempt to arrest someone (without possibly facing charges yourself) for things like trespass or minor theft (shoplifting).

[DocBach]

I know you've already got a glock 20, but I'd definitely recommend the 26 if you are going to be carrying concealed. Much easier to conceal for one, and for two the 9mm is cheaper and you can carry a whole lot more rounds. Don't get into the mindset of stopping power - in my experience the winner of a gunfight is the person who brings more bullets. Almost every Iraqi that decided at shooting at my gun truck was a good idea quickly changed their minds after their 30 rounds of ammunition was expended and my 240B was still going.

[SakuranoSenshi]

Bigger bullet is better, all things being equal but more bullets is better still. 10 mm Auto is a nice compromise (more rounds than .45 ACP in the same space) with an awful lot of momentum (I have rounds with a 230 grain bullet that leave my barrel at ~1300 fps, it's 940 to 950 for 230 grain .45 ACP) which means great penetration. Shot placement is critical; you don't damage what you didn't hit and people don't magically stop because you shot them (if determined) they stop because you destroyed critical life-sustaining tissues, whether blood vessels or central nervous system.

I shoot 9 mm often but I can easily handle the 10 mm, so that's my preferred round. In a concealable package I may yet go for any of the various 9 mm / .45 ACP compacts or even the Glock 29 (to stay with 10 mm) however, the 26 is too small a grip and Glock pistols in general, other than the 20/21 are too small a grip for me without messing with aftermarket grips.

[MegaMasher]

Welcome to the community, in this case, the armed community. While these links are not perfect or exhaustive, they are decent for laws and do/don'ts.

http://opencarry.org/maps.html

http://handgunlaw.us/

[DocBach]

I don't have the technical data for the Glock 29 in front of me but I believe its the same size as the 26, with the same magazine capacity of 10. They do make magazine extensions for both of them that let you fit your pinky on the grip as well if you don't like the feel of a subcompact pistol.

[SakuranoSenshi]

DocBach, on 23 August 2012 - 12:17 PM, said:

I don't have the technical data for the Glock 29 in front of me but I believe its the same size as the 26, with the same magazine capacity of 10. They do make magazine extensions for both of them that let you fit your pinky on the grip as well if you don't like the feel of a subcompact pistol.

Wider grip, necessitated by the larger cartridge but otherwise quite similar, in other words, it is to the 26 (and similar) what the 20 is to the 17. There lies the root of my issue with Glocks chambered for smaller cartridges. The shortness of grip is easily altered with magazine bases.

MegaMasher, on 23 August 2012 - 12:00 PM, said:

Welcome to the community, in this case, the armed community. While these links are not perfect or exhaustive, they are decent for laws and do/don'ts.

http://opencarry.org/maps.html

http://handgunlaw.us/

Thanks, already familiar. I'm a big advocate of Open Carry, whenever I get the opportunity to discuss firearms and laws about them, without shoehorning it into conversation for no good reason. Appreciate you taking to the time to let me know, all the same. :-)

[Arcqueid]

The felnoy and the disturbing the peace thing is fedral I think. You left out the part about witnessing the crime but, yeah. I know for sure that open carry of a long rifles in the city where I live in will have you in trouble. In fact most people don't notice the signs for the ordance of not displaing fire arms of any kind. I in fact live the next city over from Hurst. I only stated the things the way that I did due to the fact that the law is not the way things really are. Also don't for get that texas has the Castle law. It states that you car is infact a part of your home. There for you can have a firearm in your car. Really leaves some lattitude for you. I every thing goes well for you. Remeber an armed Texas is a polite Texas.

[MegaMasher]

Arcqueid, on 25 August 2012 - 03:07 AM, said:

1. The felnoy and the disturbing the peace thing is fedral I think.

2. In fact most people don't notice the signs for the ordance of not displaing fire arms of any kind.

3. I only stated the things the way that I did due to the fact that the law is not the way things really are. Also don't for get that texas has the Castle law. It states that you car is infact a part of your home. There for you can have a firearm in your car. Really leaves some lattitude for you.

I changed the format of your post for easier responses.

1. Completely wrong.
2. Texas posting laws are quite specific, I encourage reading them, and knowing how important posting is. Improper posting may as well not be posted.
3. While the law may not be followed strictly, you should still know it. Some DAs/cops will enforce it strictly, and you need to know what is legal unless you want to deal with anti-gun government agents, and even in Texas, they do exist. The only "lattitude" regarding the laws is really what you think won't be enforced.

I repeat again, read and KNOW your state laws. Regarding the minutiae of carrying a firearm ALL the laws are state level. The Federal laws regarding firearm possession regard either Federal property, or schools (and no, carry on schools is NOT always banned per Fed law).

Edited by MegaMasher, 25 August 2012 - 09:16 AM.

[DragonsFire24SS]

I have friends that carry pistols in their vehicles without chl. having a pistol in your car is legal since it is your property, now if you take that pistol and hold it on you without a chl now that is a whole different story. What side of town do you live on? There are tons of gun ranges that have CHL classes.

[SakuranoSenshi]

Arcqueid, on 25 August 2012 - 03:07 AM, said:

The felnoy and the disturbing the peace thing is fedral I think. You left out the part about witnessing the crime but, yeah. I know for sure that open carry of a long rifles in the city where I live in will have you in trouble. In fact most people don't notice the signs for the ordance of not displaing fire arms of any kind. I in fact live the next city over from Hurst. I only stated the things the way that I did due to the fact that the law is not the way things really are. Also don't for get that texas has the Castle law. It states that you car is infact a part of your home. There for you can have a firearm in your car. Really leaves some lattitude for you. I every thing goes well for you. Remeber an armed Texas is a polite Texas.

No, it's Texas law I quoted near enough directly from the statute. Federal laws don't touch policing, on the whole, as that is a matter for the states and is why you can end up with stand-offs, where state or city police won't enforce a Federal law they don't agree with and the Federal govt sends (Federal) agents to try and enforce it, who then meet with non-cooperation at the local level (or even obstruction); this has all happened in the past (and not that distantly, either). Anyway, you can indeed perform a citizen's arrest in Texas in accordance with the provisos I stated, in fact only North Carolina technically lacks it and it's still a technicality there, in effect you can it's just not technically "citizen's arrest".

Where you live you may well get hassled, I cannot speak to that, except to tell you that so long as you break no law, if you're hassled by law enforcement for carrying your rifle, you will have a nice, expensive, open-and-shut case against them, quite possibly for wrongful arrest if they go that far but at the least for harassment and abuse of police powers. You can carry your long-guns around as you see fit, in so far as you do not behave in a threatening manner or do anything that might reasonably alarm someone who witnessed you (don't wave the gun around, don't start shouting while holding the firearm in anything approximating a shooting positiong, etc - common sense, really). The State of Texas fully pre-empts firearms laws (excepting discharge, which has been held to be something they can, indeed, regulate), your city cannot regulate the ownership, carry or wearing of arms, which this is.

The so called "Castle Doctrine" doesn't actually do that. The law is not called that, either, I forget what it was actually called but "Castle Doctrine" is the type of thinking that underpins it and which it exmplifies, what it means is that you are never obliged to retreat from any place you may lawfully be and that you may use lethal force to defend yourself or others and your own property, if you have a reasonable belief that you're (or another is) in danger of assault by the person you shoot at. You can keep a pistol in your vehicle purely because you were always allowed to be armed while travelling but the various cases brought about it were such a mess and the legislature so annoyed that Texans were being brought to court at all for having a firearm with them when travelling because it was so poorly defined, that they wrote a very explicit law; it gives any person in Texas (who is not otherwise barred from owning a firearm - prohibited person) the right to have a handgun in their vehicle, so long as it is concealed, under the presumption that they are travelling. It also explicitly protects the right of such a person to move the handgun to and from their vehicle to and from any other place where they may lawfully posess it and explicitly states that car parking areas are not premises for the purpose of laws that prohibit posession in certain locations (such as 30.06 posted businesses, schools, 51% bars, etc).

DragonsFire24SS, on 25 August 2012 - 09:40 AM, said:

I have friends that carry pistols in their vehicles without chl. having a pistol in your car is legal since it is your property, now if you take that pistol and hold it on you without a chl now that is a whole different story. What side of town do you live on? There are tons of gun ranges that have CHL classes.

If you were asking me, I'm in the NE part of town, off Thousand Oaks. I already have a range, though, thanks - because I was living in La Vernia for a while (with parents-in-law) my range is actually way down south; A Place to Shoot. :-)

P.S. Aye, I already always have my pistol in my car, pretty much. The last time I didn't was because the car was going in for some repairs (wife, don't ask) and I didn't want to alarm anyone by taking a pistol out of the glove box and putting in the glove box of the courtesy car in the middle of a busy location. I just put it in that car the next time I went out, though (and I take it out every time I get home, etc).

Edited by SakuranoSenshi, 25 August 2012 - 04:57 PM.

[SakuranoSenshi]

So, for those who followed this (thanks again, by the way), yesterday (technically, since it's now early morning sunday) my wife and I took the day-long CHL class and after many hours in the classroom, we shot our course of fire and passed the shooting the requirement for the CHL, then went inside and aced the written test. We're not sorting out the sending of paperwork to the DPS and in a month and a half or so, according to current estimates, we should have our CHLs.

:-)

[Strattus]

Should have just moved to Alaska!!! Open Carry!

On a more serious note.... You moved to the US just for Beta of Mechwarrior Online?

[SakuranoSenshi]

Strattus, on 15 September 2012 - 10:02 PM, said:

Should have just moved to Alaska!!! Open Carry!

On a more serious note.... You moved to the US just for Beta of Mechwarrior Online?

Okay, you were not serious but... there is no good reason to move to Alaska. Ever. :-)

No, I moved the USA before there was a beta (I think), I have been here a year (you need to be resident in a state for 90 days before you can even buy a firearm, even if you're a US citizen).

[MegaMasher]

SakuranoSenshi, on 15 September 2012 - 10:19 PM, said:

(you need to be resident in a state for 90 days before you can even buy a firearm, even if you're a US citizen).

Source? There are no federal laws with such a restriction. I am unaware of any states with such a mandate (though it is possible a few may have such a requirement).

Regarding federal laws, form 4473 is what must be filled out by a potential buyer.
http://www.atf.gov/forms/firearms/

Take note of question 13, the residence question and the instructions. A resident does NOT need 90 days. In fact, the directions call you a resident if you reside with the intention of making a home in that state.

Edited by MegaMasher, 16 September 2012 - 10:59 AM.

[BellatorMonk]

Texas CHL process is expensive ($140) and requires a 10 hour class that includes qualifying with a handgun at range.

http://www.txdps.sta...d/chl/index.htm

Here is the best part. Virginia has a Non-Resident CHL process that allows you to qualify for a permit with a longer list of possible items that qualify you instead of the Texas mandatory 10 hours of training. The fee is $100.

Most states of a reciprocity agreement with other states. Meaning if you have a CHL from Virginia you can carry in Texas for example and only have to be holding that Virginia Permit.

http://www.vsp.state...tConcealed.shtm

[MegaMasher]

BellatorMonk, on 16 September 2012 - 11:11 AM, said:

Here is the best part. Virginia has a Non-Resident CHL process that allows you to qualify for a permit with a longer list of possible items that qualify you instead of the Texas mandatory 10 hours of training. The fee is $100.

Most states of a reciprocity agreement with other states. Meaning if you have a CHL from Virginia you can carry in Texas for example and only have to be holding that Virginia Permit.

Keep in mind that most states require residents of their own state to use a license provided by that state. (Example, a Tennessee resident may not carry in Tennessee with a Virginia permit). Also, a growing minority of states are requiring persons to be a resident of that state to use that states permit, meaning a Texan with a Virginia permit still cannot legally carry in Florida.

[BellatorMonk]

Correct. This is why you would need to confirm your State's reciprocity laws.

[MegaMasher]

BellatorMonk, on 16 September 2012 - 02:44 PM, said:

Correct. This is why you would need to confirm your State's reciprocity laws.

Reciprocity is entirely irrelevent to what I am talking about. Tennessee recognizes ALL other carry permits, period. As a resident of TN it is illegal for me to carry using any license but a TN license. Most states are the same. Everyone needs to read and know your own states laws.

Edited by MegaMasher, 16 September 2012 - 05:00 PM.

[BellatorMonk]

It is to the discussion of Texas CHL.

http://www.txdps.sta...iaagreement.pdf