House Bill 1911 was approved by a house committee last week and will now head to the full Texas legislature. In a recent blog post I discussed my disapproval for HB 375 that would allow permit-less carry and extend it to 18 year olds; even on college campuses. Bill 1911 is very similar and would have allowed 18 year olds to carry arms without a license but doesn't interfere with the campus carry law passed back in 2015.
That was the main gist of the original bill that I would have opposed, but the modified bill that was approved by The House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee has different terms. Although the goal of permit-less carry remains in the bill, the age is raised to 21 and added regulations and restrictions are included. I feel that this is a good common ground between the opposing sides on this matter, especially regarding the age restriction. My main disapproval for these bills came from the concerning fact that they would allow 18 year olds to carry guns. I see this as a huge mistake- 18 years old is just too young to be allowed the responsibility of carrying a firearm in public.
Without modification to bill 375 it is not likely it will go much farther, but Jonathan Strickland, creator of the bill, refuses to "water it down". Hopefully the bill won't proceed further and bill 1911 can take its place as the common ground.
Source: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/04/18/house-committee-approves-modified-permitless-carry-legislation/
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