TexasCHLforum.com

In the mean time, has the City of Austin at least stopped prohibiting licensed carry in their City Hall?

ELB wrote:

tool4daman wrote:I may be wrong, but...

I thought I had heard from one of the Texas Firearms Coalition podcasts that the off limits for school functions only applies to grounds under the school’s control. Otherwise, if you are eating in a restaurant, and a school bus full of kids on a field trip stop in, you are in violation.

So I don’t get how the City Hall could be off limits because of school field trips.

I was under that impression too, but also I have not seen all of the City's and the OAG's documents/briefs on this, so not sure exactly what they are talking about. It may be that if the Austin ISD and City Hall have a formal agreement to do certain school activities at the City Hall building (which is alluded to in the judge's ruling), that falls into the school-sponsored basket. That would be a different situation than a school bus stopping at McDonalds. But this is only speculation on my part.

But the scary thing is that such an agreement might be too similar to a High School sports team renting out the back room of a restaurant for their team dinner / awards ceremony. Suddenly all the other patrons of that restaurant would be at risk of unknowingly committing a crime.

RossA wrote:The Dallas Zoo is owned by the city. They make the outlandish claim that they contract with someone else to operate the facility, and the operator claims to be an amusement park. It is still city property. Or doesn't the AG realize that?
As a previous poster mentioned, a very few letters in all of these months, and some of them came after the offending signs were already taken down. Hard working public officials. Maybe if Paxton goes to jail on his pending charges we will get a real AG.

The AG's letter says that it is government owned property so I am sure he realizes that. Does the Amusement Park loophole not apply to government owned property?

ScottDLS wrote:Quick we need to get rid of this guy. 5 months is too long and he let the Dallas Zoo be a an amusement park. And the Democrats say he is the latest Bernie Madoff hence his indictment in Collin County. We need to elect a non-lawyer as AG.

I share your frustration with the 5 month delay. But my bigger frustration is with the limitations of the law itself. I think the real fix needs to be done in the legislature. And should focus on some of the following modifications:

1. Fines should be payable directly to the individual(s) filing the complaint.

2. Fines should be applied retroactively starting from the first day the illegal sign was put up. If it takes the AG 5 months to decide the case and the city immediately pulls the sign down after that, they are on the hook for 5 months of fines. This is similar to a lot of other laws where the penalty starts with the first day of infringement, not much later after an official ruling has been made.

3. Some incompetent and/or dishonest judges have shown that they are incapable of applying the definition of "court premises" in a fair and unbiased manner. Thus, we unfortunately need to take that discretion away from judges. Establish clear, minimum requirements that must be met to qualify as a court premises, and establish a punishment mechanism for judges that choose to violate the law. Censure, fines, or maybe even a short, mandatory jail stint.

4. Eliminate the amusement park and educational institution loopholes that are now being abused.

We need to punish the parties responsible for this illegal behavior. Right now, they have no fear of any consequences for violations and they are acting accordingly.