TexasCHLforum.com

Ameer wrote:What's the penalty for failure to display? What's the penalty for unlicensed carry? Here's a hint...they're not even close.

Actually, that's an excellent point. I was painting with too broad a brush. At worst, you would be guilty of failure to display (since it would be an improper display without either a state ID or DL) rather than UCW. [Granted that failure to notify is now a crime without punishment]

Sorry--I didn't mean to slip into "Practical" vs. legal LOL. The actual code I'm referring to is (as mentioned above):

GC §411.205. REQUIREMENT TO DISPLAY LICENSE. (a) If a license holder is carrying a handgun on or about the license holder's person when a magistrate or a peace officer demands that the license holder display identification, the license holder shall display both the license holder's driver's license or identification certificate issued by the department and the license holder's handgun license.

And I'm thrilled you found the DL. I know there are DPS offices around Houston that aren't just swamped, but the last time I went through the process, it was about a 4 hour mess for me (I was fairly new in town, and didn't know where all the offices were, so I went to the one right around the corner from me.)

Scott in Houston wrote:

gdanaher wrote:This should perhaps be a new topic, but I live in east Dallas County, and everyone in my neck of the woods drives out to Terrell in Kaufman County, about 12 minutes away. With some exaggeration, you can pull up mid morning, wake up the clerk, and have the job done in minutes. I needed to renew last December. Walked in at 10 am, filled out the little form, turned around and handed it to the clerk, she shot my picture and took my money. I was out by 10:10.

Moral of the story is--try to locate a DPS office with a light load. Can anyone suggest one for the OP in the Harris County area? A list of lightly used DPS offices might be helpful to a lot of people, as long as we keep it amongst ourselves.

Thanks for the thought. I've looked into it. Our neighbor took their 16 year old 45 minutes away to get his driver's test to avoid multi hour lines.
I don't think there are any good options for me. Driving that far is out of the question during the week, so I'll just get there early, and hopefully be at the office not long after they open!

I highly recommend going ahead and picking up a state ID card while you're there. I keep both a DL and an ID in my wallet...for several reasons, not the least of which is those rare times when you have to leave an ID with security (checking out buliding keys and such in my case)...and if you have both it's not nearly the panic if one gets lost for some reason.

ON that same subject, the law is clear--a CHL by itself is NOT adequate for the purpose of carrying under the authority of a CHL, an ID or Driver License is required in conjunction. In practice, it sounds like it's been no big deal for some (I can't speak personally on that one), but by statute, it is not legal to carry without both the CHL and either a State ID or Driver License.