How long have you been carrying?

[cmgee67]

I have been carrying since Nov 2015. Also when was carry passed in Texas?

[RogueUSMC]

Hmmm...2015 was when open carry passed...you one of THOSE people?...lol. Just kidding

2013 for me I guess. I am up for first renewal in January.

[C-dub]

Texas passed concealed carry in 1995. We have some members that have been carrying that long with their CHL. Some longer professionally. Some longer from other states.

I didn't get my Texas CHL and begin carrying until 2002.

[Jusme]

Since May 2014.

[tomtexan]

April 2012. Back when it was still a full day class.

Carried every day since then. First renewal was in March of this year.

[howdy]

CHL 1997...Instructor 2002

[Liberty]

I joined this Forum 11 years ago today. It was about a month later that I got the plastic and did my first Wally walk.
I've been a little angy and PO'd the failure of HB560 lately, but today looking back and seeing how far we have come, I am feeling a little more cheerful.

[RPBrown]

Legally since Jan. 1996.

Without a license since about 1975 sometime after I was robbed at gunpoint.

[philbo]

Concealed carry on a daily basis since 1983, the wife as well.

[OlBill]

Since 1985

[CleverNickname]

August 2001. Glad I missed the post-9/11 application rush.

[Abraham]

I don't know precisely, but I think I'm on my 5th renewal, so however long that is, but it's quite a long time.

[LimaCharlie3]

Since 1989.

[The Annoyed Man]

I moved from California to Texas with my job in April of 2006, but I didn't take my first CHL class until December of 2007, and got my first plastic on 2/23 of 2008. Prior to that, I was just busy with the moving and standing up a business in Dallas, and then getting my family moved (I came out here a few months ahead of them), and then getting my in-laws moved, and about a million other things. I did take advantage of the limited protections available at the time for having a pistol in the car when "traveling" before I got my CHL. I completed my 2nd renewal this past April. So in total, I've been actually carrying for about 9-1/2 years. I just now located an early post of mine celebrating the arrival of my plastic: http://www.texaschlforum.com/viewtopic. ... 40#p159740

WOO HOO! I got my license in the mail today! The weird part is that I just checked online a minute ago, and again earlier this morning, and it still says that my application is being processed. But... I'm holding a license in my hand, mailed to me by "REGULATORY LICENSING SERVICE MSC 0245, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY." I'm going to take it that I've been approved.

Here's the sequence:

• 12/8 - I take CHL class.
• 12/10 - 2 days later, I send in all paperwork to DPS.
• 12/14 - 4 days later, USPS confirms DPS receipt of my paperwork.
• 1/23 - 39 days later, DPS sends me a letter asking for further information, because I was born outside of the U.S. of an American father and French mother. (My father had a job with an American construction company building an airfield in Casablanca, and I just happened to be born while they were living there. We moved back to the U.S. before I was 6 months old.)
• 1/28 - 44 days later, I receive their letter and telephone them. They say that they have not done anything to process my application at all because of the "missing" info. They also tell me that my 60-90 day waiting period begins when they receive the additional information.
• 1/29 - 45 days later, I fax to DPS the following items:
  1. a copy of my birth certificate, signed by U.S. Consul in Casablanca;
  2. a copy of my U.S. passport;
  3. a copy of my Texas driver's license;
  4. a copy of my SS card;
  5. a copy of their letter to me; and
  6. a fax cover sheet. On the fax cover sheet I asked that, since they had sat on my application for 39 days before even letting me know that they wanted additional information, could they please expedite processing it, now that their information was complete. I phoned them to follow up, and was told again that the 60-90 days begins with the receipt of the additional information.
• 2/23 - license received in mail.

Total elapsed time - 70 days. Maybe they read my fax cover sheet and took pity on my pathetic disarmed condition... ...naaaaah, probably not.

Anyway, time to go for a Wally Walk.

I first found out about this site (and got a lesson in actually reading what the law says) from Flintknapper, when we were both members on a hunting-related forum. I never looked back after joining here. I've thoroughly enjoyed being a member, and it has been a great educational boon for me. I always refer people here who are either new to carry or considering getting a carry license; telling them that, next to the official documentation provided by DPS, this website has the greatest public body of knowledge on the topic of carrying in Texas.

[aaangel]

12 yrs this august