Minimum age for MPA?

[SlowDave]

Since there are so many smart folks here and I'm too lazy to look it up myself, can anyone tell me the age requirements to carry under the motorist protection act? Does it just fall under the requirement of not allowing under-age kids access to firearms? Any information appreciated, references are even better!

Thanks in advance!

[seamusTX]

There's no minimum age for possession of a firearm in Texas law.

Every time this question comes up, all kinds of speculation and hypothesis are put forward. However, I am not aware of any person being prosecuted simply for being too young.

As always, I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

- Jim

[Fangs]

I'd been wondering this as well, since I have two little brothers of driving age who aren't old enough for a CHL yet.

[seamusTX]

Well, go through Chapter 46 of the Penal Code (weapons) and look for any mention of age.

There are two:

• PC §46.06 makes it an offense to give a firearm or other weapon to a minor, with parental consent being an affirmative defense to prosecution.
• PC §46.13 makes it an offense to make a loaded firearm available to a minor younger than 17 years. This section has an affirmative defense to prosecution if the child uses the weapon for self defense.

In both cases, it is an offense to give the firearm to a minor, not for the minor to receive or possess it.

That said, if a minor uses bad judgment or otherwise gets crosswise with the law, the devil will be there with his hand out for payment.

- Jim

[AJSully421]

truth is that the above is correct, so it is not illegal for your 16 year old to have a gun in his car, but it is kinda illegal for you to provide it to him if he uses it for anything but SD... so if your kid is driving crazy enough to go beyond simple speeding to full blown wreckless driving... both of you go to jail... so, how much do you trust your 16 year old?

[seamusTX]

Violation of 46.13 is a class C misdemeanor unless the kid shoots someone without justification. Minors are rarely prosecuted as adults for anything but homicide. So most of these problems can be worked out by buying your lawyer a new boat or vacation home.


- Jim

[boomerang]

I don't have children but if I did I would want all of their driving to be wreckless.

But Seamus makes a good point about maturity and responsibility. There are some teenagers I would trust with a loaded firearm and there are some people their parents' age I wouldn't let near my guns. Age is not the only factor. As a wise man once said, "Some people at that age are quite mature, but others go around in long baggy shorts with their shirt tails out and their hats on backwards."

[mr surveyor]

I love wordplays

[Abraham]

At 14 years of age, I bought my first .22 cal Remington bolt action repeater at a local hardware store. The owner threw in box .22 cal long rifle cartridges.

Of course, Texas was a different state at that time...

[seamusTX]

That coming-of-age ritual was widespread before 1969.

Now many people think you have to be 21 to own or possess a handgun. How many police officers have current knowledge of the law?

- Jim

[SlowDave]

Well, go through Chapter 46 of the Penal Code (weapons) and look for any mention of age.

There are two:

• PC §46.06 makes it an offense to give a firearm or other weapon to a minor, with parental consent being an affirmative defense to prosecution.
• PC §46.13 makes it an offense to make a loaded firearm available to a minor younger than 17 years. This section has an affirmative defense to prosecution if the child uses the weapon for self defense.

In both cases, it is an offense to give the firearm to a minor, not for the minor to receive or possess it.

That said, if a minor uses bad judgment or otherwise gets crosswise with the law, the devil will be there with his hand out for payment.

- Jim

Good stuff Jim. Went and reviewed for myself, since you were kind enough to point out the relevant sections. One other interesting note is that 46.13 refers to "children" and defines them as "younger than 17", so not consistent with defnition of minor. I'd read it that if one wants to make available a loaded handgun to their child to carry in the car for self-defense, that the defense to prosecution of 46.06 is affirmatively answered and that as long as they only use it for self-defense, 46.13 is defended. However, if someone discovers this weapon in the car, they could argue whether it is "being used" for self-defense (vs. "available for self-defense use if necessary"), but I think I'd take that chance.

Kudos to the post on the responsibility level of the child as well. I also have been around kids that I don't like to shoot a long-gun at a supervised shooting range or home-range, who I also wouldn't let have the keys to my car for any amount of money and wouldn't even let them operate my remote control or flashlight. Meanwhile, there are others who are more responsible at 16 than many "grown-ups" that I know.

Thanks for the info!

[seamusTX]

Thanks. A couple of other thoughts on this:

A minor who is mature enough to pilot a 3,000-pound car that could kill or injure a dozen people in one stoke, ought to be mature enough to keep a handgun in the glove box.

Unfortunately, with boys in particular, the macho factor can cloud judgment.

You also have to worry about friends who may be in the car. Some of my teen friends or acquaintances were pretty irresponsible and impulsive, and they would have been just the type to play with a weapon if they found one.

Perhaps a quick-opening lock box would be a good investment.

- Jim

[mr.72]

You also have to worry about friends who may be in the car. Some of my teen friends or acquaintances were pretty irresponsible and impulsive, and they would have been just the type to play with a weapon if they found one.

Perhaps a quick-opening lock box would be a good investment.

Yes, that's a very good point.

You are making me rethink my plan to equip my daughter's first car with a glove-box holster and a pistol. In fact, I can see how the argument could be made that by doing so, I might be making a gun available to a minor without parental consent (someone else's kid). The quick-access safe in the car would sort that out, but it's a big bulky item that draws attention to itself in a car. Where are you going to mount a Gunvault in a car anyway?

I think the MPA-compliant solution would be to have my daughter carry the pistol with her from the house to the car, on her person while she is in the car, and then if she leaves the car to go anywhere but back into the house then she'd have to lock it in a car gun safe.

I'll be watching this and other threads on this topic for the next 9 months until I need to solve this problem for myself.

[HankB]

You also have to worry about friends who may be in the car. Some of my teen friends or acquaintances were pretty irresponsible and impulsive, and they would have been just the type to play with a weapon if they found one.

Excellent point. I had access to firearms at what many would consider today to be an appallingly young age . . . and I was allowed to use them unsupervised SO LONG AS I WAS ALONE.

But if ONE of my friends was there - the guns were strictly off limits unless Dad was there to ride herd.

The good judgement of young boys goes down exponentially when more than one is present.

[seamusTX]

You are making me rethink my plan to equip my daughter's first car with a glove-box holster and a pistol. ... The quick-access safe in the car would sort that out, but it's a big bulky item that draws attention to itself in a car. Where are you going to mount a Gunvault in a car anyway?

There is very little spare room in cars these days. I wouldn't know where to put a gun safe in ours other than the trunk.

Another possible solution is to leave the pistol unloaded in the car and have your daughter carry a charged magazine.

Carrying a handgun is the element of the crime of unlawful carry in Texas. It doesn't matter whether the handgun is loaded or not.

Carrying ammo is never a crime, except for felons. (This is true in Texas, not in some other states.)

You can learn to load a pistol very rapidly, especially at a young age.

- Jim