TexasCHLforum.com

Under our new concealed handgun laws, is it legal while driving in Texas, to have a handgun in a holster strapped on your waist in plain view?
A friend says it is not unless the handgun is covered by a shirt or jacket. I disagree with him as I believe it is perfectly legal.

All comments would be welcome. Thanks

USMC

Semper Fi

If you have a valid Texas LTC, it is legal to OC while driving. If you do not have a Texas LTC, the gun must be hidden from plain view.

If you have an LTCand as long as it is on your person in a belt or shoulder holster it is legal to open carry. However, you cannot just lay it in the seat next to you or have it strapped to a holster under the dash in plain view

Thanks to all!

sherlock7 wrote:Under our new concealed handgun laws, is it legal while driving in Texas, to have a handgun in a holster strapped on your waist in plain view?
A friend says it is not unless the handgun is covered by a shirt or jacket. I disagree with him as I believe it is perfectly legal.

All comments would be welcome. Thanks

It may depend on exactly what "strapped on your waist" means. You would have to be carrying with an LTC under Subchapter H, GC Chapter 411, of course--if carrying under the MPC and not licensed, the gun cannot be visible--but the requirement for open carrying of a handgun (as qualified in TPC Sections 30.05, 30.07, 46.02, 46.035, and 46.15) stipulates that the handgun is "carried in a shoulder or belt holster."

We had a lot of discussion here early on about what constituted a "belt holster," and I think the general outcome was that minor differentiations were mostly semantic. So a holster (that does not conceal the gun) that attaches to the seatbelt over your hips and is not mounted on the belt around your waist would be illegal, for example. But IANAL, so this is personal opinion only.

Yes, in general.

At any location where the carrying of a gun is authorized by your LTC license by statute, notwithstanding any .06/.07 prohibition, you may carry both CC or OC. Two exceptions are these...

1. At a college campus after Aug. 1 where OC will never be allowed, only CC, and

2. You may never carry OC with calculation to cause alarm.

So, in almost all cases, if you can legally carry CC by virtue of your LTC license (as opposed to MPA which does not require the LTC) you can also carry OC except as noted above.

tex

RPBrown wrote:If you have an LTCand as long as it is on your person in a belt or shoulder holster it is legal to open carry. However, you cannot just lay it in the seat next to you or have it strapped to a holster under the dash in plain view

And if you want to put it on the passenger seat or elsewhere while driving make sure it is and stays covered from plain view.

bmwrdr wrote: And if you want to put it on the passenger seat or elsewhere while driving make sure it is and stays covered from plain view.

One of our instructors said even having the weapon in one's lap covered by a ball cap would be considered OK because it is not visible.

I wish all these "friends" would take some time and actually read a law, crack a book, or something. It is ridiculous some of the things "friends" think.

rm9792,
I could not agree more. Thanks!